Car Shopping

We’re looking at electric vehicles and just the thought of dealing with a car dealer is draining me.

I think Tesla is on the right track for going direct to consumer, but I would never buy a Tesla for a few reasons:

• Elon Musk. There was a time I liked and even admired him. How cringe. That changed quite a bit when he called one of the rescue cave divers a pedophile.
• I have read too many accounts of poor service from Tesla. Add to it poor quality control.
• Tesla’s base model is approaching $50k, which is more than I really want to pay for a car that will just get me from point A to point B.

I might consider a used Tesla which solves, mostly, the first and third issues, if push came to shove, but I’d rather get a different car anyway

I emailed a few dealers and, even over email, I hate dealing with dealers. Most of them are up-charging $5k-$10k above MSRP, and none of the cars I’m looking at are worth as much as 25% more. I’ve found one dealer that isn’t doing that, and has been relatively responsive, and isn’t trying to push me into a phone call to pressure me into buying a car, so that’s probably the dealer I’ll use. But it shouldn’t be this hard to buy a car.