Dear Senator Pacheco:
I write today to voice my strong opposition to your bill that would limit consumer choice in purchasing new automobiles. Your legislation appears to mix the goals of supporting dealerships in their arrangements with their manufacturers and the goal of mandating that all new entrants to the market be forced to sell through dealerships. Forcing new entrants to the market to sell through dealerships is anti-competitive, anti-consumer and short-sighted.
I am a very happy Tesla customer -- I recently purchased a Model S P85+ -- and am at a loss to understand why my access to Tesla should be limited in any way by the State of Massachusetts. I have also started and sold two high-tech Massachusetts companies (Marble Associates, Orca Systems). I regard myself as a capitalist.
Legislators should not be in the business of dictating a company's business model. There are many examples of competitive arrangements in the marketplace that use wholesalers, dealerships and other intermediaries between the producer and the consumer. These arrangements may stand the test of time, or may be reconsidered as technology and society evolve. For example, the rise of the Internet has disrupted the business models of many product and service delivery chains, generally leading to greater efficiency, greater choice and lower cost for the consumer. Yet there are other examples where business and the delivery chain continues largely as usual, e.g., with the growth and creation of food products all the way through various intermediaries and ultimately to the consumer via a grocery store. All of these arrangements are dictated more by the needs of the consumers and the nature of the products and services involved than they are by legislation dictating a particular business model. When unimpeded by legislation, these arrangements can change over time.
If the independently-owned dealership model offers such tremendous value to consumers, then ultimately Tesla itself will have no other choice than to create dealerships to meet its customers' needs. In this regard, legislation to enforce the requirement to have a dealership suggests that perhaps dealerships can't compete on their own. Let the people vote with their feet and their dollars.
Personally, I would be shocked to discover that most people regarded automobile dealerships as places where they receive wonderful sales experiences followed by excellent service. In fact, most people suspect that they are being taken advantage of by the dealership's sales staff, and then choose to use third-party service to keep their costs down. I think that one of the things that people like about Tesla is that the price is the price is the price, and if you don't like that price, you can always buy some other company's car. But no haggling required.
It is extremely difficult to create a new, viable automobile company. The history of such automotive start-ups is littered with failures. The last thing such a new company needs is an additional, legislated, anti-competitive burden that is unnecessary in this day and age. I would think you'd be extremely supportive of Tesla given that it produces vehicles with zero emissions of any kind -- after all, you are chair of the joint committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, and chair of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change. Moreover, despite the image that Tesla's current products are luxury vehicles, you should be aware that (a) many Massachusetts voters buy luxury vehicles! and (b) Tesla itself is hard at work on delivering a third-generation compact sedan priced at $30,000. I refuse to believe that you would want to make it harder for Tesla to deliver increasingly inexpensive automobiles of such great benefit for the environment.
Please choose to protect me, the capitalist, voter, environmentalist and consumer. Let the workings of the marketplace decide whether auto dealerships are necessary for new car companies. Auto dealerships don't vote; but I do.
I am copying my legislators, Cynthia Creem and Alice Peisch, to draw their attention to this matter. I am also copying David Linsky, who is sponsoring a pro-consumer, pro-competive bill in this same area (I encourage you to drop your bill and co-sponsor Representative Linsky's bill instead).
Thank you for listening.
Alan Langerman
[USPS Address]
[Direct e-mail address]
