Please Help: Should Tesla be allowed to sell cars in Connecticut?

[juliusa]

Well, of course they should! Please help us by voting in the poll linked below.

Current law in Connecticut requires car dealers to be independently-owned franchises. This year there is legislation being considered to allow manufacturers with no franchises in the state to be allowed to have a dealer license - Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, etc. We have had similar legislation fail for the past 6 years - always blocked by the dealer association.

There is a poll being conducted, and the dealers are well organized getting their employees to vote now. We can do better. PLEASE go to this poll and vote yes - and share the link with your club, friends, neighbors - anyone who will vote YES!!!

Should Tesla and other car companies be allowed to sell directly to consumers in Connecticut?

www.hartfordbusiness.com

 

[Big Earl]

Well, of course they should! Please help us by voting in the poll linked below.

Current law in Connecticut requires car dealers to be independently-owned franchises. This year there is legislation being considered to allow manufacturers with no franchises in the state to be allowed to have a dealer license - Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, etc. We have had similar legislation fail for the past 6 years - always blocked by the dealer association.

There is a poll being conducted, and the dealers are well organized getting their employees to vote now. We can do better. PLEASE go to this poll and vote yes - and share the link with your club, friends, neighbors - anyone who will vote YES!!!

Should Tesla and other car companies be allowed to sell directly to consumers in Connecticut?

www.hartfordbusiness.com

Looks like the troll bots have gotten to that poll. I have a hard time believing that the general public is split 50/50 on whether or not direct sales should be allowed.

 

[ATPMSD]

I agree that Tesla and others should be able to sell without being a franchised dealer, but there is a downside - support. In many locations getting support for a Tesla is a nightmare owing to the lack of service centers. Personally, I would love to see legislation requiring every car manufacturer support the cars they sell.

 

[juliusa]

Looks like the troll bots have gotten to that poll. I have a hard time believing that the general public is split 50/50 on whether or not direct sales should be allowed.

When I first saw the poll, and voted, the "no" votes were way ahead. My guess is the dealers had a heads-up about the article and were geared up to have all their employees vote no. The "yes" votes are now way ahead. I'd like to see it get to 95% yes.

 

[juliusa]

I agree that Tesla and others should be able to sell without being a franchised dealer, but there is a downside - support. In many locations getting support for a Tesla is a nightmare owing to the lack of service centers. Personally, I would love to see legislation requiring every car manufacturer support the cars they sell.

Yes!! In all of Connecticut, there is only one service center. They tried to open another one, and got blocked by the dealer association.

If they are permitted to sell cars, they will open combined sales/service centers like they do in other states, making it move convenient for us to get our cars serviced.

Right now we have to go out-of-state to pick up our car when we buy it, and many of us also go out-of-state to have the car serviced if mobile cannot handle it.

The dealers say jobs will be lost if Tesla is allowed to sell cars in CT. The truth is jobs are lost because they cannot sell cars in CT - all the sales jobs are exported to nearby states, and even some of the service jobs.

 

[mangrove79]

It's so hard to believe in this day and age, CT can be soooo backwards. Just shaking my head. How can dealerships block such legislation? Obviously, CT is not the only state with dealerships, lol, and it's a deep blue state. How can the state legislature fail to accomplish something this basic?!

 

[juliusa]

It's so hard to believe in this day and age, CT can be soooo backwards. Just shaking my head. How can dealerships block such legislation? Obviously, CT is not the only state with dealerships, lol, and it's a deep blue state. How can the state legislature fail to accomplish something this basic?!

Dealers spread money around the capital - they own the politicians.

 

[PatentNRG]

Looks like the troll bots have gotten to that poll. I have a hard time believing that the general public is split 50/50 on whether or not direct sales should be allowed.

Looks like the numbers are about 75/25 (yes/no) now.

 

[juliusa]

Looks like the numbers are about 75/25 (yes/no) now.

We're slipping in the poll - 69/31 this morning. PLEASE share on other social media so we can get our vote count up. Tweet at Elon - he probably wants to vote!!

 

[scrapps]

Did the polls close? I wanted to vote but can't. So sick of the dealerships dictating what can and can't be sold in our state. It makes zero sense. The sooner we can get more than one service center the better. Fairfield County really needs one. I'm sure outside of CA it must have the biggest concentration of Tesla vehicles.

 

[juliusa]

Did the polls close? I wanted to vote but can't. So sick of the dealerships dictating what can and can't be sold in our state. It makes zero sense. The sooner we can get more than one service center the better. Fairfield County really needs one. I'm sure outside of CA it must have the biggest concentration of Tesla vehicles.

Yes - looks like the poll has closed. 2:1 in favor of allowing Tesla sales. I think a real vote would be much more in favor. Sadly, this has been the sentiment for 7 years and the legislation never gets brought up for a vote by the Democrat leadership. Who knows - maybe 2022 will be the year.

Thanks for everyone's help voting in the poll.

 

[SkeetShooter]

Lamont actually said he is considering it. It passed the transportation committee. The real question will be how it's written. If they build in some sort of fee against Tesla Corporate, given our money grubbing politicians, they will vote yes on it, no matter how much they are in the pocket of the dealers in CT. Its interesting how the dealers are saying this will hurt business, economy, workers etc... Yet they basically are running monopolies within CT.

 

[juliusa]

Lamont actually said he is considering it. It passed the transportation committee. The real question will be how it's written. If they build in some sort of fee against Tesla Corporate, given our money grubbing politicians, they will vote yes on it, no matter how much they are in the pocket of the dealers in CT. Its interesting how the dealers are saying this will hurt business, economy, workers etc... Yet they basically are running monopolies within CT.

We're at the same place we were last year. And the year before. And the year before that....

Everyone says they support it, but the Democrats never bring it to a vote and force their members to go on record. They get to have their cake and eat it too - they yes us to death publicly, and privately assure the dealer lobby it will never pass.

 

[ATPMSD]

We're at the same place we were last year. And the year before. And the year before that....

Everyone says they support it, but the Democrats never bring it to a vote and force their members to go on record. They get to have their cake and eat it too - they yes us to death publicly, and privately assure the dealer lobby it will never pass.

And everyone keeps sending the same people back to office. So guess who’s fault this really is?

 

[SkeetShooter]

To be fair, our Gov did a pretty good job the last few years. Not trying to make this political. I voted for his opponent when he ran, but honestly can't see how the same person (Stefanowski) is going to make any real difference over Lamont if he's elected. CT is a Blue state, and although I might be fiscally conservative, I don't vote on party lines. Would I love to get Lamont to push to pass the Direct to consumer bills for EV's? Absolutely. Would that be the hill/issue I die on if Stefanowski was running on it? No. There is a body of work, experience, and several factors that contribute to why we should elect certain people. Sometimes its a simple as Red vs. Blue. For me, It's a bit more complicated.

 

[juliusa]

And everyone keeps sending the same people back to office. So guess who’s fault this really is?

That is why I want the Democrats to bring it to a floor vote - so we know who stands with the people, and who stands with the dealers. Which is precisely why they haven't brought it to the floor.

 

[David29]

On this topic but a different state -- Is it still true that it is still not possible to sell Teslas in Texas, despite their massive investment? If so, how did tesla/Musk let the opportunity pass to make legalizing sales a condition of making billions of dollars in investment?

 

[SkeetShooter]

On this topic but a different state -- Is it still true that it is still not possible to sell Teslas in Texas, despite their massive investment? If so, how did tesla/Musk let the opportunity pass to make legalizing sales a condition of making billions of dollars in investment?

That is indeed true. The reason why is when compared with building a new factory and making a conditional approval of said factory being built being tied up due to entrenched dealer lobbies in the local government in Texas, it wasn't even close to being worth it. The factory is going to be a guaranteed money maker to the factor of Billions of dollars. Texas, while enormous is no where near as large of an opportunity for making money via direct sales as states like California, Florida or Arizona. That's also why in CT, its not as large of a priority for EV's... Our market is small compared to the much larger states.

 

[ATPMSD]

If ever there was a time to push back on dealerships, now is the time. Dealers are adding excessive markups because they can. We need REAL competition and that includes direct to consume options.