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Dealership Model and Germany
- Thread starter jerry33
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- Tesla Inc.
StapleGun
Member
So just to recap... Not having dealers drives the price up, and Tesla eliminated dealers to drive the price down.
Cool.
AustinPowers
Total Smeghead
None that I know of. But what's the point anyway? I am at work all day long. At the time I leave for work, no service tech (not even Tesla's) would be at my house to pick up my car (and I couldn't stay with them to watch while they service it at my home either). So having to service the car for me means taking a day off either way, Tesla's or traditional. So no extra points for the Tesla service model. Plus I would have to pay dearly for ranger service, while my traditional dealership is within walking distance from my home. And how do you know I get better service anyway? So far the service I got at my dealerships was exemplary.
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Yep, because with traditional dealers the car would have been so expensive that no one would buy it. Think of it, as it is the Model S 60 with a few options costs 80K Euro here. If you add another 20% for the dealer margin as suggested you get to almost 100K Euro (mind you, for the S 60!). Who do you think would buy that car at such a price point? Not even the greenest of green tree-huggers, unless they have got money to burn.
So I am saying Tesla HAD to eliminate the dealers to sell the car at a somewhat competitive price at all. Yet they lose all that traditional carmakers gain by having dealers - like the comfort for their customers to buy and service their car round the corner as opposed to driving hundreds of miles to do so.
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True, but as long as the majority of buyers is happy with ICE cars, the big manufacturers just don't see a necessity to put too much effort into developing BEV's. Not that I am saying I like that fact, but a fact it is.
Mayhemm
Model S P85+ "Lola"
I'm a bit confused. Are you saying that if they charged less for the annual service it wouldn't include Ranger service (because that costs extra, even at the current price), or that the Ranger program couldn't exist in the first place?
artsci
Sponsor
Not the case. I have Ranger service and just arranged an appointment for several minor problems. I asked if I had to be present when the Ranger came and performed the service and the answer was, "No, you just need to leave the fob with someone so the Ranger can get access to your car."
I've had the Rangers meet me at 6:30AM before work to get my keys before and they worked on the car while I was at work.
You seem to make the assumption that Tesla will always only have stores and service centers every few hundred miles. When I got my Roadster the closest service center was 1,000 miles away in Chicago. Now there is one less than 80 miles away. As time progresses and they are more successful, they will expand. Dealerships didn't pop up in every city and town all at once in the 1920s, it took decades.
That probably is accurate and is to Tesla's benefit.
In my case the Ranger flew from Dallas to Omaha, stayed overnight at a hotel, rented a car and drove to Lincoln to fix my car. Now granted not every Ranger visit will be as expensive as that one, but it wasn't even remotely cheap for Tesla to do that. If they charged 50% less, I doubt the Ranger program could exist because even if it's a city visit, it's obviously going to take more time than if the service person is just working in the shop and the cars come to him or her.
Of course you could ask them to pick it up at work instead, and leave you a loaner/rental. In my experience that works just fine. Nobody (but maybe you) insists on "home".
huntjo
Member
AustinPowers
Total Smeghead
Even though at 6:30 (AM) I am already on my train to work, I would be pleasantly surprised if a ranger came to me before 7 AM at all. I can't really believe that would happen here. Anyway, Tesla might surprise pleasantly in that respect. We will see.
About the stores: even 80 miles away is very far. Consider that here in Germany, dealers literally exist in almost every town. If you don't drive an exotic car like maybe a Ferrari, Rolls or somesuch, I guarantee you that wherever you live you won't have to drive further than 20 to 30 miles at the most to find a dealer/service for your make of car.
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True, but you see I don't drive to work. I drive to the nearest train station and use public transportation for the majority of the way. No one who doesn't have to drives into or out of Frankfurt during rush hour traffic if he/she can avoid it. Especially as there are no parking spaces where I work - except for some in hideously expensive and narrow multi-storey car parks, where you wouldn't dare to drive in with a car as large as the Model S (especially without those power folding mirrors).
And by the way, I never "insisted" on home in the first place. I said that I take my car to my local dealership for service.
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Unfortunately most people don't have a secretary ;-)
No, but seriously I don't want to say that some method or other can't be arranged, all I said from the beginning was I don't see an advantage in Tesla's service model for me as a customer - certainly none that would outweigh the disadvantages of not having a dealership locally.
SebastianR
Active Member
You live close to Frankfurt and not in Doldingen, Iphofen or deep in the Bayrischer Wald. so, sooner or later you will have a store really close. And yes, for now Tesla is more exotic to Germany than the exotic brands you listed. If you want a local dealer (shop, service centre), then wait. What you raise now is not about the dealership model but simple a question of market penetration/market share...
I don't know about Germany, but here I avoid taking my car to a dealer for service if at all possible because they totally rip you off with outrageous prices. Every time I've ever taken a car to the dealer to be serviced I've regretted it.
The lack of third party authorized repair places is a different story. I don't see why Tesla should be philosophically opposed to them in the long run since they say they aren't making a profit from service anyway.
jeff_adams
Member
The problem is not the big manufactureres, it's the dealers. They aren't interested in selling BEVs, so they don't even bother educating their sales staff on how to sell them. This is the big reason Elon and company decided to bypass dealerships. If dealers won't sell them, why should the automakers make them?
StapleGun
Member
If they are doing repairs at cost then any third party repair shop would almost certainly raise the price of repairs unless they are vastly more efficient in other areas which seems unlikely.
Well, if the 3rd party didn't do valet, model s loaners, etc, they could have lower overhead. Also they might have more convenient locations even if it wasn't cheaper. My main point is that service choice is in no way tied to sales through dealerships.
There is a significant amount of overhead in building training and service materials ( manuals, tools, software ) to be secure and usable by 3rd parties.
Tesla is still very vulnerable to their IP being stolen, the service software may be more valuable for reverse engineering the car than the car itself.
AustinPowers
Total Smeghead
Strange, why did you choose Iphofen as an example? I ask because if it hadn't been for a coincidence a few years ago, I would now be living and working right there.
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Going to a local dealership (or third party service provider) for servicing your car is the standard model here. Everyone is used to it, prices are surely a bit higher at an official dealership, but on the other hand you get the original manufacturer's guarantee with it (with third party service providers not always). Certainly no rip-off prices in general (there might be exceptions to the rule, but as the ADAC (German AAA) and other organisations regularly test dealership service, such a practice quickly becomes well publicised).
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That can't happen here as dealers normally are completely dependent on the manufacturer whose cars they sell. Most dealers are official single make dealers, e.g. they only sell BMW, the next only sells VW, and so on. So it's the manufacturers who tell the dealers what to do, what to sell, which model to prominently feature, how the showrooms have to be built outside and inside, furnished etc. (corporate identity). And as you don't buy a new car on the spot anyway (like a Tesla you configure your choice, order it, and possibly negotiate the payment method and rebate. Then you wait a certain amount of time, depending on the popularity of the model and the manufacturing lag this might range from a few weeks to several months, after which you return to the dealer or factory for collecting your vehicle).
SebastianR
Active Member
I hope this belongs here: Note that Germans (and BMW) are also trying to use a direct sales model in future:
The Google Translate of the article says:
The Google Translate of the article says:
