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Tesla Showroom Opens in Tysons Corner, VA!
- Thread starter GatorEight
- Start date
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- Mid-Atlantic USA
justaddsun
Member
Oh yeah, there are ICE cars on display in malls all the time! We may have to be a little more extroverted for the June 22 NoVa meet here to counteract this brainlessness amongst us, guys.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Ven Rala
Member
I posted tis on another thread, but I thpught I would repost here:
Since Tesla employees cannot tell customers in their stores how to buy the car, what prevents tesla owners from giving any/all necessary information in or just outside a Tesla store. If potential customers (and random Tesla gawkers) are informed about the anti-free maket methods of NADA, it would help the cause, plus help Tesla sell more cars. I would be more likely to buy a car if an owner liked the product so much, they are willing to hang out at the store in their time off to talk about the car.
If the store manager doesn't mind, we should show up at the stores regularly to talk to customers and give them the info that the Tesla employees cannot.
Since Tesla employees cannot tell customers in their stores how to buy the car, what prevents tesla owners from giving any/all necessary information in or just outside a Tesla store. If potential customers (and random Tesla gawkers) are informed about the anti-free maket methods of NADA, it would help the cause, plus help Tesla sell more cars. I would be more likely to buy a car if an owner liked the product so much, they are willing to hang out at the store in their time off to talk about the car.
If the store manager doesn't mind, we should show up at the stores regularly to talk to customers and give them the info that the Tesla employees cannot.
It is outrageous for the fire marshal to require the cars to be removed. This can not be allowed to stand unchallenged.
GSP
@Ven,
Good suggestion. To add, I am willing to collect Tesla owner's name, community name, and tele# to be provided to the store manager on piece of paper (or via email as it updated) to share with visitors who has questions that Tesla employees are not allowed to answer. Also, I am willing to spend 1 hr just about every Sundays around noon since I frequently visit AMC early mornings anyway. I live just 4 miles away. It will be my community service.
Any takers?
Good suggestion. To add, I am willing to collect Tesla owner's name, community name, and tele# to be provided to the store manager on piece of paper (or via email as it updated) to share with visitors who has questions that Tesla employees are not allowed to answer. Also, I am willing to spend 1 hr just about every Sundays around noon since I frequently visit AMC early mornings anyway. I live just 4 miles away. It will be my community service.
Any takers?
jeff_adams
Member
This is being done in many areas. Check out the coffee and cars threads. Impressive stuff by owners willing to give test drives
All,
The cars should be back in the store today, though I haven't made it by there yet to double check that they made it in. When I stopped by yesterday it was a hard thing to see people walk past because there were no cars.
I also found out a bit more about why they were removed. The law that was exercised is a local law from about 40 years ago (I haven't been able to locate it but it would be nice to if someone wants to do a little leg work incase this isn't the end of this) which required the 12V battery be disconnected so that the car can not be started. Such a law causes more issues for an EV than it normally would for an ICE because it was created without any for-sight into future vehicles. To know about, and to enforce such a law took some good detective work on someones part but I'll stay away from conspiracy theory's...
Ven Rala,
I was thinking the same thing. The quick answer is nothing is stopping you (or me) from this, and I think it makes even more of an impact on people when owners talk to potential customers. It would be important to be sure that such is being done WITHOUT the stores interaction. This type of activity must be done by owners, and managed by owners, and without control from Tesla. I'm sure Tesla will let us kindly know if we are causing issues etc. but otherwise it will be viewed as an extension of Tesla and cause legal issues. I have never been asked not to speak with people in stores.
I've been toying with the best way to deal with this issue locally. I was holding off just a bit more until we see what also happens at Montgomery Mall, but if the rumors are to be true, it will have the same issues. If we are going to have interactions with the public I think it is important to decide what our goal is. Is it:
1. Selling more Model S's: This is kinda easy, we just organize to hang out at stores, talk price, and give test drives.
or
2. Act to have these laws overturned/changed.
In this case we could:
A) Hang out at/outside Tesla stores informing the public why the employees are not even allowed to tell you the price of the car, perhaps wearing shirts that say "Ask me why Tesla can't even tell you how much their car costs!" or the like. I would also suggest following this up with talk about the car, and test drives. Some type of information on who in goverment to directly complain to would also be key, such at for VA the contact info for office of Richard D. Holcomb and their local legislator.
B) Spend time personally lobbying the legislature. For me (in MD) this is a bit harder to do for VA, but if Maryland follows suit I look forward to lobbying all levels of local/State goverment to make sure this issue is dealt with.
C) Hang out outside the largest of dealerships promoting these restrictions on Tesla and doing about the same thing as A, but with an attempt to directly affect their sales. I'm not sure how much of an effect this will have, and if it would be meaningful enough to make the dealerships decide it's not worth the fight, but perhaps it would if the correct dealerships were targeted and the Tesla showing was overwhelming, and the effect of business was very significant (think half the car sales in a weekend).
Peter
The cars should be back in the store today, though I haven't made it by there yet to double check that they made it in. When I stopped by yesterday it was a hard thing to see people walk past because there were no cars.
I also found out a bit more about why they were removed. The law that was exercised is a local law from about 40 years ago (I haven't been able to locate it but it would be nice to if someone wants to do a little leg work incase this isn't the end of this) which required the 12V battery be disconnected so that the car can not be started. Such a law causes more issues for an EV than it normally would for an ICE because it was created without any for-sight into future vehicles. To know about, and to enforce such a law took some good detective work on someones part but I'll stay away from conspiracy theory's...
Ven Rala,
I was thinking the same thing. The quick answer is nothing is stopping you (or me) from this, and I think it makes even more of an impact on people when owners talk to potential customers. It would be important to be sure that such is being done WITHOUT the stores interaction. This type of activity must be done by owners, and managed by owners, and without control from Tesla. I'm sure Tesla will let us kindly know if we are causing issues etc. but otherwise it will be viewed as an extension of Tesla and cause legal issues. I have never been asked not to speak with people in stores.
I've been toying with the best way to deal with this issue locally. I was holding off just a bit more until we see what also happens at Montgomery Mall, but if the rumors are to be true, it will have the same issues. If we are going to have interactions with the public I think it is important to decide what our goal is. Is it:
1. Selling more Model S's: This is kinda easy, we just organize to hang out at stores, talk price, and give test drives.
or
2. Act to have these laws overturned/changed.
In this case we could:
A) Hang out at/outside Tesla stores informing the public why the employees are not even allowed to tell you the price of the car, perhaps wearing shirts that say "Ask me why Tesla can't even tell you how much their car costs!" or the like. I would also suggest following this up with talk about the car, and test drives. Some type of information on who in goverment to directly complain to would also be key, such at for VA the contact info for office of Richard D. Holcomb and their local legislator.
B) Spend time personally lobbying the legislature. For me (in MD) this is a bit harder to do for VA, but if Maryland follows suit I look forward to lobbying all levels of local/State goverment to make sure this issue is dealt with.
C) Hang out outside the largest of dealerships promoting these restrictions on Tesla and doing about the same thing as A, but with an attempt to directly affect their sales. I'm not sure how much of an effect this will have, and if it would be meaningful enough to make the dealerships decide it's not worth the fight, but perhaps it would if the correct dealerships were targeted and the Tesla showing was overwhelming, and the effect of business was very significant (think half the car sales in a weekend).
Peter
Ven Rala
Member
I think the goal should be BOTH A and B. Which I think van be done simultaneously at the store. If any of you are making it to the meet-up at the Tysons store on June 22nd, it would be a great topic to discuss.
Regarding getting the laws changed: A. Can be easily done by interested owners, B. is a little harder unless anyone has connections to legislators, though I am not discounting the idea, I am a cynic and believe that legislators will vote based on campaign contributions and not on the best policy. here the auto dealers have us beat (for now) C. I love this idea, what customer would want to buy an ICE after seeing a Tesla, though at its current sticker price, we would have a better chance reducing sales at BMW/Lexus/Mercedes dealers than Toyota/Ford/Chevy dealers. Also this is somewhat more confrontational, so more likely to have unintended consequences (dealers calling police, etc.) as we have seen from the fire marshall incident, all of a sudden arcane laws are being brought up to inhibit Tesla.
In any case, I do agree that all of these are reasonable approaches.
Today the cars were there but off. The plugging into the floor with the 12V battery disconnected did not work so they were off and you could not open and sit in them, screens dark.
So I am up chatting with them and observing and inside of 2 mins two different people are there pressing properly on the handles expecting them to pop out. They had brought others to show the car! I am sure (?) Tesla is bringing it to the authorities, right? this is simply stupid.
So I am up chatting with them and observing and inside of 2 mins two different people are there pressing properly on the handles expecting them to pop out. They had brought others to show the car! I am sure (?) Tesla is bringing it to the authorities, right? this is simply stupid.
GasDoc
Member
There's got to be a workaround. Perhaps keeping the 12v battery disconnected but connecting the leads to a beefy 12v AC adapter as well as pulling the fuse between the drive battery and the 12v?
Ven Rala,
If I'll be in town this weekend is still up in the air, but if I am local, I'll be sure to make it. I agree that it's a great topic for the group to discuss.
Peter
If I'll be in town this weekend is still up in the air, but if I am local, I'll be sure to make it. I agree that it's a great topic for the group to discuss.
Peter
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