The US seems to run on irony lately and Tesla is not immune. I love how Tesla is "on a mission" and have, since inception of the dealer owned stores, touted themselves as sooooo much better than the traditional "stealership". In a lot of ways they are much better. In a lot I have found them to be worse. One clear example that is easily solved with any other brand by going to the dealership down the block is Telsa's unwillingness to do a courtesy trade. Tesla's trade in offers for their own product from returning customers is below wholesale. They know it and they will readily tell you that, if you do not like it, you will not get your state sales tax credit for your trade. No, you can not pass the trade through to a friend or to an honest wholesaler. Tesla has the leverage and they knowingly use it. That is broken to me but perfectly fine to them.
I bring the above up as an example of but one of Tesla's asymmetric business practices. There are others. The reason I replied to this particular post is that I loath the term lying and try to make absolutely sure I am as accurate as I possibly can be before using it.
I believe Tesla has evolved over the past nine years. Between being on a mission to save the world and exercising their 800 lb gorilla leverage whenever possible I believe they have moved much closer, if not actually arrived, to the point Tigers describes in his last paragraph. I'm still reeling out the rope right now but I'm reasonably sure there will be a very good case on my end to back up Tigers' assertions. If it does turn out that Tesla business has made the full migration it will be a very sad day for me. I'm sensitive that way.
To be clear, my experience with the car is FANTASTIC. I have enjoyed almost all of my interactions with the service side of the house and find the services reps I've interacted with to be kind, honest, helpful and to care about the customer. I am only commenting on the business side of the house.
Tesla is better than a traditional car dealership in every single way. Every single way.
But, it could still be a lot better. I think actually simple fixes - work on communication, have better processes for dealing with customer complaints. That's about it.
Buying our Tesla vs buying the last ICE car I had was night/day/not even close. Scheduled a same day test drive. They let me take the car, by myself, for literally an hour where I was able to drive it 30-40 miles to test out highway, city, autopilot, etc. I bought my first Tesla in 30 seconds, got a call with a match a day later, delivered on time with no issues and no BS 10 days later.
To buy my previous ICE car? had to drive 2 hours to a lot to find one in stock. went for a 10 minute test drive where I couldnt just test the car the way I wanted, had to drive some pre-planned route with the sales bro.
Once I got back - told me that my credit - which was still decent at the time though not what it is today, wasn't good enough, raised the financing on me by double. Then told me that the car's selling price was higher than MSRP because of the fake BS they added (nitro tires, PPF etc). And then, they told me that another buyer was on the way over tomorrow and if I didn't take it, it was done.
So, I sat there for literally, IDK 5 hours, drove it for 2 minutes and then was lied to for 4.5 hours. I left, they called the next day and all of a sudden, the car was what it was supposed to be price wise and i didn't have to pay for anything. drove another 2 hours, haggled for another 5 hours and got the car.
I hated the car for the first few weeks that I had it because of the experience. Why did I go back? because ALL of the dealerships near me did the exact same horseshit tactics and I knew Id be starting it all over again.
I almost bought an ICE car back in April. So glad I did not. They tried similar tactics. You shouldn't have to spend hours of time researching how car salesmen lie to you (legally, somehow) and how to keep from getting ripped off when buying an expensive product like a car. Ridiculous.
My Tesla? Nope, I had a smile as soon as I got to the showroom to pick it up. The small issues I had with it were minor, fixed usually at home and had no issues.
What has Tesla done to me? Well, my car was delayed and they didnt say *sugar* about it until like 30 days later. Is going to come 5-6 months late. Oh well. Small price to pay for driving the bleeding edge of automotive tech, imo. Night and day. will never buy from a legacy OEM with that traditional method again.
