Politics and Religion

New Jersey bars Tesla from direct sales of the Model S,
marikod 1 Reviews 2525 reads
posted

despite having issued Tesla a license a year ago and despite a year of drama free sales to about 500 buyers.

        The powerful automobile dealers association put the kabash on the NJ Motor Vehicle Commission. The agency passed a rule providing that only retailers holding franchise agreements with auto manufacturers could sell cars in New Jersey. Tesla will have to close its two retail stores as a result.

          Chris Christie, who had promised Elon Musk he would delay any administrative resolution of the issue until the legislator had considered a bill to allow direct sales, folded like a deck of cards. Big Boy claimed he had been misunderstood.

      So what do we make of this? You can buy a computer directly from Apple. You can buy a D-28 directly from Martin. You can buy  American Beauty directly from the Grateful Dead. You can buy all sorts of products directly from the manufacturer. (Ok you can’t buy a gun directly from Colt, but we like that one). This is pure protectionist regulation that benefits only dealers at the expense of consumers. Dealers buy from Ford and GM and then jack up the price to you, the consumer. Margins admittedly are thin but the dealers clean up on service when your car breaks down.

      And New Jersey is not alone. Even in Texas, where the best looking P & R Board posters live, Tesla can only show its cars in Galleries. Yes, there is a charging station in San Marcos and service in Austin. But no sales are allowed.

      My prediction- this dealer protectionism is going to backfire. Look for the mother of all Commerce Clause lawsuits if other states follow NJ and Texas’s lead

St. Croix545 reads

Tesla's stock is higher, so go figure. Yes, it's a stupid archaic law. One day we will be able to buy a Tesla on our smartphone, and have the car delivered to our house.  

I know you are still kicking yourself for selling Tesla way back when. I did the same with Facebook. But I'm really impressed with Elon Musk. I'm tempted to jump in and buy some stock, even at these elevated levels.  

You're not good looking, so you don't live in Texas. Plus with your liberal views you would have gotten your ass kicked. Wait, Austin is kinda liberal. I don't think Duke grads would be able to find Texas on a map.  

P.S. Speaking of cars. Have you seen the latest Cadillac ad? I can't believe the almost visceral reaction to the ad. I think it's clever, but the left went ape shit. Take a look

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4wNMOapzyw
 

Posted By: marikod
despite having issued Tesla a license a year ago and despite a year of drama free sales to about 500 buyers.  
   
         The powerful automobile dealers association put the kabash on the NJ Motor Vehicle Commission. The agency passed a rule providing that only retailers holding franchise agreements with auto manufacturers could sell cars in New Jersey. Tesla will have to close its two retail stores as a result.  
   
           Chris Christie, who had promised Elon Musk he would delay any administrative resolution of the issue until the legislator had considered a bill to allow direct sales, folded like a deck of cards. Big Boy claimed he had been misunderstood.  
   
       So what do we make of this? You can buy a computer directly from Apple. You can buy a D-28 directly from Martin. You can buy  American Beauty directly from the Grateful Dead. You can buy all sorts of products directly from the manufacturer. (Ok you can’t buy a gun directly from Colt, but we like that one). This is pure protectionist regulation that benefits only dealers at the expense of consumers. Dealers buy from Ford and GM and then jack up the price to you, the consumer. Margins admittedly are thin but the dealers clean up on service when your car breaks down.  
   
       And New Jersey is not alone. Even in Texas, where the best looking P & R Board posters live, Tesla can only show its cars in Galleries. Yes, there is a charging station in San Marcos and service in Austin. But no sales are allowed.  
   
       My prediction- this dealer protectionism is going to backfire. Look for the mother of all Commerce Clause lawsuits if other states follow NJ and Texas’s lead.  
 

ugh, I felt I was in a cocoon. I disliked the blind spots. I was thinking damn, if I was kid, how could I place my hand on her lap, and vice a versa with that damn console in the way. Call me nostalgic but I loved the cars with windows, bucket seats, thick tires, yep the muscle car. The most unfriendly environmental mechanical beasts ever produced for narcissistic pleasure.

When I retire I plan to cruise in a GTO or a 68 nova super sport and play beach boy songs, led zeppelin, CCR, bad company etc. I had an old beat up ford fairlane in high school which I fixed. Three on the tree and bucket seats. I didn't have money for a Malibu or corvette, but oh the fun I had in the car. And I could work on it.

Yea make your money on a Tesla,  but I bet they won't be making songs about them.  

You know I think I have a need for speed.

St. Croix591 reads

Comments I read on Forbes, Barons, Huffington Post, as well as the comment section on YouTube. Just to distill some of the  comments, the left sees the ad as an ugly American chest thumping at its worst. Pretentious, arrogant, narcissistic, pursuit of material stuff, and basically calling European countries a bunch of expresso sipping lazy foreigners, while dismissing his family. The right sees the ad as bold, daring, work hard and reward yourself.  

Interesting that they really don't talk about the product in the commercial. It's more of a commentary, and it did generate a lot of polarizing views.  

But for $75K, there are a lot of better choices than a Cadillac ELR.

Posted By: St. Croix
 
  But for $75K, there are a lot of better choices than a Cadillac ELR.
  Yeah; like maybe the Tesla. It got the best crash test ratings of any luxury car. And its no slouch when you put your foot into the rheostat. It’s also a helluva lot sexier looking than the Caddie. The Caddie looks like some kind of a tad pole. The Tesla has lines similar to an Aston Martin. "Chest thumping, pretentious, arrogant, narcissistic, pursuit of material stuff" people have long proven they favor Aston Martins over amphibians.  

  The big American auto makers are again a day late and a dollar short, and it's not from foreign competition

Pimpathy459 reads

but why should the person riding the bus give a damn? Unless they ride by choice, their greatest concern is getting of the bus, and into their very own vehicle.  

 
... and you wonder why people call you a liberal. :-D

"Liberal" is only an epethet if you're a Kool-aid drinking Conservative.

Rather than the media fueled "Us vs Them" mentality; wouldn't some mutual understanding from both sides be far more productive for the human condition?  

Posted By: Pimpathy
 
  ... and you wonder why people call you a liberal. :-D

GaGambler485 reads

But as an oilman I would be laughed out of Texas. Not to mention all my hands would quit the first day they saw me in  it.  

As for Tesla, eventually the market will prove them right or wrong. I will concede they beat the shit of out the Volt, but that's like saying that BigVern is smarter than AnonymousFun, pretty faint praise IMO

Up in an old 59 Chevy Apache truck now that will bring class to your job site. A Prius is just too quiet for me. I like feeling the horsepower of the old muscle cars, the smell of gas, the seats, the rumble of the engine. Oh yea, a 1964 Malibu super sport. I admit there is a comfort factor with the new cars, but when I see a GTO go down the road, my head turns. Heck, I have more respect for old VW beetle than a Prius. Lol.

GaGambler532 reads

and come to think of it, while I wouldn't fire any hand on the spot who showed up on a lease driving one. I guarantee you I'd find a reason within the week to do so. Now a foreman, Yeah I'd fire him on the spot

and yes,  a VW bug has  a thousand times more character than a Prius, and I share your fondness for "real" cars.

would definitively make one jobless.  

 Jay Leno once said "The electric/alternatate energy cars will save the beloved muscle and exotic cars"
Sixty years ago America was the only nation using petroleum fuels to such an extent. Now the other six billion people on the planet want gas guzzeling muscle cars and luxurious land yachts.  Whether your talking Al Gore ecology or oil's decidedly finite supply it boils down to simply unsustainable.  

  I'm all too painfully aware of how innovation can directly devastate the long established. But the burgeoning pragmatic needs for an alternative daily private transportation fuel source can in fact "save" the classic fuel source for recreational and ego centric pursuits. IE: Daily driver or "Station car" and the weekend "Cruiser" or Hot-rod.

Posted By: GaGambler
and come to think of it, while I wouldn't fire any hand on the spot who showed up on a lease driving one. I guarantee you I'd find a reason within the week to do so. Now a foreman, Yeah I'd fire him on the spot

and yes,  a VW bug has  a thousand times more character than a Prius, and I share your fondness for "real" cars.

GaGambler570 reads

Especially if you worked in Detroit and showed up for work in a Datsun. (and yes, I am that old to remember Datsun)

You might not get fired for it, but chances were even money you'd get your ass kicked back in the 70's when the "Rust Belt" started forming. Those Union guys where such an understanding lot.

I'm confidant if someone came up with a solar panel so efficient a single 4'X4' panel could power an average home the inventor would soon be bought off (or dead) and the technology would be made either illegal or simply hidden from public knowledge.  

  I for one would love a car that had only three moving parts in the power plant to worry about, needed no mufflers/exhaust pipes, air filters, oil or oil changes, smog check’s, costly and complex transmission to service or repair, and all while affording 150 to 200 miles of driving on a $6.00 charge.

  The cronyism and protectionism in this cesspool of capitalism saddens and sickens me dail

named Norman Hossack came up with an absolutely brilliant front suspension design for motorcycles. My current motorcycle employs this system but under another registered name. BMW waited twenty years for Mr Hossack's design to fall out of 'patent' before purchasing the rights too it.
http://www.angelfire.com/biz5/hossack/oldindex.html

 It cost Robert Kearns the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper his family and years in court before getting proper credit for his invention
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kearns

  I've heard many arguments back and forth about "patent" rights, and each side has cogent points. But I find it more than disheartening at the number of ambitious, clever people over the years who's inventions are stonewalled, sandbagged and essentially stolen by business concerns that can simply out last or out lawyer an individual's life span or resources.

I got my Martin DM-28 from Guitar Center, but I would like to order my single malt Scotch directly from the distiller rather than Caskers!   ;)

The Tucker was the classic example of a better mousetrap squashed by Big Special Interests.
A superior automobile that can hold its own against even today's cruising sedans.

The very fine George Lucas movie did a good job of telling the story, with some dramatic license.

The harsh fact is this: The Good Old Boys simply can't stand it when someone comes along and makes them look bad. And Elon Musk makes them all look really bad.
Elon Musk is a visionary, and an innovator who doesn't kowtow to the whims of the Establishment.
He designed a viable electric car that makes Detroit look weak, he's developed an industrial space program that makes NASA look flaccid, he donates literally hundreds of millions to charities all over the world every year, and he's an affable, approachable, decent fellow who didn't destroy other people to achieve his success, which makes him a Mentsch on top of everything else.

The Good Old Boys just can't abide it when they are exposed for the bloated cancer tumors they are.

I'm juat sayin'...

Posted By: marikod
despite having issued Tesla a license a year ago and despite a year of drama free sales to about 500 buyers.  
   
         The powerful automobile dealers association put the kabash on the NJ Motor Vehicle Commission. The agency passed a rule providing that only retailers holding franchise agreements with auto manufacturers could sell cars in New Jersey. Tesla will have to close its two retail stores as a result.  
   
           Chris Christie, who had promised Elon Musk he would delay any administrative resolution of the issue until the legislator had considered a bill to allow direct sales, folded like a deck of cards. Big Boy claimed he had been misunderstood.  
   
       So what do we make of this? You can buy a computer directly from Apple. You can buy a D-28 directly from Martin. You can buy  American Beauty directly from the Grateful Dead. You can buy all sorts of products directly from the manufacturer. (Ok you can’t buy a gun directly from Colt, but we like that one). This is pure protectionist regulation that benefits only dealers at the expense of consumers. Dealers buy from Ford and GM and then jack up the price to you, the consumer. Margins admittedly are thin but the dealers clean up on service when your car breaks down.  
   
       And New Jersey is not alone. Even in Texas, where the best looking P & R Board posters live, Tesla can only show its cars in Galleries. Yes, there is a charging station in San Marcos and service in Austin. But no sales are allowed.  
   
       My prediction- this dealer protectionism is going to backfire. Look for the mother of all Commerce Clause lawsuits if other states follow NJ and Texas’s lead.  
 

Pimpathy559 reads

The Good Old Boys just can't abide it when they are exposed for the bloated cancer tumors they are.  
 
I'm juat sayin'...  

 

The UAW supports the concept of the assembly line, workforce.

They will sell the stores and franchise to a licensed dealer.

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