I’m no fan of flipping/scalping but the choice of the degradation of ownership is much worse. If they really own the car then they aught to be able to resell it.
Prediction; this will extend beyond just high end cars.
Comment on Tesla will sue you for $50,000 if you try to resell your Cybertruck in the first year
jordanlund@lemmy.world 1 year ago
This is, surprisingly, not that unusual for vehicles in high demand. It’s to prevent flipping.
GM does it on certain vehicles as well:
gmauthority.com/…/gm-restrains-customers-from-fli…
(the C8 Corvette Z06, GMC Hummer EV, and Cadillac Escalade-V if you want to know without clicking the link.)
tabular@lemmy.world 1 year ago
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Like with other manufacturers with similar limitations, the limitation for resale is only for the first year. It literally is just to try and prevent people buying and flipping the car for a profit. If you don’t like the vehicle you can sell it back to Tesla outside the normal return window. Or wait a year and sell it to someone else.
tabular@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The reduction in ownership rights is worse than scalpers. Not sure why you assume this is pure benevolence instead of companies making more money via their control of property you paid for.
gian@lemmy.grys.it 1 year ago
The reduction in ownership rights is worse than scalpers.
I suppose it depends: would you like to at least have the item or be able to buy it only at a 3x price, if ever ?
Other high brand cars have even more stringent clauses (like, you cannot repaint the car in a certain color to not ridicule the brand). People are even perpetually banned from buying from the brand in some cases.Not sure why you assume this is pure benevolence instead of companies making more money via their control of property you paid for.
It is not benevolence, it is a try to solve a real problem that they think it could arise.
SkippingRelax@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Only for the first year is bs. I bought an object, I own it and I decide when to put it on sale for whatever reason I want, because you know, I own it.
If Tesla doesn’t like that they can stop selling vehicles to the public. Or they can come up with something creative like renting them, or only selling one of this trucks to someone who has proven to be a fan boy and have already brought 1 or 2 Tesla’s before
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Or… Get this… You can just not buy the fucking car if you don’t like the terms. You’re not forced to buy a Cybertruck at launch.
Once production increases I’m sure this restriction will be removed just like most other vehicle resale restrictions from other manufacturers. Not all though, Ferrari has limitations even on things like paint color and wraps, Deadmau5 completely got rid of his wrapped Purrari because of that bullshit once Ferrari started trying to enforce it.
But none of you people will be in comments talking about the resale restrictions being removed once production is ramped, just complaining now about hypotheticals for a vehicle you never intend on purchasing to begin with because you either don’t like Tesla or Musk specifically.
Empricorn@feddit.nl 1 year ago
the limitation for resale is only for the first year.
I hate the “slippery slope” argument, but in this case…
What if the limitation was 2 or 5 years? What if the fine was $100,000 or a million? If they get away with lesser restrictions, why wouldn’t they? The point is, companies already have way too much power over what a private person does with things they legally bought (Right To Repair, anyone?) and this seems like an escalation of that…
fatalError@lemmy.sdf.org 1 year ago
How about the manufacturer builds enough stock so scalping makes no sense? I belive that if I buy a product I am entitled to do whatever I want with it as long as it doesn’t brake the law. I hate scalping too, no1 did anything when it happened to GPUs or consoles or toilet paper during covid, so why are cars special?
Throwdownyourgrandma@feddit.nl 1 year ago
Stock does not just appear out of thin air. Manufacturing takes time to ramp up. So it’s often not possible to produce enough for a high demand product.
thejml@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I feel like if they want to prevent flipping for profit, make the agreement that you can’t sell it for more than you bought it for, but still allow the sale. Otherwise you’re not policing the right thing.
helenslunch@feddit.nl 1 year ago
It’s not possible to track how much it was sold for in a private transaction
Stoney_Logica1@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Real estate and Ticketmaster: “Fuck yeah, flip that shit and inflate our markets to insanity!”
Auto industry: “Fuck you, pay me.”
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 1 year ago
Ticketmaster owns the resale sites too. And the venue.
helenslunch@feddit.nl 1 year ago
Ford notoriously sued John Cena for exactly that reason with his Ford GT
Parabola@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Dealerships are the biggest scalpers.
Telodzrum@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Dealerships suck and everyone except the dealers themselves will be over the moon once they’re gone, manufacturers most of all.
Joker@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
Not really. I don’t particularly like them, but they don’t contribute much to the cost of cars. They barely make anything selling the car. That’s why they are always pushing extended warranties, accessories and trying to get you back in for service. Most of these guys are just hustling and getting as bad a deal as the rest of us.
The dealers are under huge pressure from the manufacturers to move cars. They are given sales targets they have to hit or they don’t get paid. That’s why they end up selling a car for like $500 profit or even break even. There’s a good episode of This American Life called “Cars”.
Of course, none of this applies to high-demand cars that sell themselves. They will mark those up like crazy to survive because the manufacturer doesn’t pay a bonus for those and barely gives them any inventory.
TheOakTree@lemm.ee 1 year ago
…forreal? You do realize dealership markups in the past few years have jumped as high as 40%?
Malfeasant@lemm.ee 1 year ago
They barely make anything selling the car.
If you’re as much of a snake as they are, maybe. For the rest of us, not so much.
kadu@lemmy.world 1 year ago
[deleted]helenslunch@feddit.nl 1 year ago
There’s nothing to stop anyone from buying a single unit and scalping it
zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
There’s nothing to stop anyone from buying a single unit and scalping it
Except, you know, the economic principles of supply and demand
SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Shame though. Would absolutely love to see a guy with a garage full of these things because he couldn’t find enough crypto bros to gouge.
TheFriar@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I imagined them stacked on top of each other haphazardly, piled up in a garage with a sad white 30ish year old guy standing in the driveway looking sad.
CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 1 year ago
Kinda curious why the company doesn’t raise their prices to fit demand then, since clearly, demand exists that allows those products to be sold for more (else the scalpers couldn’t profit). Not saying they should charge more, I’m just curious why an entirely profit-driven entity like a company wouldn’t charge as much for something as demand would allow for, it seems out of character?
jordanlund@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Part of it is allowing the dealers to profit. If they price too high, there’s no wiggle room and incentive for the dealers to order the car.
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Tesla has no dealers. They sell directly, which is why they cannot sell vehicles in some states. Some states require vehicles to be sold through dealers.
jordanlund@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Oh, yeah, I know, I was talking about the GM cars.
NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Same with Ford F150 Lighting when it came out. Not sure if it still stands.
scarabic@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It’s to prevent ~flipping~ scalping
jordanlund@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Somehow I get this weird feeling that the cybertruck will flip all on its own. ;)
thisisawayoflife@lemmy.world 1 year ago
GM wasn’t harsh enough IMHO. They should have black listed people who immediately flipped base C8s for significantly more than MSRP. Base C8s (not Z51) going for over 100k, with Mike’s on them, was fucking ridiculous.
I’ll say it now: car dealers are useless dinosaurs and there is no point to having them anymore. I don’t need a dealer to tell me what options I want on my car. I can select those on a webpage after I’ve reviewed the available options. I need a place to take my car for service if it’s a factory failure / warranty work. I can do the rest myself or pay another focused professional to do the work.
altima_neo@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
Yeah, pretty much every Hummer EV I saw was at a dealership lot, used, and marked up $100k
Bonesince1997@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I really like your second paragraph!
thejml@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Agreed, but I absolutely need somewhere to test drive the car as well before purchasing. There’s no way I would buy a car without it.
thisisawayoflife@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I would agree with that. I had a car shipped by an online sales company and when I showed up to test drive & but it, I didn’t actually fit in the car properly, so I didn’t end up buying it. Such is the life of being tall.
Malfeasant@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I’m just shy of 6 feet so not excessively tall by any means, but I test drove the Fiat 500 some years ago, and found there is no way for me to be comfortable in it. Interestingly the Mini Cooper was very comfortable, and could have easily accommodated someone taller - as long as anybody sitting behind you didn’t have legs.