Florida blocks direct sales by Ford, must go thru Dealers

[Grumpy2]

OK for Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid to have direct sales, but not Ford and GM. Also Florida mandates rules Ford must follow while supplying their Dealers.

https://insideevs.com/news/672329/desantis-blocks-direct-consumer-car-sales-most-brands-not-tesla/

Sponsored

 

[vandy1981]

The era of small government is over in Florida. This may also put the kibosh on the Ford Model-E plans.

HB 637 prevents automakers from forcing franchise dealers to sell vehicles at a specific price, and manufacturers must maintain vehicle allocations to dealerships consistent with previous levels.

 

[Amps]

The era of small government is over in Florida.

"Everything we have always said we stood for, we really oppose."

Unbelievable.

 

[GDN]

Seems this is just waiting for a lawsuit, but crazy how they write the rules to protect the existing stearlerships but let the new EV brands skate by.

 

[queuewho]

Autonation is headquartered in Ft Lauderdale. They are basically the one company that owns all dealerships in a lot of the country, but especially Florida. They clearly felt fine bribing someone.

 

[Toby57]

How is this any different than California saying no more Ice sales?

 

[Zprime29]

Well, it did say must maintain previous allocation numbers. With Ford ramping up, they can just maintain the lower pre-ramp numbers and still be following the law.

That said, really getting sick of govt screwing things up. @Toby57 this is different because it didn't apply to everyone. The law was tailored to hurt big auto and left that little guys alone. CA is blanket across the board. All this does is encourage dealerships to continue ripping us off.

 

[azypather]

It is pretty easy to buy out of state. I live in Florida and have done this before. The cost incurred to fetch the vehicle is more than offset by the savings by buying from a place with more competitive pricing. I have bought from Atlanta and Charlotte before.

 

[Grumpy2]

Clearly, some folks have the Florida lawmakers in their pocket!

 

[Bills R Electric]

OK for Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid to have direct sales, but not Ford and GM. Also Florida mandates rules Ford must follow while supplying their Dealers.

https://insideevs.com/news/672329/desantis-blocks-direct-consumer-car-sales-most-brands-not-tesla/

This is some ****.

Sigh, but the franchise laws in United States for Automobile Dealerships have been around along time....and the dealers are not going to go down without a fight. There is a lot of money (out of their pocket) if the Tesla's of the world can sell direct to consumers.

PS There are a number of Native American Indian tribes in Florida. Ford can set up a delivery center on sovreign Indian land, assuming the NAs wish to be compensated for providing that service.

 

[jefrank]

Stealerships are doing everything they can to continue their stealing

All this is going to do is hurt the legacy brands... possibly to the point of putting them out of business, at least in certain states.

 

[Bwanapete]

Tesla doesn’t have franchised dealers, ie dealers who have spent money to build stores to comply with mfg approved design specs. I can understand protecting dealers from direct sales by the mfgs they have spent money to qualify for franchises.

On the other hand, companies like Tesla that don’t have franchised dealers should be allowed to do direct sales. Unfortunately NY doesn’t see it that way. The dealers have long restricted Tesla in NY but now there will be a Tesla store at Exit 34 just east of Syracuse on Oneida Indian land. The state will loose its half of the sales tax on car sales at this location but Tesla will collect an identical amount and will give the state’s share to the Oneida Indians.

 

[Pod]

Just another reason for me to avoid Florida. Love it there, went to school there but these types of foolish policies are not market friendly. Ultimately bad for the consumer. Lots of silly choices going on in the Sunshine State right now.

 

[COrocket]

Looks like Ford is going to have to create its own EV brand/company if they want to sell direct and compete.

 

[luebri]

Incredibly stupid and that is coming from someone that is by no means a hater of DeSantis.

That said, it is still better than here in Wisconsin. Here we have no "whitelist" for new companies.

To buy a Tesla for example, I believe you can order direct online but you have to go to Chicago or Minneapolis (nearest out of state) to pick one up.

I despise forced intermediaries or forced distribution in every way possible.

Sponsored