My dealer experiences have included hours to swap out a dome light under warranty, 1+ hours to do a software update, and a dealer trying to claim that the manufacturers automatic engine warranty extension didn't apply to my car. Also, misread a code and tried to charge >$1k for a repair that was actually part of the same warranty repair. These were separate brands and different ownership.
On top of that, one offered free oil changes for 12 months, IIRC. They'd regularly try to sell unneeded services on top of it (alignment after <12 months of ownership without even checking it first, for example).
My experiences with Tesla have been imperfect, but vastly better by comparison. There are issues, but I'd take them over the dealer experiences 100% of the time.
Their buying/test drive experience is top tier IMO but I know multiple people who waited literally 4+ months to get undrivable cars repaired. Those experiences were mostly pre-2023 so maybe it's better now
It was bad a couple years ago but has gotten a lot better. The reason for this was that Tesla scaled up manufacturing quickly, but took longer to scale up service centers and certify third party shops. For a while there was only one certified Tesla repair shop within 100 miles of me. Now there are at least ten, four of which are Tesla service centers.
No, there is a reason they are called stealerships.
A Subaru dealership tried to charge $200 to reset a passenger window like this (literally just pushing the button to roll down the window and back up):
But they tried to just charge me for it even though I knew how to reset the window and didn’t ask them to. They were thinking I didn’t know how to do it myself, so wouldn’t know any better that they didn’t actually do anything.
I love the tesla service. Bought my car without talking to a single sales person, they come to my home to rotate my tires on my schedule. Only complaint is cosmetic service tends to have a long appointment wait time, but things like a cracked windshield were immediately serviced.
I don't know how I will switch to another car brand after this.
Similarly, there's a lot of pro-Tesla propaganda by those who own shares in Tesla. I avoid this by not considering Tesla when considering a car, as the truth is too murky.
It's not a regulatory issue. There is no federal rule requiring automakers to sell through franchised dealers. Some states have such laws. In other states the automakers have voluntarily entered into contractual agreements that prevent them from competing with their franchised dealers.
