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"  From rockets to passenger cars, Tesla is a company that loves playing by their own rules. So it should be no surprise that Elon Musk&amp;#039;s vision for direct sales (as opposed to franchise dealerships) is rubbing certain folks the wrong way. You see, Tesla is so intent on mimicking Apple&amp;#039;s retail sales model that the Palo Alto, CA-based automaker hired George Blankenship, who once pioneered the Apple Store concept, to manage Tesla stores selling their automotive offerings. Rather than following the traditional dealership model which offers price negotiation, Tesla&amp;#039;s 17 stores offer fixed pricing and are owned by Tesla, not independently operated-- which, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association, violates laws in 48 states stipulating that dealers can&amp;#039;t be factory owned. A dealer in Massachusetts is claiming that Tesla is operating &amp;quot;under the guise of a nonsales showroom, and we call that out as an outright scam.&amp;quot; Another dealer in New York says that franchised dealers can&amp;#039;t compete with manufacturer-owned businesses because they can&amp;#039;t spend as much on facilities or advertising. Will the critics prevail, or will Tesla continue to move cars through company-owned showrooms? Given Mr. Musk&amp;#039;s tenacity and tendency for forward thinking business decisions, this promises to be a serious fight. Source: Automotive News, Gas2 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a8125/dealership-lobby-sues-tesla/>