Letters: Cutting out the auto middleman

Re “Tesla sparks dealer ire,” Oct. 26

The car dealers and their legal mouthpieces are trying to pull the same shenanigans with Tesla Motors, which sells its cars directly to consumers instead of through franchisees, that the liquor distribution cartel has been doing to small-time brewers and distillers in most states with the mandatory three-tier system.

I’ve got something for these big businesses to try on for size: their beloved free market. They want influence in the courts and state legislatures when it benefits only them, which is the exact opposite of the free market. Are they too big to fail?

Mike Vella

San Diego

So car dealers are saying that just because their business has run a certain way for nearly 100 years, it should stay that way. This is the kind of antiquated thinking that is keeping our country behind the rest of the world. Tesla should be applauded for trying a new business model that would save consumers middleman costs.

The same dinosaur perspective is what is keeping us on a gas-based transportation infrastructure. It’s time to evolve.

Dorrit Ragosine

Los Angeles

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