[cuteboy19]

If dealerships are so beloved by customers and so beneficial to them, why would they lobby so hard against customers doing business with manufacturers? They wouldn't need to if customers truly preferred them. Instead, Car salesman are despised even more than lawyers! Everything a dealer can do, a mechanic can do for cheaper. It's a ripoff and the law forces it to be a ripoff

[bluGill]

Because customers don't know what value dealers provide. They think direct would be better because they only see the negatives of the current situation and not the positives.

Which is really true for pretty much everyone in this argument on both sides.

[WorldMaker]

It's the lobbies that prop up the status quo because it has become very profitable, but it is easy to forget that the status quo exists in the first place as a series of compromises designed first and foremost for consumer protection against lemons.