Florida has banned direct-to-consumer auto sales, but Tesla and co get a pass

[karmakaze]

> The law lets electric-only manufacturers like Tesla sell directly, but older companies’ electric cars must go through dealerships.

Talk about an unlevel playing field. If EVs are to be incentivized, direct sales should be allowed for all EVs from any manufacturer.

[juujian]

I'm kind of curious whether Elon personally has anything to do with that exception. It is pretty advantageous for him.

[jeffnappi]

Sounds like a good way to hasten the move to electric. Manufacturers should stop updating gas models and focus all R&D on electric. Phase out ICE vehicles ASAP, and policy that encourages that is good regardless of whether it currently gives an unfair advantage to Tesla, Rivian, etc.

[jmclnx]

Didn't the Gov of FL through recent legislation it very costly to buy or own an EV ? I thought I read that somewhere but forgot where.

[sschueller]

Corruption in plane sight and there is nothing you can do about it except stop giving Elon money in any form and don't vote for DeSantis.

[mdhen]

This is 100% a result of car dealerships lobbying

[LammyL]

Wouldn’t not buying a car from a dealership have more incentive to end the corruption?

[mbg721]

Can I hate all sides in this? Car manufacturers have a huge information asymmetry with end-users, which leads to ugliness like in-car tracking systems that insurers love. But dealers capture most of that information asymmetry because they can learn the tricks and people don't buy cars very often.

[amagine]

From the political party that praises the free market.

[bastard_op]

Yes, I want to pay a middle-man dealer for literally nothing other than some perceived right to screw me buying a car at a MSRP price plus "market adjustment" because they can!

If dealers won't sell at MSRP as good enough, it should be redefined as something that is beholden to only their greed, but not simply legitimized by dealers that feel entitled to get over on me adding to the legal price.

Dealerships are now akin to legalized scalping like StubHub and Ticketmaster adding superfluous charges and fees, and I will purposefully try not to deal with them ever again. Dealer licenses should be revoked for doing this, not endorsed and supported.

[senectus1]

I thought republicans were all about small Gov...?

this feels like big Gov in intricate detail

[samtho]

The fact that the dealership lobby is having to push for laws to protect their business means they are seeing the writing on the wall: the car dealership model will soon become just another (unpleasant) relic from the past.

Baby Boomers and GenX both like the idea of being sold something and having that service provided, but Millennials and GenZ have consistently shown that we greatly value self-service, straightforward pricing, and not wasting time or money on feeding the “fat” in systems.

Car dealerships are a major reason why new vehicles are so expensive now, with automobile pricing far outpacing inflation or any other metric.

In what other industry, not using the dealership model, would we be ok with major purchases being gate-kept by an army of middlemen who’s job is to grift off of every sale, obfuscating the price, are trained in deception, and their employer will also try to sell you financing, service place, and other crazy shit that people are not informed about? At least in retail you can shop around and find the best price and margins are well understood.

[phpisthebest]

>>In what other industry, not using the dealership model, would we be ok with major purchases being gate-kept by an army of middlemen who’s job is to grift off of every sale

I see you have never tried to buy Enterprise Technology equipment, or Enterprise Software or really anything that is target at B2B sales

Consumer sales have less of this, but 90% B2B is network of middlemen gifting off sales with no way to go direct. hell I was on a call directly with the developer of a software product I wanted to buy, it was a low 4 figure deal, but it took several weeks to buy it because the deal had to go through some 3rd party company as they did not sell direct...

I would rather just added it to a cart online and bought it with my company credit card....

[croes]

Self service on modern cars, good luck with that.

Car dealerships need their local customers, global car manufacturers don't.

Prepare yourself for a poop emoji if you try to complain.

[heresie-dabord]

> the car dealership model will soon become just another (unpleasant) relic from the past.

The profitability of dealerships is in after-sale maintenance. Selling vehicles that require _less maintenance_ will hurt the profit model. To judge from the decision in Florida, dealerships must be owned by influential rich people there.

> Baby Boomers and GenX both like the idea of being sold something and having that service provided, but Millennials and GenZ have consistently shown that we greatly value self-service, straightforward pricing, and not wasting time or money on feeding the “fat” in systems

I don't think that seeing this economic model through the the distortion lense of generational marketing is a lucid explanation. Consumers don't like car dealerships and the sham business practices that they inflict on people.

People who understand the new breed of electric cars know their value. The demand for EVs is growing fast and manufacturers outside the US are responding to meet the demand.

The change is happening too fast for the profit model of US dealership owners.

[foogazi]

Besides Tesla, What automakers sell direct to consumers?

[defrost]

OKA, for one.

https://www.oka-atv.com/about-oka

[93po]

I assume all of them, just not in the US

[mabbo]

What a fascinating example of what we can expect from DeSantis should he become president.

You do him favors, like give him a platform to announce his presidency run, and you get laws passed that are clearly designed to help your company beat your competitors.

There's nothing sly or secretive about it. He's making a statement here to all the big companies: "those who help me win will get rewarded for it".

Edit later: Sorry all, feel free to disregard this and/or down vote it. Not because you agree or disagree but because this isn't the right place for this kind of snarkiness.

[wudangmonk]

To me it seems that the biggest red flag is his pettyness, this guy went into an all in war against Disney for making him look bad, dug himself into a hole and just kept on digging. This guy is considered the "smarter" Trump.

What could you possible expect from such a person other than being left with a bunch of holes to fill.

[rvba]

On a side note how can Republicans believe in fair market competition and then vote for this guy?

[VirusNewbie]

How does it help “beat your competitors” if Rivian and Lucid get the same treatment?

[akira2501]

You should expect this from any candidate. The amount of money required to run for President is absurd. There's a very small class of people who are capable of putting this together, and they're all apparently incapable of doing so without making massive political sacrifices to the donor class.

American politics are largely broken.