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Do you think this trend will spread to the other big manufacturers?
Ford Is Going to 100% Online, Fixed-Price Sales For EVs (roadandtrack.com)
Ford Is Going to 100% Online, Fixed-Price Sales For EVs (roadandtrack.com)
The Start of Big Corp Manufacturers Going Direct Sales?
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I hope so.. Time to cut out the middle man once and for all. Looks like they are taking their cues from Tesla and even used car businesses like Carvana and vroom.
Gonna be alot of unemployed car salesman and stealership shutdowns.
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They would just turn into service centers. But it’ll be awhile before this all happens. There’s all these little contractual things.
To add on, even if we did go to this, there's still used cars that the dealership would need to keep inventory of. It'd be like Tesla mixed with Carvana. The dealership is just a service center and a storage lot for the used cars. How does Tesla deal with trade-ins or lease returns as well? I've never dove deep into Tesla since I don't care for them but that has me interested to do some research.
so it’s important to note this is specifically for electric vehicles. There are laws on the books in most (if not every) states that says cars can be only ordered through a dealer. There is, however, an exception for electric vehicle manufacturers. This is why Tesla can sell direct to consumer. If I’m not mistaken Ford is planning on creating a sub company called ford blue (or something like that, I saw it on the bronco6g forum a while back) in order to do this.
While illegal in some states, there's a loop hole that all you need to do is buy it out of state and then ship the car into your state and it's no issue
This is how Texans purchase Teslas. You buy the cars online and it gets delivered directly to you as there are no local dealers.
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770 Posts
You're right. Ford Motors split into Ford Blue and Ford Model E. Ford Blue is the new Ford Motors. Ford Model E is the EV company. Which is how they're sideskirting dealerships. Using Model E to sell EVs means no more dealerships.
I can only hope this will trickle into standard cars, but lobbying and corporate money makes that a very unlikely scenario.
Again, I encourage people to get into their local politics, follow the money and vote accordingly.
I don't think it would trickle to standard cars. Manufacturers are no longer investing much in standard cars, so they'll just slowly die out, maybe over a decade or so when there are no new models to sell.
I have a Tesla Model 3 and Model Y and had very easy experience purchasing both. Of course there will always be some negative experiences. I will say that a lot of people purchasing Model 3 and Y are first time car owners. The stuff they post in the forums and reddit make you go, wtf? lol.
I must admit the Tesla ordering process is refreshingly easy as you don't have to deal with anyone face to face until you pick up the car and even that is pretty minimal. During the delivery process they show you where your car is, ask you to sign some documents, give you your cards and that's it. No upselling of extended warranties, additional insurance, paint protection, accessories, etc.
I heard that Mercedes in NZ are going this way in August 2022.
The advantage is they don't need to buy the stock, which can be an advantage because I wanted to buy a A45S but they have no demo car to drive so basically they expect you to shell out NZD$125K for a car you have never even driven and wait 6 to 8 months for it to arrive.
The disadvantage is that it will all be fixed pricing and no discounts. As they never came back to me for a cash price on a new one, I have no idea if the cash saving was significant or not.
I liked the A45S but ultimately its not a manual and its horribly over complicated. While trying to decide, the GR Corolla came up and killed the Mercedes. If the A45S was simplified, lighter and a bit more old school with a 6 speed manual and a bit cheaper I would have bought one.
To many manufacturers are getting hung up on "Features" and a whole pile of shit you do not need that you still have to pay for. The long term reliability of these cars full of electronics is going to be terrible. Stop getting obsessed with 0-60 times and make a car that is raw and fun to drive.
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1,034 Posts
They fight back or close down their dealership
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