[talmand]

It can be a rather unpleasant experience, plus it makes me feel bad to immediately hate the person before I get to know his/her style of selling. I know it's unfair but when that salesperson walks up I'm immediately "just go away and leave me alone".

Plus the sad fact is that the salesperson is the middleman of the manager, who is the middleman of the financier, who is the middleman of the dealership. There are probably more steps I'm forgetting.

Why can't cars be sold just like any other product? What makes them so special that government has to be involved, other than protecting monopolistic practices? I may never purchase a Tesla but I would argue against anyone that would want to stop this type of car sales.

[jbigelow76]

> Why can't cars be sold just like any other product?

Because then they run the risk of getting Amazon'd or Wal-Mart'd.

[talmand]

Why is that a risk? What's wrong with ordering a car from Amazon?

Or do you mean it's a risk from the dealers' perspective? Because I get that and personally don't care.

[jrockway]

Because I get that and personally don't care.

But you donate less money to political candidates than the auto dealers do, and so here we are.

[talmand]

Thus, why I don't care if they fail and are wiped out.

[jbigelow76]

I'd love to order a car from Amazon too. My last car buying experience was a multi-day beat down, in the end the best I can summarize it: "I probably got screwed, but they didn't screw me as hard as they wanted to."

I don't care about the dealers either, but as another poster stated, dealers have their own lobbying groups to make sure that the people that make the laws do care.

[gallerytungsten]

The risk is that a whole bunch of middlemen who don't add much (if any) value would get cut out of the equation. The dealers are well aware that their business model is despised by buyers, hence the forest of protectionist law that they've purchased over the years.

[kamaal]

>>Because then they run the risk of getting Amazon'd or Wal-Mart'd.

Your post sounds like Amazon and Wall-Mart are doing some thing wrong in the way they are running things.

And what is the risk you are talking about. Do you mean to imply Amazon and Wall-Mart are evil and have some caused damage to their consumers/customers?

[jbigelow76]

The original Wired story is addressing concerns about storefront distribution channels instead of traditional dealerships and how this impacts existing dealers. So my statement about potential negative impact if Amazon or Wal-Mart could become a distribution channel is from from the perspective of existing dealerships, not from the perspective of the consumer, many of which would jump at the chance to buy a car from Amazon or Wal-Mart.

[untog]

I don't think it sounds like that at all. He's talking from the dealers perspective, who will absolutely lose out in the case of being "Walmart'd".

[dkokelley]

I'm not sure what being Amazon'd or Wal-Mart'd is. Are you talking about commoditization?

[jbigelow76]

Cars already are a commodity, albeit an expensive one. When it comes down to getting from point A to point B they are all interchangeable.

"Amazon'd" or "Wal-Mart'd" was my shorthand way of saying that increased efficiency in the distribution channel + leverage from volume purchases would drive margins down for auto makers and put dealerships in jeopardy since the don't add any value.

[bryanlarsen]

They'd still make lots of money from their service department, so I wouldn't feel sorry for them.

[Terretta]

Costco'd: http://www.costcoauto.com/

[btilly]

Why can't cars be sold just like any other product?

If you want to walk in, look at a sticker, and walk out with your new car, you should visit a Saturn dealership.

Unless they changed it recently, they never haggle.

[minitrollster]

>Unless they changed it recently...

Saturn doesn't exist anymore.

From Wikipedia: "Following the withdrawal of a bid by Penske Automotive to acquire Saturn in September 2009, General Motors discontinued the Saturn brand and ended its outstanding franchises on October 31, 2010. All new production was halted on October 1, 2009."[1]

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Corporation

[unboring]

Or a Scion dealership. I bought a Scion TC a few years back and it was the smoothest experience ever. No haggling, just pay the advertised price and walk out. Every Scion dealer was obligated to advertise the same price, so you knew you were getting the same price as everyone else.

[woobar]

What's stoppping you from walking into ANY dealership, paying sticker price and driving off in a new car?

[bdbrash]

I thought the Saturn brand was discontinued.