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If dealerships are pissed, I can almost guarantee that this will be good for the consumer.
Any good car dealership saw the writing on the wall a decade ago. The last time I was looking at buying a car the best ones wanted to work with me even if they didn't have it in inventory. They would get me whatever I wanted (within manufacturer trims and specs) and were upfront about wait times and transfer/shipping prices. Basically they were already transitioning to being a buying agent.
The worst ones were trying to shout/quick sell me on the most expensive thing they had, that they thought I could afford.
The last time I bought from a dealership was 12 years ago. The experience was so off-putting that I've exclusively gone to small used car dealers since then where the salespeople have been surprisingly more honest and less obnoxious. I felt like the dealership would've literally pickpocketed me if I had let my guard down.
I had a new car place tell me I had to sign a sheet saying I would say yes to any "reasonable deal" in order to do a test drive. I walked out laughing after the test drive because they refused to even consider selling me a different car.
Another place tried to sell me a new car while I was getting maintenance done on the old one. That guy was super surprised when I walked out mid sales pitch. He thought if he could just talk fast enough he'd have me in a new car with none of my requirements before the old one was even done getting worked on. That was also a fully loaded something or other.
A third place tried to shark attack me. Literally had 3 guys doing the passive aggressive loud tone telling me I couldn't buy a hybrid anywhere in the US. Well that hasn't worked since I was 17 at basic training.
A fourth place put an Internet ad up for a no frills car at MSRP. I emailed and had conversations where they said it was available. I showed up and oops, all they had was the fully loaded version.
What really makes me sad is they wouldn't do this stuff if it didn't work. People have got to learn to stand up for themselves.
I showed up and oops, all they had was the fully loaded version.
...that they were willing to sell at the price advertised for the no frills version, right? /dreaming
The constant lying was the last straw for me. Every time I've dealt with a dealership, they've promised some deal or price that somehow disappeared off the table when the official paperwork came out. My wife and I walked out in the middle of the signing process once because there was so much bait-and-switch going on. Fuck these guys.
Last time I bought i said I could finance through the credit union for a crazy low interest rate. Sure, I'd consider financing through them if they gave me a lower rate...
I hadn't even got the rate quote from the credit union but that wasn't the dealer's business
That last scenario is a classic bait and switch and is illegal. The state would be very interested in hearing about it.
I test drove a Hyundai and was ready to buy. The sales person told me I had to put down a deposit before we could talk about a price.
I told them where to go, and that they weren't selling exclusive vehicles here. There are plenty of places to buy a Hyundai.
Ended up at a vw dealer and left with a 1 year old tiguan instead of a new tuscon, much nicer car to be honest. They did me a favour I guess.
I can't complain about the dealership I bought my car from at all. They were straight with me when I purchased it and have been awesome when going to them for service. Yeah, they overcharge for some simple things I can do myself anyway but for the major stuff I had them do they were comparable to what other shops in my area were quoting me.
Yarp, that's why the dealers in Florida wrote a bill for Florida to ban direct to consumer sales on most vehicles. (An exception was left for certain cars like Tesla's... Which Desantis owns)
Good. We need to end the dealership model of car sales being required in most states.
There are countless unnecessary restrictions on goods, and I’d argue that about 90% of the laws and regulations surrounding them should be rewritten or scrapped entirely. Take Florida’s alcohol laws, for example: liquor must pass through at least three different hands before it can be sold to a consumer—Manufacturer > Distributor > Retailer > Customer. I once worked for a retailer in Florida, and I couldn’t understand the logic, especially since my company also produced its own products. Even though they were both the Manufacturer and Retailer, they still had to use a distributor just to sell their own goods due to this outdated system.
Sure, they justify it by claiming it’s a leftover from Prohibition, but that’s a weak excuse. Yes, there was a black market for alcohol back then, but Prohibition ended 91 years ago. How have we not figured out a better way to handle alcohol sales in nearly a century? The answer is simple: it's part of the system by design.
Car dealerships operate in much the same way. There’s no reason cars can’t be sold directly to consumers, as long as manufacturers have the necessary distribution infrastructure. Regulations should be enforced at the point of manufacture or import, and sales tax should be collected by the seller and then remitted to the federal government. For foreign manufacturers, if they want to sell in the U.S., they should be required to register in whatever state they choose, regardless of sales volume.
And here's the kicker: What's to stop the company I worked for from setting up a shell distribution company, acting as their own intermediary, and inflating the price to sell it to themselves as the retailer? They could then mark up the price again before selling it to you, essentially bypassing any real value or competition while still skirting around the system.
Because greed.
Because the state decides who and how many distributors there are and the current ones already pay their annual bribes to the right people to keep their monopoly
Fuck the stealerships.
All Carsalesmen Are Bastards. Defund the dealerships.
Dealerships can get fucked. They are a cancer on American society, and nobody wants them.
I have a friend who is related to a guy who owns ~12 car dealerships and that guy is FILTHY rich. As in: 3rd home in Telluride CO is a 5,000sf “cabin.” Owns two small yachts.
But also, imagine a job market suddenly flooded by car salespeople… shudders
We're going to need someone to pick lettuce in Salinas once Trump deports everyone who knows how to do that work.
I mean, there shouldn't be less sales people, just they'll work for the manufacturer interested in getting more of their inventory sold rather than a slimeball third party interested in predatory lending, needless add-ons/ accessories, and inflating the prices of already expensive vehicles so they can parasitize a few dollars more.
I was desperate for a job years ago and took a car sales job. Firstly, I felt slimy as fuck doing it and didn't sell many cars because of it.
That said, the guy that owned the auto group owned 4 dealerships out of the 6 in town that weren't used only car lots. Hyundai/Genesis, Honda, Nissan and Toyota/Scion. They constantly ran "sales" that only saturated the market since the town was like 200 miles from another city. Then he goes and buys the Ford/Lincoln dealership, leaving only the GM (Chevy, GMC, Buick and Cadillac) and Dodge/Chrysler ones not owned by him.
Dude was stupid rich, had literally the largest house in the city and bought a brand new C8 Corvette (when it was first released), burned through 4 sets of tires, got 3 speeding tickets then totalled it all within 2 weeks. To him it was a tax write-off. Not to mention all the other toys this guy bought and abused.
I met him once, he was a complete dick to even his store managers. Fuck that guy.
Fuck 'em.
Maybe dealerships served a purpose at one point, but today they are totally unnecessary. They are needless middlemen who exist only to jack up the price of vehicles.
Edit: this is the bullshit that needs to be undone. Dealerships should not be protected by unnecessary laws that force consumers and producers to use them.
Autoblog reports that the California New Car Dealers Association claims the direct sales strategy violates a 2023 amendment to California’s State Vehicle Code which prevents automakers and their affiliates from bypassing their franchise dealerships.
The original purpose was so the dealership wouldn't put all the money into their business only to have the OEM pull the rug out from under them. And that seems like a totally legit reason.
A lot of the laws because of this are, if you enter into a dealership agreement, you can't exit.
So Tesla and Rivian are in the clear in a lot of places. Where things get bat shit fucked is where the dealerships then step in to get the laws changed to say all OEMs must use a dealership. Now it's not about protecting their investment it's just mafia type shit.
That being said, I think VW spinning off a new company scout to bypass the rules they signed up for as VW is breaking the spirit of the agreement and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a legal violation as well. Otherwise the dealerships could have put all this money in, then they spin up VW2.0 and transfer all assets to the new Corp and the dealerships get fucked.
Solid points, but we want the dealerships to get fucked. Slimy parasitic middlemen.
The contract between the dealer and manufacturer doesn't need to be any more complicated than what occurs between a McDonald's and a franchise location.
the american system with car dealers, and how they fuck people, is intrinsically connected to how the financing for them works.
I cant tell you what the numbers are because Im a non-american car dealer person, but the system in the US is built around the fact that the dealers can ruthlessly mark up the price. depending on the manufacture company too.
(for context Im a Canadian Toyota dealer that is strictly MSRP and no haggle , although I admittedly work for a very good dealership. 95% of the time the only complaint or drama we ever get is people just complaining that its taking too long for their order to arrive or get fulfilled
I dont think I'd stay in the industry if I had to work at another one though. The bar is very very low for the field. constantly being pulled down by people exactly like you describe, in my town there is I think 8 car dealerships (new ones at least), and 4 of them are owned by one man. and he's a total sleazebag. he tried to poach me once, fuck that
Manufacturers should just have showrooms with repair centers. One or two of each car so people can see them and test drive if needed. They would take up far less room, and everyone would have places to take warranty repairs still. They cut out the middlemen so repairs for normal things could possibly even be less. They send the parts to themselves so the parts don't need markups. Dealer fees no more and ship them to either their house or to the showroom for pickup if the buyer wants.
The amount of typos in the cease and desist letter is staggering. I cannot imagine any lawyer could produce that, must be copied by the apprentice journalist on duty, with a tight deadline.
They got ChatGPT to write it for them.
They were real mad when typing that
These connections, the association contends, make Scout an affiliate of Volkswagen rather than an independent startup like Tesla. A crucial difference may be that Tesla is grandfathered in the 2023 amendment to the California law whereas Scout Motors is not. In addition, Tesla had no existing vehicle manufacturing operation when it began selling electric cars.
Ah, that's why there's an issue.
The only potential downside I see to plans like this are warranty service. As long as they have s way to ensure covered break-fix and recall support, let’s do it.
You don’t need a VW branded service center. You just need a certified mechanic.
Your first part is correct. The “just” is not correct. You need logistics and reporting, esp for recalls.
Edit: posting this at the top so new readers don’t have to read through the stupidity that ensues:
There are virtually no manufacturers that allow non-dealers to perform recall and warranty work today.
Federal regulations (primarily under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act) require automakers to provide a remedy for safety defects at no cost to the consumer. Automakers fulfill that obligation by designating “authorized” service locations—almost ALWAYS their franchised dealerships or manufacturer-owned service centers—to perform the recall repairs.
From a practical standpoint dealerships are bound by their franchise agreements with the manufacturer. Those contracts typically require authorized dealers to perform warranty and recall work on behalf of the automaker. So, while the government obligates the manufacturer to fix the defect, the manufacturer in turn relies on its dealerships (as spelled out in their franchise agreements) to handle the actual repairs.
Manufacturers should offer and be responsible for warranties - for used cars it'd probably be healthier if the certification was separate from the seller.