# Tesla - Car Dealerships



## Curt Renz (May 22, 2017)




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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

If Tesla does spell the end of traditional car dealers, it will be their own fault. They‘re supposed to exist so they can provide a higher level of service than manufacturers can directly. From what I’ve seen personally, they don’t manage that - the other manufacturers‘ dealer network level of service isn’t much better than Tesla provides directly.


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## msjulie (Feb 6, 2018)

JasonF said:


> If Tesla does spell the end of traditional car dealers, it will be their own fault. They're supposed to exist so they can provide a higher level of service than manufacturers can directly. From what I've seen personally, they don't manage that - the other manufacturers' dealer network level of service isn't much better than Tesla provides directly.


My experience, and some posted here, suggest that Tesla service is inconsistent. A family member just picked up a car at a Lexus dealer, just yearly boring maintenance. It was smooth and event free

I don't really like dealers (probably biased more towards sales vs service side) much but the blanket statements claiming they are all worse than Tesla doesn't ring true to me


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

msjulie said:


> My experience, and some posted here, suggest that Tesla service is inconsistent. A family member just picked up a car at a Lexus dealer, just yearly boring maintenance. It was smooth and event free


Dealers in general now are consolidating (i.e. buying each other out) with fewer locations to serve way more people. The end result, at least in places like Orlando (and also Cincinnati, where I lived before that), is you have a mega Chevrolet dealer that if you have a mechanical emergency, leave the car and they'll get to it in a day or two. Then it takes 3 days of calling and harassing them to get them to just look at the car, and you get it back almost a week later. And then the final amount ends up being way higher than you ever expected.

Or like the mega-dealer that handed many different models (Mitsubishi, Buick, Lexus) I dealt with that was ok, but had just one mechanic and service adviser dedicated to Mitsubishi, so it was difficult scheduling appointments and checking on the car. A few times, I tried calling them desperately at the end of the day, because they shuttled me to work (which would have meant taking an Uber home if I couldn't reach them), and couldn't get a reply on whether the car would be done that day because the one service adviser went home.

I have *some* difficulty scheduling with Tesla, but in the end, the Mobile Ranger experiences I've had were stress-free and without horrible surprises. They show up on time, go above and beyond (sometimes fixing small things that they notice at no cost) and up until now, I've never had the final invoice be higher than promised. In fact, they ended up waiving some charges. In a year, I've never been to the Service Center except to pick up the car, so I can't rate that. It's a _really_ small building, so I assume they get overloaded a lot.

BUT, when we talk about "car dealers" (and when the original video does) we probably refer more to the _sales_ side. Right now, we already see dealers switching to "one price" sales without negotiation so they can compete with 3rd parties like Carmax and Tesla and turn the entire sales procedure into a more retail experience. But then they make some extra money on the side with dealer add-ons and financing. Sometimes manufacturers enable that - for example, by making Sirius XM Radio available only as a dealer-installed add-on.

Some dealers then install all of those options when the cars arrive, so the end up with a higher price on the lot, or they simply stock only configurations that maximize their profit, making it harder to get other configurations. For instance if you really want Sirius XM radio, you have to take a much higher package level, because the dealer doesn't stock the middle level.

In the end, behavior that means the customer, more often than not, doesn't get the exact model they wanted, and they might range from unhappy to not as happy as they could have been. And that, from the sales side, is what will eventually make them prefer ordering directly from the manufacturer if they can.


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## msjulie (Feb 6, 2018)

I do like the Mobile ranger but it was much easier last year then now to get one quickly.


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## Canuck42 (Jul 8, 2018)

msjulie said:


> I do like the Mobile ranger but it was much easier last year then now to get one quickly.


I spoke with a Mobile Ranger here in Ontario Canada, and he said that they are on a hiring blitz to fill the demand that has been created by the number of sales. From that, I expect it will balance out at first and everyone will have the same *delay* , then as they continue to add to the demand level, it should get better........love that word 'should'


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## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

JasonF said:


> Dealers in general now are consolidating (i.e. buying each other out) with fewer locations to serve way more people. The end result, at least in places like Orlando (and also Cincinnati, where I lived before that), is you have a mega Chevrolet dealer that if you have a mechanical emergency, leave the car and they'll get to it in a day or two. Then it takes 3 days of calling and harassing them to get them to just look at the car, and you get it back almost a week later. And then the final amount ends up being way higher than you ever expected.


 The consolidation trend you mention has been happening over the past 35+ years. It is not a new trend.

I call it"The Walmart Experience" as the same thing has been occurring in retail stores for at least three decades..


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Klaus-rf said:


> The consolidation trend you mention has been happening over the past 35+ years.


Yes. This is why the laws that protect your "local car dealer" from manufacturer competition are no longer required. Now all they do is protect these huge dealership conglomerate oligopolies from having to compete too much. And these car dealerships are large enough to be able to afford to donate lots of money to politicians to keep these laws in place.

Here's but one example: The Smail "Family of Dealerships".
https://www.smailauto.com/
Right on the front page, they have a big "selector image" to choose exactly which of their "dealerships" you're interested in.


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## NR4P (Jul 14, 2018)

Careful on generalizing. Local Tesla service center is not in a good location and waiting area consists of one sofa. And takes a week to schedule anything. And Tesla no longer will return car washed or vacuumed. Just stopped that here. Car was disgusting when picked up. 

On other hand, other and former vehicle is Lexus. Beautiful waiting areas, sandwiches and snacks while you wait and not only do the wash car after service but you stop by whenever and get a free car wash.

Tesla labor rate and Lexus labor rates per hour are similar. 

Each have their own plus. Like Tesla mobile service is very good.

So blanket generalizations may not be accurate.


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## AmyoVs (Feb 10, 2021)

Yeah, that's also true about Lexus and Tesla service centers in Perth (my hometown). And Elon Musk with a fire gun? Wow! Love this guy! When I moved to Austin I bought a used Tesla car from a guy in Jersey. I wanted a new one, but I thought that's not the right time for such an investment. And I had some trouble finding a good shipping company because I didn't know much about the whole process here in the states. So, I was browsing the internet and every car forum I could find and luckily found a shipping service at https://shipnts.com/15-important-questions-about-car-shipping/ that helped me a lot. First of all, the broker explained everything to me everything and then they offered a reasonable price for the shipping. I thought it's gonna cost me a fortune!


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

Congrats on possibly the most random first post and digging up almost a 2 year old thread!


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