2021 June 11: Jerry Reynolds Lobbied For Law That Prevents Tesla Dealerships in Texas
Jerry Reynolds hosts radio shows Car Pro Show and CarProUSA Show, depending on the outlet. It seems that while Reynolds better understands the “public" inference of the phrase "public airwaves” than Ed Wallace, Reynolds has the same crony capitalist mindset that Ed Wallace possesses.
In the newsletter e-mailed on June 10th, 2021, Reynolds links to an article that details his fight against manufacturer owned dealerships. He owned a Ford dealership and did not want to compete with a Ford owned dealership. That is understandable. What is corrupt is coaxing the state legislature into passing legislation to protect oneself from legitimate competition. From his article:
"After Tulsa, San Diego came on board, then Rochester, NY, Salt Lake City, and finally Oklahoma City. Somewhere in the middle of all this, Ford purchased five Ford stores in Fort Worth and that is when I got REALLY angry. It was just too close to home for me. The Texas Auto Dealers Association quickly went to work and the legislature passed a law that no manufacturer can own a dealership in Texas for more than a year. Ford quickly dumped all the Fort Worth stores on AutoNation, which was not a perfect scenario, but better than the factory owning them.”
Jerry Reynolds signed a contract with Ford detailing his sales territory and terms. If he wanted to ensure that Ford would not own dealerships, Jerry Reynolds should have put that into the contract that manufacturer owned dealerships are not allowed. To repeat:: Jerry Reynolds signs a contract with Ford, becomes dissatisfied that it does not block Ford from owning dealerships, and runs to the legislature to protect his business model. That is not free enterprise. That is crony capitalism. It appears Jerry Reynolds, at least in part, is responsible for Texans being unable to purchase a Tesla from a dealer in Texas, as Tesla's business model operates solely with manufacturer owned dealerships.
This crony capitalism is also responsible for the persistence of blue laws in Texas that blocks a dealer from opening his store seven days a week, while that same restriction were revoked in 1985 for all other products except alcohol. The existing dealers do not want the extra overhead and coerced the legislature to keep arbitrary, protective ordinances. To heck with both the consumer and the dealers who wish to implement a new business model, the crony dealers want their government mandated competitive advantage. If your business model does not conform, your business is shut down, not by market forces but by government fiat.
To conclude, if you are wondering why Tesla has no dealerships in Texas, the answer can be found with car salesmen turned radio hosts like Ed Wallace and Jerry Reynolds.
