928 GT R

Like any company, Porsche has good and bad dealerships. In Michigan, I have had terrible service experiences at the Grand Rapids, Okemos and Detroit's "Porsche of Motor City" stealerships. Problems with the dealers have ranged from chronic missed diagnostics to lost service manuals/records from the glovebox with absolutely no ability or willingness to resolve the problems. I almost abandoned my 40 year relationship with the Porsche brand until working with Fred Lavery Porsche in Detroit. EDIT: Now Fred Lavery has joined the incompetence parade with the failure to do a scheduled service, not fixing my stereo after two attempts and leaving the keys to someone else vehicle in my car. It's a real treat to deal with an incompetent dealer that is 265 miles away. NOT!

With the exception of my collector cars, I am looking forward to ditching the ICE car completely IF the Taycan comes through with a palatable final design. It is a shame that the concept car that got us so excited about the original Mission E will not be built. Of course that topic should be discussed on another thread...

The best part of the EV car is it's relatively maintenance free nature. Combine that with capacity of "car configurators" to personalize the car to my exact order, I see my dealership visits being cut by 75%.

iammacey

The cars still need to go through PDI, Finance, and Delivery.

What I don't understand is the number of people that love the Tesla model, but not the dealership model, always mention they didn't have to play games. You don't have to play games at any dealer. Just walk-in and pay MSRP. And trading a car? They are going to wholesale it to a buyer. The most you will get is whatever CarMax offers.

At Tesla you will deal with a Product Specialist, Owner Advisor, and Delivery at a minimum. And in most cases, you will have to visit two locations.

I appreciate the disruptive model and that Tesla didn't do Dealers. But at the end of the day, it is the SSDD.

manitou202

Having just gone through my first Tesla delivery, I don't think their model is very disruptive compared to high end car dealerships that treat their customers well. For example, I feel my local Porsche dealer offers a better buying experience compared to Tesla. However, my experience with Tesla was way better than buying our Volvo, Audi, BMW, and many other entry level brands we have purchased in the past.

No price haggling, order online from home, upload all of your documentation online prior to delivery, and then basically pickup the car when it's ready. For most people (especially the younger generations) this is ideal. They don't want to deal with dealer BS, they just want to order the car they want and pick it up when ready. Not spend hours at a dealership waiting to sign paper work and try to be upsold of crap they don't need.

iammacey

It's disruptive to the the dealer network. That's why they have fought so hard to keep them from selling direct in so many states.

I believe all manufacturers would be, overall, happy to eliminate the dealer network and discounting of their products. But they can't do it in the United States.

bmwexpat

First of all, I agree with the various posts about the majority of dealer sales personnel knowing very little about their products and overall the feeling of a satisfactory experience is spotty at best. Tesla has done an admirable job of developing a direct sales channel, where none existed. The downside to Tesla’s direct sales model are the much higher SG&A costs compared to any of their future competitors and the limitations for expansion vs. established dealer networks that are more than 10 times the size of Tesla’s network of sales and service centers.

Most people seem to dismiss the fact that Tesla has had the BEV market to itself with minimum serious competition from other manufacturers. The Leaf, I3, and even the Bolt are loss leader experiments for their respective manufacturers. Starting in 2019, the competitive landscape for BEV’s is going to change rapidly. The first wave is targeting the $75K and up marketplace. Porsche, Mercedes, Audi, & Jaguar have invested 10’s of billions of dollars to build dedicated BEV factories. Aggregate announced production volume from just those 4 manufactures seems to be around 100,000 units, which is right around the total Tesla model S &X units sold worldwide. For the first time in the high end BEV market there is going to be a fight for market share. Personally, I believe it’s a fight that Tesla is going to lose as their market share will dip below 50% by the end of 2020.

As to the dealer vs. direct model, I’ve been a successful Sales Manager for various manufacturers and industries for over 30 years. I’ve worked with a dedicated dealer channel and sold direct as well. I understand the strengths and weaknesses of both models and from what I’ve observed the direct sales model for automobiles is an ultimate failure as the current dealer model is already firmly entrenched, have huge cost and customer service advantages that dwarf any capabilities that Tesla currently has or ever will have.

whiz944

In terms of market share percentage - sure. There is nowhere else to go. But in terms of sheer volume? Teslas volumes still have huge upsides for the forseeable future as they build more plant capacity, introduce the Model Y and trucks, refresh the S and X, introduce the Roadster 2.0, expand into new geographies, and so on. But there is still _lots_ of room for more production from other manufacturers before things get truly competitive.

Also don't dismiss the Tesla-Panasonic battery partnership. With the Gigafactory now in full operation (and still only 30% complete) Tesla reportedly has the lowest costs in the industry.

What other cars, manufactured in serious scale, have been direct marketed in the U.S.? The thing about the dealership model is that it is a one-way street. Once they sell a single car through a dealership, they can never go back to a pure direct model ever again. As long as they keep the direct model, they can experiment with new ideas for making it work better for their customers. Relatively speaking, after-sales service is much less of an issue with BEVs than with ICE cars.

From a Wall Street perspective I'm still amazed that market cap-wise, Tesla is the #3 auto company in the world - with only Toyota and VW higher. Also all other legacy manufacturers, and their dealerships, have a huge, massive, problem with 'stranded assets' as the market shifts away from ICE... (https://cleantechnica.com/2018/12/04...lkswagen-next/)

doshc

I don't think the math works out to anywhere close to what you're saying. The dealers need to make a profit and all that comes out of the manufacturers bottom line whether it's selling with lower margins to dealers or running your own network. Right now service & maintenance is where 2/3 or more of dealer profits come from and how traditional dealers react to eventual very low maintenance EVs is yet to be seen. Frankly it's almost 2019 and in the age of the internet the value of middlemen is rapidly declining.

unclewill

bmwexpat

Interesting post on Volvo/Polestar.

60 Design Centers worldwide is a toe in the water as they will be showcasing their BEV products which at he moment are more vaporware than reality. Volvo USA sold 98,000 vehicles in the USA in 2018. Not bad for a brand that was near death a couple of years ago. Volvo is putting the final touches on a new 500 million dollar factory in the US that will build their SUV's. It will be interesting to watch how the Volvo Dealer channel reacts to the Polestar/ Design Center concept as time moves on. My experience tells me that if the dealers start to feel threatened by direct competition with the manufacturer, they will simply bolt and drop that manufacturer. Will be interesting to watch over the next couple of years to see how this plays out.

unclewill

earl pottinger

The way Porsche is doing it, their best dealers will stick with them and make lots of money, if the Volvo dealers however have too much pride and simply bolt, they will just delay the squeeze a few years as more and more car makers change to electric cars.

Porsche is doing it right, Volvo dealers will have to learn the new world of cars.

Earl Colby Pottinger (Tesla, Bollinger and other BEVs fan)

unclewill

Needsdecaf

Subscription service has not started off well.

unclewill

Hansel

The price?

Cadillac is cancelling their $1800/mo subscription service already.