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c0lo writes:
"Following the ban on Tesla direct sale in New Jersey, Elon Musk wrote a message to the people of New Jersey on the Tesla Motor's blog, explaining why they don't want to go through dealers and what will happen next with the stores in New Jersey. To put a context around the issue: Tesla soared in consumer satisfaction, while Ford dropped and it's likely to continue dropping.
The post:
- explains why Tesla don't want to sell through dealers, claiming a conflict of interest between selling and servicing gasoline and electric cars.
- explains what will happen with their presence in New Jersey; the stores will be transformed into showrooms, with no info on price being offered, and servicing will not be impacted by the new regulation.
- tells people what they can do - buy online and receive the car delivered interstate or buy from across the river in Manhattan; They can also contact their representatives if they want back the right to buy directly from a store."
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Elon Musk to the People of New Jersey
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I'm not a robot like you. I don't like having disks crammed into me... unless they're Oreos, and then only in the mouth.
-- Fry
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Covalent on Monday March 17 2014, @08:46AM
I'm surprised that Musk and co. haven't challenged the constitutionality of these laws. Tesla isn't selling crack or bazookas...they are selling cars. It is legal to sell a car in the United States, so a state prohibiting (or restricting) a company from selling its cars seems to be denying the "person" or Tesla Motors from its constitutional right to sell its products.
Cases in point:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Milk_Company_v. _City_of_Madison [wikipedia.org]_ Seelig,_Inc [wikipedia.org].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_v._G._A._F.
IANACE (constitution expert), but it seems to me that states have tried this sort of thing before and have been struck down. Fighting a constitutional battle is expensive, but Musk is not exactly short on cash.
On a different note, this also reeks of the RIAA/MPAA's attempt to prevent downloading of music and movies. It just makes Tesla more desirable than it already is, makes the existing auto industry look like they are trying to foist bad products at elevated prices on a captive audience (and I would argue that they are), and inspires people to circumvent this law. I have seen evidence of this in Michigan (where I live) which prohibited sales of most fireworks for years. On the Ohio border, just 100 feet from Michigan, you could find store after store selling nothing but fireworks. When MI finally repealed the fireworks laws, just as many people had them as before...they were just paying MI sales tax for them instead of driving to OH to get them.
I say Tesla should start opening dealerships inches from the NJ border in PA and NY and offer to drive the car to your house in NJ for you...then laugh as Christie and co. try to make that illegal, too.
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mmcmonster on Monday March 17 2014, @10:22AM
They already have showrooms in King Of Prussia (10 minutes from NJ) and Manhattan.
I guess they could also open one in Bethlehem PA (also 10 minutes from NJ) and pretty much have them surrounded.
The interesting thing to note: I have never seen a Tesla advertisement. Anywhere. These cars pretty much are selling on reputation and word of mouth. And they're sold out months in advance. (I have two friends who each put down $40K advance on a Tesla Model X, which won't begin shipping until this Fall at the earliest.) According to the sales rep in Manhattan, NY, the most common purchasers of Teslas are currently physicians and college professors. And that's for a $70-80k car with a 99% customer satisfaction rating. NJ needs them more than they need NJ.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Monday March 17 2014, @10:36AM
The sales tax thing doesn't apply here. When you buy a car, you have to pay sales tax based on your residence location, not where the dealership is located. It doesn't matter if you drive across the state line, they still have to charge you NJ state sales tax (7% !!) and remit that to NJ. I think it's supposed to be this way for ALL purchases, but no one bothers enforcing it for small things like groceries and donuts and fireworks, but for cars, because they're so expensive, it is enforced.
I say Tesla should start opening dealerships inches from the NJ border in PA and NY and offer to drive the car to your house in NJ for you...then laugh as Christie and co. try to make that illegal, too.
Christie and Co. will be laughing as the customers still have to pay NJ sales tax. We already have this anyway: there's lots of dealers in NY and PA that service NJ customers. Another stupid thing about NJ is that auto dealers are not allowed to sell cars on Sunday. Every dealership in the state is closed Sundays. It's called "Blue Laws", something that you only find in Democrat-leaning blue states like NJ, because apparently Democrats are really big on religious-based laws for some reason, unlike red-state Republicans (you won't find such laws in strongly-red states like Arizona!). So lots of people probably drive to nearby dealerships in PA and NY to buy cars on the weekend, since most of us have to work M-F.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 17 2014, @11:12AM
It's amazing that you can blame a political party for Blue Laws instead of the douchebag Christians who are to blame.
Parts of NJ are just shut down on weekends due to these antiquated piece of shit Sharia laws. FUCK YOU, YOU RELIGIOUS FREAKS. I just wanted to buy a camera!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by hb253 on Monday March 17 2014, @09:41PM
I'm an atheist, I live in NJ and I LOVE the blue laws. It makes for some peace and quiet at least one day per week. Every few years there's a vote to repeal and people always vote it down. I also love the fact we don't have to pump our own gasoline and it costs lees than in other states to boot.
The firings and offshore outsourcing will not stop until morale improves.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday March 18 2014, @01:43PM
I blame a political party because that party generally dominates the elections here. If Democrats aren't religious freaks as you put it, then why do we have this ridiculous laws? The answer is simple: the Democrats ARE religious freaks, despite their claims to the contrary, otherwise they wouldn't vote for these idiotic religious laws. There aren't any red states where you can't buy a car on Sunday. What does that tell you?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Leebert on Monday March 17 2014, @03:02PM
Incorrect. You pay sales tax based on where the transaction occurred. HOWEVER, many states have reciprocal agreements in place for things like car sales.
Then you get into fun things like use taxes. "Oh, no, that's not a sales tax for buying something in another state; that would violate the Commerce Clause. That's... uh... a USE tax, yeah. You have to pay that tax (which is coincidentally the exact same percentage as the sales tax) to USE the item in this state. And if you paid sales tax for the item, then we just go ahead and waive the use tax. See? PERFECTLY constitutional!"
The whole thing is a crock.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday March 17 2014, @03:21PM
I see, that explains the car sales tax thing.
(Score: 2) by gottabeme on Monday March 17 2014, @06:06PM
> It's called "Blue Laws", something that you only find in Democrat-leaning blue states like NJ, because apparently Democrats are really big on religious-based laws for some reason
That's not why they're called blue laws. They date back to the 17th century. Use Wikipedia.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday March 18 2014, @01:40PM
I never said that was why they were called blue laws. Use some reading comprehension. The term "blue laws" obviously dates back much farther than when national TV news started showing state maps in blue and red during Presidential races; that only started in the last 10-20 years as I recall. It's just a handy coincidence that blue states seem to be rife with blue laws, despite Democrats claiming they want separation of church and state, which is obviously a lie.
(Score: 2) by gottabeme on Tuesday April 01 2014, @03:27AM
>I never said that was why they were called blue laws. Use some reading comprehension.
You said:
> It's called "Blue Laws", something that you only find in Democrat-leaning blue states like NJ, because apparently Democrats are really big on religious-based laws for some reason
If that isn't what you meant, you should have said something like:
> It's called "Blue Laws." You only find them in Democrat-leaning states like NJ, because apparently Democrats are really big on religious-based laws for some reason.
Please don't accuse me of being unable to read when your writing is ambiguous.
Anyway, I don't think that's necessarily true about them being mainly in Democratic states. And as the Democrats lean more and more toward atheism, it will become still less true.
(Score: 1) by samwichse on Monday March 17 2014, @03:57PM
Problem is, they didn't name Tesla directly. They just built a set of laws that happen to exactly target what Tesla is doing.
See government sole-source contract writing for more info on this totally awesome, legal, and helpful loophole!
Sam