Imagine selling a vehicle for retail… And I’ve heard praise about Tesla’s selling model on this forum before. Yet, if I offer anything less than a super magical unicorn deal I receive the same rebuttal.
Once upon a time you could sell or lease a car on this forum for a great price. Now it’s mostly unrealistic expectations.
I sell 1-2 BMWs every month at MSRP and so do they other sales people at my dealer. They are mostly $80k+ cars (M50s, M models, 7/8 series). It just comes down to a combination of luck, hard work, and product. It did not happen as often but when I worked at Audi; R8s, RS, S8, and sometimes S7s were sold at sticker. It really comes down to having clientele who value their personal time more than negotiating a deal and you put in the effort to earn sticker (and yes I know I sound like a GM stuck in 1980).
Absolutely, and I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, especially on more niche vehicles.
100% easier on niche and redesigned cars. I have yet to find someone willing to pay MSRP for a 3 series but I am still trying.
Wait, don’t those all lease for $199? A friend of a friend of a friend twice removed said so.
You are paying for the entire stealership to go on a 2 week long trip to Hawaii if you lease it for $199/mo! Everyone knows you can lease one for $50/mo with $0 DAS and rubber floor mats.
always the floor mats!!
Edit: That price includes Audicare right? Even though I didn’t ask for it or mention it prior.
I’m pretty sure I’ve said it before, dealers perform functions that someone has to do, be it ordering, flooring inventory, sales, selling parts/service, marketing, title work etc. All those functions have a cost. And probably the biggest thing that dealers do that a direct sales model couldn’t do, is provide these services to smaller cities/rural areas. If you go to a direct sales model, I doubt you’d have as many dealers, and certain areas could be hundreds of miles away from one. If everything does go electric, you probably won’t need as many dealers because the service aspect is a much smaller component. I’m not sure how dealers would stay in business with only electric vehicles, other than batteries going bad at some point, they don’t seem to have much maintenance. All electric vehicles could basically force the direct to consumer model or cars being purchased like any other durable good(target, best buy, etc)
Paying Sticker is Always Quicker.
We are still a long way from full electric. I don’t recall the exact figures but BMW was expecting EVs to only be around 30% of sales in 2025 and VW was around 40% in 2030. Hybrids will most likely dominate sales in the coming years as companies transition to electric and hydrogen cars. With that I see the dealer sales and service model changing, but I don’t see actual dealers going anywhere in my lifetime with the money they spend on lobbying and do I want them to. Too much of commerce is dominated by 5-10 companies (monopolies) that manipulate prices and the workforce so the CEO can buy a yacht that is 200ft instead of 150ft. I would rather have 100-200 different dealer principals across the country than be limited to a handful of big box retailers.
I never understood why the general public always pushes for more bigger corporate control when it comes to customer service and competition that is the worst thing for us the public , I prefer to do my business with small business owners than big corp any day in any industry, hence why I always eat out only at privately owned restaurants. I don’t eat at any big corp chains, corporate is what created the model of terrible customer service , I’ll pay little more to get better service. And if the average consumer is willing to pay more without knowing what we know that’s on them and we all can’t know everything.
So I come off as a silicon valley libertarian disrupter but alas…
The dealer system has real benefits in terms of having local outlets the manufacturers don’t have to operate. I’m not sure what a better system looks like.
But the system is kept in place by government regulation. I have a hard time believing the franchise system is the most efficient way to sell cars since dealers seem to believe they absolutely need government to protect their artificial monopoly. If it could stand on it’s own, why spend tens of millions annually lobbying to protect antiquated laws.
So I dyont know what would happen in the absence of the government provided monopoly but I’m pretty sure it would look different from the status quo.
This is exactly what I don’t understand. People whine and complain about the slimy sales practices of a franchise dealer, can’t understand why they won’t sell the car for 30% off sticker just because lease support is ending, get bent that the dealer marks up the mf, etc, etc, etc.
Yet, they don’t think twice about paying sticker for a Tesla at 6% interest in which there is a 30% margin, just because they are ordering the car online and it’s easy.
SMH 
There are many arguments to be made against the status quo but the idea that it’s a “monopoly” is not one of them.
I suspect the Venn diagram of those two groups of people would have very little overlap.
Yeah monopoly wasn’t the right word. Most state governments gives franchisees an exclusive, or near exclusive, right to sell new vehicles, not a monopoly.
There are 17,000 dealers and the largest owner only owns ~350 of them. Dealers don’t have anything approaching monopoly power.
They can own every dealership in town, but on a larger scale, they don’t need a monopoly, they form special interest groups.
Further research indicates the correct term is “state-mandated vertical restraint.” It’s a unique anti-competitive arrangement that usually results in higher costs for consumers.
Looks like Rivian is taking on the challenge!
You’d think they’d have other stuff to do, y’know, like actually building a car to sell first but I guess they’re doing some forward thinking?