Tesla Dealerships In EV-Friendly State Rated Lower By Consumers Than Other Brands

When Tesla first emerged, the narrative created by the company was a sort of David and Goliath story. Small, underdog Tesla would be beset by restrictions on its preferred retail model and many other aspects of its business. However, not all states restricted Tesla in its “anti-dealership” company-owned dealership model. Massachusetts offers a great example of how Tesla’s retail model stacks up to the traditional brands’ dealerships. Spoiler alert - Tesla is scored lower in ratings than the old brands.

In Massachusetts, Tesla’s dealerships are granted the same rights and privileges that other brands enjoy. These include the all-important sales tax deferment. Authorized car dealerships in the state can accept vehicles for trade, and their value is deducted from the new car purchase price when sales tax is calculated. In Massachusetts, the sales tax on a vehicle is a significant 6.25% of the purchase price. However, if you trade in a vehicle, the value of the trade reduces your income tax burden. Here is an example. Let’s say you buy a red Tesla Model Y Long Range with a few options. The price comes to $74,630. Your sales tax would be $4,664. However, if you trade in a vehicle with a value of $40,000 (perhaps a gas-powered BMW 7-passenger SUV), your sales tax is significantly reduced and would be just $2,164. Since the Tesla retail location is an authorized Massachusetts car dealer, you save about $2,500. By contrast, if you sold your old BMW to Car Max or a private person and then went to Telsa, you would have to pay the full sales tax. The discount only works if you trade as part of your authorized dealership purchase transaction.

Since Tesla’s retail locations are authorized dealers in the state, they are granted Dealer plates by the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. Like the Model Y test vehicle we drove, shown in our image above. 

We looked at Google Reviews for two of Tesla’s Massachusetts dealerships, Peabody and Dedham. It was not hard to see that Tesla’s dealerships scored lower than the dealerships of other brands in the same town or adjoining towns. Here is a quick snapshot of the Google Review Ratings for these locations. Our first chart compares Tesla’s Dedham location to dealerships within a mile or two of its location on the very same road. We chose to compare dealerships of affordable mainstream brands. As you can see, Tesla scores lower than all of these common affordable brands.

Next, we compared Tesla’s Peabody, Mass. location to premium and luxury brands located as close to the Peabody location as we could in surrounding towns. 

As you can see, compared to premium and luxury brands, Tesla’s dealership ratings are significantly lower. 

I should disclose that I have visited both of the full-service dealerships that Tesla has in the Metro Boston area in Peabody and in Dedham. I’m a Local Guide (Local Guides are unpaid) and post Google Reviews frequently. Both of my Tesla dealership Google Reviews are 5-star reviews. I visited both locations to make certain that they were accepting trade-ins, were able to offset sales taxed like other dealerships, offered new car sales, and also had a complete service area. I spoke to Tesla employees at both locations to ensure that Tesla facilities were indeed full-service dealerships. One Tesla associate pointed to the Massachusetts dealer plates on the test drive cars and said, “Does that help answer your question?” 

Tesla originally made many promises about its retail practices. For example, Elon Musk once promised that Tesla loaner cars would be available for owners obtaining service. Mr. Musk also once promised that everyone would pay the same (full) price for Tesla vehicles. Both of these promises and practices have fallen by the wayside. Tesla owners and shoppers have reported widely on social media that the Tesla loaner car program went away pretty quickly, and many buyers are frustrated to learn that they paid the full price while other Tesla shoppers were offered a discount. 

We sorted Google Reviews by "newest" to find out why some Tesla owners and shoppers rate the Tesla dealerships lower than other brands. We only considered Local Guides in our selected examples. Here are some posts from the Peabody location.

Keith R. posted on July 9th, “Honestly thinking of buying a different brand car just because of the service department. They never respond through the app, just automated responses. I love Tesla, but they need to change their process or at least be responsive. Picked up my car a few months ago, and ever since, there’s been a noise that hasn’t went away ever since I picked up the car from the service department. I believe a technician hit a pothole and either damaged a rim or tire, which is causing the noise. Reach out to Tesla through the app and they never got back to me and I live an hour away and work 7 days a week don’t have time to drive all the way over there for them just to screw me around. Previously made me wait for five hours for my service. Got a message telling me the service was done. Showed up to the service dept for them to tell actually didn’t even start, so I waited 5 hours for no reason what a waste of my time.”

Silas M. posted four weeks ago, “Changing my review from 5 to 1 since 0 is not an option. I have been waiting two weeks for a return from the sales and financing team at this Tesla location.  This is not what Elon and Tesla represent. I’m highly disappointed.”

N.S. posted 30 days ago, “I was here after a recent repair job where they did a poor job in the first place. This trip I spent 4 hrs for work that could be done by their mobile team, and they didn't even address all problems on the 1st go around and had to wait an additional 2 hrs only to have their mobile team do it later. They should spend a little more time understanding customer comments before forcing customers to drive 1.5 hrs each way.”

Mark posted two months ago, “Car delivered with TONS of scratches/gouges, what the service in the app says is not what is happening, they do not provide loaners despite asking to reschedule to provide one. Do not give them an inch, they will take ten miles.”

Here are some posts for the Dedham location from Local Guides.

Sam F. posted three days ago, “Delivered a vehicle that needed alignment and refused to fix it under warranty.”

Gene A. posted, “Unfortunately, very bad service. They want your money and do not want to solve warranty issues.”

At both of these locations, there are many positive reviews (check them out yourself using the Google browser or Google Maps). We are posting some negative examples to help shed light on why Tesla’s dealerships may not be scoring as highly as other brands are. Our reading of the reviews shows that many of the 1-star reviews are related to the Tesla dealership’s delivery of new vehicles to owners, after-delivery service, and warranty and non-warranty-related repairs.

If Tesla's retail and service model offers advantages to the consumer when contrasted with other brands' dealerships, they are not reflected in the reviews of shoppers and owners based on our analysis of Google Reviews in a state where Tesla can conduct its business how it wishes. 

John Goreham is an experienced New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can follow John on Twitter and TikTok and view his credentials at Linkedin.

Image of Model 3 and Model Y inside of Massachusetts Tesla dealership by John Goreham. Image of Tesla Model Y with Mass. dealer plate by John Goreham. Screenshot of Tesla Peabody Review Score July 10, 2023 courtesy of Google.