Some of you guys seem to assume that moving to an online only ordering system will make a test drive totally impossible. In practice there are plenty of ways they could implement a test drive for those who want one without having expensive shopping mall stores. So I would wait and see how it pans out in reality. I doubt it will be such a black and white transition to online only sales. I expect there will be regular roadshows, flagship showrooms in major cities, test drives arranged via SCs, rental companies, etc, etc.
One thing is for certain, I hate franchised car sales people! Often test drives are a bit of a joke anyway unless arranged as an extended take home test. Moving away from that ancient, cliched sales model is great news for the customer. Obviously it's nice to have the Tesla showroom in your local shopping centre, but ultimately I'd rather pay less money for the car. I certainly didn't buy my Tesla because of the showroom and I actually picked up my weekend demo car from the SC anyway.
One thing is for certain, I hate franchised car sales people! Often test drives are a bit of a joke anyway unless arranged as an extended take home test. Moving away from that ancient, cliched sales model is great news for the customer. Obviously it's nice to have the Tesla showroom in your local shopping centre, but ultimately I'd rather pay less money for the car. I certainly didn't buy my Tesla because of the showroom and I actually picked up my weekend demo car from the SC anyway.
