What part of that don't you understand? I need your vote so I will tell you nice stories. So you get screwed tomorrow but that is another problem, isn't it? I'm already got what I want from you. Sorry, that is the nature of people and not just politicians.

 

How often are you buying a car? For each purchase, I go to many more service visits. THAT is my biggest pain in the ***. I can handle the dealers pretty easy. When I buy something, I have 3 places lined up and I check them all out. Lowest bid takes it. If I like you, I put you last of the 3 and you know what price you have to bid. I don't argue with you about trade in. When they ask "What do you want for your trade in?", my answer is "I don't care. I want THAT and will give you THIS for a sum. What is that sum.". I am up front with them that I am going to 3 places. Tomorrow, I am buying. I am not going to play "What will it take to have you commit today.".

For Tesla, it never will happen to me. I like what they have for the instant torque. I don't like the lack of infrastructure for charging where I have to plan my trip. I don't like how long it takes me to get going again from charging. I normally drive till "E" before I look for a gas station and when I find it, I am done in 15 minutes and gone. Electric cannot do that today with that speed and convenience. It won't be in the next 20 years and I don't think I can drive past that.

 

That's why I think any new law needs a sunset clause so it can be reviewed at a future point and people have a choice to tell their legislators to end it and that the writers of the bill have to answer for their promises. Otherwise once you sign away rights and flexibility, you seldom get it back.

 

Therein lies the issue. Ever heard the joke where the kid asks the father to tell her a bedtime story that doesn't begin with "Once Upon A Time"? Father said "No Problem. This one starts with "If I am elected......". Sometimes we laugh because it is funny and sometimes we laugh because it's true. When a human gets in, he is not going to skew the rules to be fair regardless of his promise. He will skew it to his benefit. Before the election, he will promise the stars and the moon.

 

I'm not talking just for myself...although I do buy and sell/trade a fair amount of cars as my wants change often. The auto industry is one of the largest overall industries in the USA. There are ~40k new vehicles sold in the US every day, thats substantial.

And im not trying to get anybody to convert to Tesla so you obviously have missed the whole point of my comparison. I was simply talking about their sales and service model, I mentioned nothing about trying to get people to convert to Tesla vehicles.

 

As to Tesla keeping things going, I dont know, I have zero insight into their logistics.

I believe Ford and GM have shown a lot of frustration with dealerships in the past few years, specifically with ADM, but at the end of the day they always say "we cant control that side of things"... I know they all tried to get a handle on some things by denying allocation, but I think even that got dropped pretty quickly.

As for a dealer wanting to be associated with a manufacturer without selling new cars? Every damn dealer CLAIMS(and I claim BS) that new car sales are net losers, used cars have money in them(because they are screwing everybody on trade in prices) and service is where the real cash is made... If that is IN FACT TRUE(which again, I call BS) why wouldn't a dealer want to dump new car sales and only sell trade in's and service vehicles if thats where the money is? Let the manufacturer take the new car sales hit in the ***... They dont because their "claim" is a lie...

As to your "tricks", I wouldnt call your example a "trick" its simply a tenant of capitalism... Supply and demand. People want to sell boats in the fall because who wants to pay all winter on a depreciating asset thats just sitting and thus the supply is huge and demand is low, thus price goes down... And in the spring the prices go up because supply tightens up and demand is up... Same **** been going on everywhere for the past 2-3 years... I wouldnt call that any kind of trick. A dealer trick is moving money around between like 8 things to purposely try to confuse the buyer... Or knocking 1000 bucks off a vehicle if somebody buys an extended warranty, but they never tell you they just sold you that warranty for 1500 over their cost... Or that the banks let them add on a few % points to the loan... "best we can do is 14%" "well I have a 5% APR from my credit union" "the vehicle is 1000 more expensive if you use your own financing"... Thats the kind of bs dealer games people hate... There are lots of other examples I could come up with.

 

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Consider this. My job as a politician is to get as many people to vote for me. How do I please as many people as possible? Give them what they want even though it is contradictory. You will get something as will he and so will she. At that point, it is a Frankenidea. It is the nature of the beast and nothing can be done with it. It is as good as it goes. You can give total power to a wide and benevolent person to lead but he is probably busy tending to his herd of winged horses and unicorns. Sorry but you can't he me please everyone with something that makes sense. Not possible.

 

Sorry, when you're giving away things that have to come from somewhere, and you say nothing can be done about it, then I know better than to believe a word you say.

 

I got an email from Ford today regarding EV tax credits. If MSRP is over $80K, no tax credits. When the Lightning first hit the lots you could not FIND one under $80k. Suckers bought them though only to discover they couldn't use the credits. LOL

I looked up used ones. Sure are a lot of USED lightnings already. I would take one if it were given, but I sure wont buy one.

 

People only question if it goes against them. I want a new school for my kids. I get it and I don't ask how much of my future you mortgaged away. I don't ask how much in favors it has cost me. Therein lies the issue.

 

the pool of people who

(1) have the budget to buy a F150 EV
(2) need a truck
(3) don't need the truck to go far when loaded

is very small, and most of them would just buy a SD or F150 depending on the usage.

 

Two classic indicators that you are dealing with a monopoly in any market are: high prices, and short supply. We have monopolies in the auto manufacturer market, and in the skilled labor market. Whatever else we're being told is "pr" in my view. In fact many markets have been centralizing in recent years, some even more important than these two.

 

Interesting, it appears Toyota has bumped hourly wages. https://www-tristatehomepage-com.cdn...-unionizing%2F

 

All employers should be raising wages because of inflation. You can't have 2-3% inflation year over year and the wages only go up 5% in a decade. You are literally becoming poorer by staying at a job like that. The natural consequence of getting annual cost of living increases inline with inflation is more inflation.

A while ago I looked at my first pay stub in the military and then did the calculations with actual inflation increases and you would be rich if you were in the military. I have never seen a COLA increase that was actually in-line with actual inflation. That is why E5s with 2 kids can qualify for food stamps.