Nina's Blog - Thursday 12th June 2025

@ArishMell Tesla doesn't sell through dealers. They own all their own showrooms and workshops. Buying a car from Tesla is more like buying a computer or mobile phone from Curries than from a conventional car dealer. But of course you are correct that they do directly employ a lot of people.

@ninalanyon I know battery-electric cars are stuffed to the gills with electronics - some no doubt more for sales than genuine need - but in what way is buying a Tesla like buying a computer from Curries?

@ArishMell There are only a few options on a Tesla. A lot of what is optional on other cars is standard.

When you go to the website to choose a car and its options it's just a few sparse and easy to understand pages. At the end you get a price and a delivery date, you enter your credit card number and wait for delivery.

If you do the same with Mercedes the options go on for pages and pages and when you choose some that locks out others. Getting an overview is difficult and at the end you don't get a price and you certainly don't get a delivery date, instead you get a reference number to take to a Mercedes dealer.

@ninalanyon Why do a simple thing simply, eh, Herr Mercedes?


This reminds me of a friend's experience many years ago, as she related to me:.

Anne and her husband needed a car each because they worked quite a long way apart, and about twenty miles from their home village that is nowhere near any public transport. So they needed save to buy something new, replacing their faithful but ageing BMC Minis.

So off trots Anne to a Vauxhall dealer, having decided the basic model Nova would suit her commuting and her bank-balance. Radios were among the optional extras...

"May I have a cassette-player instead, please?"

"Sorry ma'am", the dealer replied. "That's not on the Approved List of Extras for the Nova L."

Approved by whom and why, thinks I... Anne stuck to her guns. "I know perfectly well a cassette-player will fit the same space and wiring - and doesn't need an aeriel!"

Sensing he was losing the sale, the dealer magically found you could fit a cassette-player in a Nova L.


Anne now owns a Honda (I think) hybrid... The worst thing about it, she said, is its frightening side-guard system that grabs the steering if it "thinks" you are about to hit the wall, but the margin is quite wide and not always welcome when you live in a rural area with some narrow roads and wide vehicles. You can switch it off, but like a cookie-filter, have to do so for every new journey.

@ArishMell Such driver assistance features will soon be compulsory on new cars in the EU and presumably in the UK in effect. And from what I have read the feature of requiring the setting to revert to on each time the car is started will also be compulsory.

@ninalanyon That does not surprise me, and I would not be surprised either if such rules are by intense lobbying from the manfacturers.