Let’s not turn this into a political discussion please.
Curious to hear what the community thinks about this in regards to deal hunting.
One could make the argument the old dealership model is necessary for deal hunting.
It’s certainly not this as quoted by the dealership lobbyist:
“The new car dealer is the customer’s advocate when it comes to warranty work and service on a manufacturer’s product, and this bill will protect that.”
One price model is not for me. Of course, this model is good for those who don’t like to haggle for the car prices.
Got to love those consumer friendly doc fees in Florida.
I mean either go all free market and let it be anything goes or actually institute consumer friendly practices like a doc fee cap.
It will be interesting to see how states meddle in this trend and the legacy manufacturers stance vs new entrants.
While I personally am happy that this bill has passed, because it allows for good deals to continue to be possible for hackers, I don’t understand how this can be explained as a good thing to an average voter or consumer.
“Trust us, if you deal directly with manufacturer, they will screw you. This bill ensures that does not happen. BTW, we trust Tesla a lot based on some classified intelligence so we are going to leave them alone”.
I think Mississippi or some other state recently passed similar bills.
How did this bill improve the possibility of hacking?
Not improve, allowed it to continue
Not sure that will hold true in future.
If future cars have invoice equaling MSRP like some do now it only leaves room for ADMs.
If they cap the doc fee there’s a million ways to add other fees.
Politicians shouldn’t meddle in free markets is my opinion on this. If a company wants to sell direct to consumer how’s it his business to mandate middle men?
While I think direct to consumer is bad for the end user (no more huge discounts), companies should be free to sell however they want.
Imagine banning farms from selling direct, etc…
We definitely dont often buy vehicles unser invoice…
Are there non electric manufacturer direct dealers in Florida? If there isn’t, then this bill changes absolutely nothing. I only know of MB Manhattan and BMW of Manhattan in NYC.
I totally agree just let the products be sold however the producers of those product want and while for this crowd less or no dealers may take away deals, there will always be a way, as with any product, to hack discounts with research and for companies to target incentives. Instead of $1000 Jeep coupons we’d see $5000 ones. OR maybe even generally lower prices with a more efficient system.
Dealers are an important part of the value chain today, and they make their profit on service anyway.
Give consumers choice. If I want an iPad I can go into Best Buy or I can order from Apple. If I need an insurance product, I can buy it on a website or sit across from a sales person. But I as the consumer have choice.
I like that there is a carve out for Tesla, otherwise just looks like business as usual.
I believe the intention of the bill is to preserve current dealership model. If more mfrs start adopting direct to consumer models, its a threat to their business. That’s why the bill is authored by dealer lobby. Therefore its business as usual.
Generally I’m against government intervention in the free market, but if more manufacturers go to one-price models like Tesla it’s not good for our crowd.
The ones that have invoice equal or near MSRP I haven’t seen a single example of. Like I said things are changing.
Only exception being employee deals /
May I introduce to you the jeep 4xe? Invoice is all of about 2% off msrp on the 4xe.
4xe invoice is not near MSRP.
Im talking about Bolt / Lightning
A Compass has like $350 front end spread from invoice to MSRP.
Most cheap cars dont have much.
Lightning has like 10% msrp of different holdbacks and other compensation measures for the dealer. There is still plenty of room for discounts there (if the market supports it).