So people are mad that the law that was there forever is being applied to Tesla too?
Its a little more complicated than that actually. You see, most longstanding auto dealership laws around the country prevent manufacturers from selling to consumers if the manufacturer also franchises in that state. This is to prevent a manufacturer from undercutting one of their own dealers. However, the laws did not prevent manufacturers who did not have franchised dealers from running their own dealerships.
The situation in Michigan was considered to be open to interpretation, which would have allowed a way for Tesla to open its own dealerships. The governor and the VP of Auto Dealers of Michigan claim that the law didn't change anything. Which begs the question, why put in language that clarifies that all cars must go through franchised dealerships? They were worried.
By the way, the governor gets lots of donations from auto dealers.
Pretty much.
If Tesla were honest, they would go to the other manufacturers and say “Let’s work together to change this bad law” or they would simply do what it takes to open dealerships. Instead they do the progressive thing and go looking for special carve outs for themselves while screaming bloody murder. I think there is also some pro democrat election politics behind this.
Between their paid posters, suing over bad reviews, and this kind of crap they really don’t deserve any respect.
It's a dumb law that increases cost for consumers while providing zero benefit. It should be repealed in every state where it exists.
The previous law required car manufacturer sell only through “Its” dealerships. By removing the word “Its” at the last minute at the request of the Auto Dealers Association, the law was made applicable even to auto manufactures such as Tesla that didn’t have dealerships. So contrary to Obamacare embracing, Amnesty advocate Rick Snyder, the law was changed.
These dealer protection laws are designed to prevent auto makers, who induce local dealers to invest huge sums of money on building a dealership, from then then turning around and undercuting the dealership and putting them out of business. In Tesla’s case, they have no dealerships to undercut or compete against. The current trend of state governments slightly amending dealership protection laws to ban direct sales even from a company like Tesla without existing dealerships, is simply to force Tesla to share profits with a middle man (In all liklihood, existing dealerships that would simply go from Smith GM to Smith GM Tesla) Of course Tesla would have to jack up the cost to cover price of the middleman.