Op-eds by the auto dealer cartel are common wherever this issue comes up. Don't forget they're the newspapers' largest advertisers so the papers go out of their way to please them. Whenever I hear this argument about "special treatment" I turn it around and say you're right, there shouldn't be special treatment. So lets stop treating cars differently than any other consumer product and let the manufacturers sell them any way they please.
Good grief. These people don't have any sense of basic logic. There are 17 comments to the story, and it is 17-0 against the dumb dealer arguments. Apparently Ford only competes against itself and not against GM/Crysler/Toyota/et. al. Here we go again with the dog whistles. "OMG YOU MIGHT HURT SCHOOLS DUE TO LOST TAX REVENUE AND YOU KILL JOBS!!!!", as if Tesla and its customers wouldn't be paying any income/sales taxes in the state and wouldn't be hiring any employees at all. Uh huh. Sincerely, Fisker dealers. EPIC. You just gave a great example of the exact opposite outcome to your previous point.
And why do dealerships have so much spare money to spend on lobbying? It wouldn't be because they are ripping off the consumer would it?
Dealership money runs very, very deep in Arizona. Former governors have owned quite a few dealerships - before and after impeachment. I'm surprised that Arizona has the one SvC and as many SCs as it does, and suspect one of the reasons why, otherwise inexplicably, Tucson does not have even 1 SC within 50 miles is because of the dealership cartel. The Arizona Republic/azcentral is the Fox (Faux) News of newspapers in the state, and, given certain proclivities therein, that's saying something
Of course the newspapers will be on the side of the dealers. It might be a tight contest, but I confident that car dealers are responsible for a large percentage of the advertising revenue for newspapers. Another car company that we know does not spend ANY money on newspaper ads.
What I don't get is if Ford in their example of Tesla raised prices so high that noone bought their cars they'd go out of business. Chevy and the others would take in the sales. What exactly is the problem then?
Dealers' associations are conveniently forgetting to tell their audiences that different brands of cars are substitute goods.