Why Can't Car Dealerships Be Like The Apple Store?

Electric cars aren’t selling that well – with the huge exception of Tesla, which approaches this market more like a tech company. An article in Green Car Reports on why Tesla has succeeded while others have failed got me thinking.

From the stores they sell the car in to how they deal with their customers, Tesla is much closer to, say, Apple than GM.   This has allowed the company to succeed with one incredibly expensive car while other firms have either failed (Fisker) or are struggling to move volume (GM).   I don’t think Tesla is at the end of its revolution in terms of how cars are moved to market either; I can see a Tesla-driven future where you and your car company are far more closely coupled for the long term, and where you are far happier with both your car and your car company than you are today.

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Agent009 - 8/26/2013 4:18:58 PM

+3 Boost

Sorry guys, but the reason people go back to Apple over and over again is customer service. As soon as car dealers realize this, and get away from beat you to death syndrome on the deal, the better.

MorePower - 8/26/2013 4:45:46 PM

+5 Boost

Customer service is not the reason why Apple is popular. Apple creates aspirational products. This is why you see people with new iPhones and a pair of $300 headphones riding the bus.

If you want customer service, go into a Microsoft store. They are almost always empty with three to four staff members eagerly and desperately waiting for you to make eye contact.

MorePower - 8/26/2013 4:47:43 PM

+4 Boost

Your thoughts should have been made in the post description and not the comments.

scenicbyway12 - 8/26/2013 8:27:32 PM

+3 Boost

I have always,always had dismal service at Apple stores, especially at the God-awful "Genius Bar". I keep buy Apple for ergonomics and Itunes. I try to stay away for the store as much as possible.

TheDepressingTruth - 8/26/2013 9:04:55 PM

0 Boost

Are we going to going to form a line outside the Buick Dealership the night before waiting for the Lucerne 3.2 release?

What Apple has is an "Anal-Retentive" FAN base(not even a Customer Base) which,will now, without Jobs to lead it, embark slowly on that "stairway to oblivion"

aussie2u - 8/26/2013 10:06:28 PM

+1 Boost

Car buying at the mall can and should be done. The argument of who services it is the same for any major appliance. We can buy a refrigerator, stove, or dishwasher at the mall and they arrange for it to be serviced just fine. Why not a car too? Thinking outside the traditional envelope of "finding your local dealer" went away about the same time the local dealer sold out to the national franchise that was absorbed by the international franchise.

TauronB2G - 8/26/2013 11:39:41 PM

+1 Boost

It works very well for Tesla.
T

t_bone - 8/26/2013 11:51:09 PM

+1 Boost

I actually think those stores backfire.

They go to all the trouble of delivering arguably the best hardware and software engineering, but then turn off a lot of techies with the glitz of the TV ads and the smugness of the staff in the stores.

I guess in that regard it isn't unlike cars. You scrimp and save for what you want, then the same day you take delivery you see rich frat boys, drug dealers, and gold diggers driving the same model.

LexSucks - 8/27/2013 11:55:54 AM

0 Boost

"You scrimp and save for what you want, then the same day you take delivery you see rich frat boys, drug dealers, and gold diggers driving the same model."

- Not everyone is a BMW buyer.

LexSucks - 8/27/2013 11:56:23 AM

-2 Boost

Or Mercedes and Audi.