Electric car manufacturer Tesla won raves from Consumer Reports. It snagged Car & Driver’s Car of the Year award. It earned top marks from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in crash test results. Plus — the company inspires loyalty among its customers bordering on fanaticism. So who could possibly want to block it from selling its cars?

Car dealers. In a remarkable culture clash, the new-age California-based company is being hammered by politically connected mega-dealers accustomed to padding their profits by engaging in a whole range of shady practices that harken back to horse-trading days.

In the latest skirmish, auto dealers succeeded in barring Tesla from being able to sell its popular cars in one of the nation’s largest car markets — the state of Texas.

One interesting analysis of Why Tesla lost the battle to car dealers in Texas