Quote:
Originally Posted by BGM-M3COMP
But it's not about you or me, it's just a general thought about the subject as a whole.
There would be no need to be savvy or to have knowledge, or to have resistance or the ability to say no to a salesman if you don't want to be pressured into buying a car and want to think about it. Not everyone has the same thought process when walking into the dealer. They see the car they like, they like it even more after the test drive, and literally bend over backwards to the dealer just to bring the car home. There is always doubt when someone is driving the car home thinking, "damn did i really get a good deal on this?" I can almost bet every single person has thought that after signing papers. Myself included. And i'm pretty good at knowing what i want and don't want and if i feel like if the purchase is worth it.
My idea of everything i said eliminates all that and that is why i feel like cars would be cheaper, if there was no dealer. There's no middle man, so there's no one else to pay as i said these people do not work for free. A car that could cost 80, might only really be worth 65-68 because you're getting it directly from the manufacturer. How you wanna slice what the dealer could make on profits is all on you. I say cars can be cheaper if we don't have anymore dealers. You pick the car you like online and that's it.
There is no need for a dealer other than it's service dept.
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We're not going to agree, and that's fine, just difference of opinion.
And you're right... it's not about me or you in the grand scheme of things. But I was explaining why I personally prefer the dealer network and why savvy shoppers are able to leverage it to our benefit. Unpopular opinion like I said, but I feel I have legitimate premise for it.
In terms of cost, I think you're underestimating the added costs associated with eliminating the middle man. It's not as simple as eliminating the middle man and now you've saved a ton of money. As I mentioned before, you have to somehow compensate for the services being eliminated (and i'm not talking about services to the consumer, but services to the manufacturer). There's a reason why distribution is such a large business and typically NOT handled by the manufacturer, regardless of industry. Simply put, the added distribution cost of direct, last mile shipments rather than consolidated shipments into dealerships would be a huge expense that either the manufacturer would directly have to take on, or outsource and indirectly pay for through a 3rd party distributor.
If a car is sold to the dealer for $65k and then sold to the consumer at $80k, removing the dealer doesn't mean the manufacturer is going to gift the customer $15k and sell the car to them for $65k. I don't even think the car will be $75k. It has to make up for the gap in services the dealer offers the manufacturer, and there's cost associated with that - and in some cases (i.e distribution) much greater cost because now you're talking last-mile delivery which wasn't a factor in the dealer network.