Except that you aren't really eliminating the middle man; you're just shifting who he works for. (I haven't picked sides, btw)
Peri -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Martin WINLOW Sent: 30 June, 2013 3:35 AM To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List Subject: Re: [EVDL] the Tesla petition Hi David, I'm afraid, for once, your faultless logic has... a fault. Either one subscribes to the free market economy or one does not. You can't have one rule for one group of consumers and another for another. (I know we do in all sorts of ways anyway but lots of wrongs don't make a right, now do they?) I respect the desire for the dealers to want to stay in business but Bruce is right - they have to play the game like the rest of us - anything else is the worst sort of hypocrisy. Personally, I don't think that if all motor makers had to sell direct it would make any difference - if anything, vehicles would be cheaper having eliminated the middle man. Customers have plenty of options to choose from though with so many apparently independent makes of car owned by the same multinational, things are not as 'free market' as they were. Why the government is allowing these huge car making tie-ips to happen is beyond me. But that's politics for you ... and now we are well OT! MW On 29 Jun 2013, at 22:00, EVDL Administrator wrote: > I have mixed feelings about this. In fact this is a larger discussion that > might not really have a place on the EVDL as it may spill over into a > general discussion of selling all kinds of vehicles. > > I think it makes a lot of sense for a low-volume specialty vehicle (and > let's face it, at least for now that's what an EV is) to be sold nationwide > by its manufacturer. I'm probably OK with Tesla selling directly to the > customer. > > But I'm not so sure I want GM, Toyota, Ford, and Chrysler doing it. I can > just see them undercutting local dealers until they drive the dealers out of > business, then setting much higher prices for customers. True, there would > still be competition between, say, Nissan and Mistsubishi. But if you had > your heart set on a Nissan Leaf, you'd pay the manufacturer's list price, or > you wouldn't get your car. > > Thus I think direct vehicle sales would, in the long run, reduce competition > and increase prices - great for them, not so good for us. > > Besides, if they ran all the car dealers out of business, where would guys > with lousy taste in suits get jobs? ;-) > > Maybe the answer is to allow manufacturers below some ceiling sales volume > (I dunno, pick a number) to sell directly, and maintain the status quo for > manufacturers with larger sales. Or, dare I suggest it, allow direct sales > of EVs and not ICEVs? > > David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA > EVDL Administrator _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
