[stretchwithme]

The conflict of interest argument is bogus. There's no conflict of interest between a dealer selling small cars and large cars. Or between those quipped with automatic transmissions and manual transmissions.

A more valid reason is that car companies should be able to sell their products anyway they like. The purpose of government is not to hand out protected status to existing merchants.

Of course, I can't pretend that government isn't already giving Tesla a lot of handouts.