NADAês letter to the Post on its latest article on Tesla retailing cars
Per WANADAês Special Bulletin to members and readers of Sept. 13 regarding The Washington Postês latest article on Tesla retailing its cars without dealers, the Post published a letter from NADA in its Sept. 17 issue. The letter-to-the editor from NADA president Peter Welch tracked the response to the Post online article of Sept. 9, which ran in print on Sept. 10 and appeared first in NADA Headlines.
Welchês letter in the Post, captioned Car-dealer competition helps buyers, aptly made that point in contrast to the Post article that left open the question whether the traditional auto dealer retail model will prevail over Teslaês Johnny-come-lately approach to retailing without dealers. Curiously, the Post article first appeared online Sept. 9 headlined Battle between Tesla and your neighborhood dealer and ran in print on Sept. 10 with a different headline captioned For car buyers, an end to dickering? The Post article on Tesla, like previous ones that have run on their pages, has been challenged by dealers. The effort by Tesla is a national effort on their part to avoid dealer licensing laws, enabling them to retail their highline electric cars without dealers.
NADA and its affiliates in the Automotive Trade Association network, which includes MADA, VADA and WANADA, will continue to monitor the Tesla situation and respond appropriately.
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