FTC Officials Back Tesla’s Right to Sell Cars Direct to Consumers
Having bought a new car recently, and having to drive 100 miles, past 4 dealerships, just to get to a dealership that was willing to give me a reasonable price (still high, but reasonable) for a car that is in low demand, I support every company's right to go around the dealerships. They are disgusting.<p>While sitting around waiting for 20 minutes "cooking" in a dealership waiting for the man to come back with a price for a used car, I heard 4 other salesman standing around, pretending to be customers, laughing and making fun of people who had come in to buy a car. Some pretended to be gangsters who had to "go geyt sum monnah frum muh baby mommah's couch". Another pretended to be school teachers who had to pay the down payment with 3 different checks. It was disgusting. I left after it was obvious that the man was making me wait for no reason, and when I left, he sent me a text message with a price for a base model, used car, for ABOVE the new price not 100 feet away from his desk, at the dealership next door.<p>It was a very abusive process. I've never been in another situation where you ask how much something costs, and they say "make an offer!"<p>That's like going into Walmart and asking how much a TV is, and they say "What's it worth to you?"<p>Gross. I felt like I was dealing with conmen from the start. I will never buy another car from a dealer.<p>Tesla has the power to lead the way into eliminating these middlemen monsters and I hope they see more support in that regard.<p>Note: I needed a pretty specific car because I'm extremely tall and I'm having back problems from having to slouch in normal sized cars. Because of this, I had limited options in the way of dealers.