[hahnfeld]

Dealers are still integral to the makers (faux) success.

The manufacturers take revenue on shipments to the dealer, not the sell-thru to the end consumer. This allows them to stuff the channel to hit their numbers. Of course, this becomes unsustainable once the effectiveness of discounts & incentives hits the wall and they can't clear the inventory in time for the next stuff job. See 2008 Big-3 explosion, the dealer channel had YEARS worth of inventory of some makes/models.

It's very fair to assume this is a fundamental reason the manufacturers will defend the dealer network to the death. Without it, sales numbers would, by necessity, become a reflection of true demand... Short-term thinking for sure, but very hard to unwind.