But without the state, smog would be worst.

[Formelyknown]

Tesla maker want to sell its car directly to customers.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-75324105/

[Arius]

The relevant law:

 

Franchised Dealer License.
In addition to a GDN, if a dealer wishes to buy, sell, or exchange new motor vehicles, he or she must obtain a franchised dealer license for each separate and distinct showroom that will sell new motor vehicles or providewarranty service. A franchised dealer may operate several locations within a city limit with one GDN. If a dealer relocates a showroom, an application for a new franchised dealer license must be made for the new location, but the dealer will be able to keep the same GDN if the move is within the same city limits. If a franchised dealer wishes to add a line-make to their current licensed location, they submit a license amendment form so the new line can be added to their franchise license. The same rules apply to franchised dealers for GDNs. They may buy, sell or exchange any type of used vehicle within the particular type of GDN they possess. For example, a Ford dealer may be franchised to sell new Fords and have a motor vehicle GDN to sell used cars. However, they may not sell used motorcycles (of any line-make) without a motorcycle GDN. A dealer who has a general GDN may not sell used travel trailers without a separate GDN for the travel trailers.

 

A GDN is a general dealership license.  The franchised license is extra.

Man, that is some balls-to-the-wall regulatory capture right there.

If anyone wants to know exactly how free the market in Texas is, read this: http://www.txdmv.gov/whatyouneed/publications/dealer/dealer_manual.htm

All the regulations seem geared to make it almost impossible to open a small, independent car dealership.  No wonder car technology only improves when the government mandates it, the regulatory barriers keep all small entrants out of the field by ramping-up start-up costs.  I wonder if every state has similar regulations.  Well, there's another state-created problem for the pile: Slow development of transportation technology.

[Brandon Buck _BB_]

My dad has had a (used) dealer's licence in Texas since around 1973 and a salvage license since 1987. When he first started, he could buy and sell anything that rolls down a road. Now, there are seperate licenses for motorcycles (as observed), and recreational vehicles, including trailors. I don't know all the details but there's no doubt these laws have become much more onerous. He recently retired and sold his salvage business to someone who already had a salvage yard but whom has tried five times to obtain a license, to no avail. Since the license cannot be transferred, Dad has stayed on as the president of the corporation so that the license can be retained by the new owner. Of course, no one has been protected from any malfeasance through this nonsense and my dad is no more a working member of the new operation than he is of Starbucks.... but if he hadn't done what he's doing, the man who bought his business would have been forced to close his business down and would have incurred tens of thousands of dollars in losses just from the cash he had already invested.

 

My experience with state licensure is about the same. I owned a burglar alarm company which required me to obtain licensing from the State Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies and the Texas Commission on Fire Protection. The combined license fees (in the mid '90s) were about seven hundred dollars per year, on top of the cost of testing, in Austin, in order to qualify for the licenses.

 

I was about 25 then and was still a bit naive about the state, so I thought that as a part of my licensure, the state would protect me against unlicensed competition. I didn't mind competition but I did want my competition to jump through the hoops I did. To shorten the story... I wound up following behind an unlicensed competitor on a number of jobs and in each case, he had miswired things and had also refused phone calls from customers he had defrauded. In the process of rewiring one computer network he ran, I found private labeled wiring that read "Property of Wal-Mart Security Department". He worked for Wal-Mart.

 

I called the state, made a complaint and provided affidavits from his customers along with pictures of the stolen wire. To my knowledge, no one from the state ever so much as called this guy and asked him to buy a license. Consequently, when my licenses came up for renewal, I didn't respond and I continued to trade for about twelve years afterward.

 

So that's how the state works... it gets its money from licensees, provides absolutely no service to them and ignores theft. But without them, apparently, we would be unsafe.  [head2wall]

 

Sorry for the long story but it fit quite well with the OP.