A survey by mystery shopping firm Pied Piper ranked Tesla last among carmakers for dealership experience.
Tesla ranked 34th out of 34 auto brands included for the fourth consecutive year.
Pied Piper hired 3,466 people to shop at 3,466 dealerships across the U.S. between July 2017 and June 2018 to evaluate criteria, including how frequently salespeople asked customers how they might use a vehicle, if they offered comparisons to competitors, and if they explained why customers should buy from their dealership. Pied Piper shopped 57 of Tesla’s 74 U.S. showrooms.
Pied Piper’s chief executive Fran O’Hagan told the L.A. Times sales staff for the highest scoring car companies on the index, “work hard to be helpful, rather than just sitting back and answering customer questions. For example, they fact-find to determine why a customer is visiting, what’s important to the customer, and how the customer intends to use the vehicle.”
Audi finished first in the survey, followed by Lexus and Toyota.
Tesla has always made an effort to offer a different car-buying experience. There’s no giant lot of cars and haggling. It’s more of a showroom experience guided by “showroom advisors.”
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has previously celebrated the last-place finish. In a 2016 tweet he implied that being bad at being “salesy” is good.
Tesla finishes last in being salesy! Good. Also, I can't believe there is a real Pied Piper.https://t.co/9Zzijxxyy4
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2016
See the full release from Pied Piper here.