There are countless unnecessary restrictions on goods, and I’d argue that about 90% of the laws and regulations surrounding them should be rewritten or scrapped entirely. Take Florida’s alcohol laws, for example: liquor must pass through at least three different hands before it can be sold to a consumer—Manufacturer > Distributor > Retailer > Customer. I once worked for a retailer in Florida, and I couldn’t understand the logic, especially since my company also produced its own products. Even though they were both the Manufacturer and Retailer, they still had to use a distributor just to sell their own goods due to this outdated system.

Sure, they justify it by claiming it’s a leftover from Prohibition, but that’s a weak excuse. Yes, there was a black market for alcohol back then, but Prohibition ended 91 years ago. How have we not figured out a better way to handle alcohol sales in nearly a century? The answer is simple: it's part of the system by design.

Car dealerships operate in much the same way. There’s no reason cars can’t be sold directly to consumers, as long as manufacturers have the necessary distribution infrastructure. Regulations should be enforced at the point of manufacture or import, and sales tax should be collected by the seller and then remitted to the federal government. For foreign manufacturers, if they want to sell in the U.S., they should be required to register in whatever state they choose, regardless of sales volume.

And here's the kicker: What's to stop the company I worked for from setting up a shell distribution company, acting as their own intermediary, and inflating the price to sell it to themselves as the retailer? They could then mark up the price again before selling it to you, essentially bypassing any real value or competition while still skirting around the system.

Any good car dealership saw the writing on the wall a decade ago. The last time I was looking at buying a car the best ones wanted to work with me even if they didn't have it in inventory. They would get me whatever I wanted (within manufacturer trims and specs) and were upfront about wait times and transfer/shipping prices. Basically they were already transitioning to being a buying agent.

The worst ones were trying to shout/quick sell me on the most expensive thing they had, that they thought I could afford.

Yarp, that's why the dealers in Florida wrote a bill for Florida to ban direct to consumer sales on most vehicles. (An exception was left for certain cars like Tesla's... Which Desantis owns)

The original purpose was so the dealership wouldn't put all the money into their business only to have the OEM pull the rug out from under them. And that seems like a totally legit reason.

A lot of the laws because of this are, if you enter into a dealership agreement, you can't exit.

So Tesla and Rivian are in the clear in a lot of places. Where things get bat shit fucked is where the dealerships then step in to get the laws changed to say all OEMs must use a dealership. Now it's not about protecting their investment it's just mafia type shit.

That being said, I think VW spinning off a new company scout to bypass the rules they signed up for as VW is breaking the spirit of the agreement and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a legal violation as well. Otherwise the dealerships could have put all this money in, then they spin up VW2.0 and transfer all assets to the new Corp and the dealerships get fucked.

Manufacturers should just have showrooms with repair centers. One or two of each car so people can see them and test drive if needed. They would take up far less room, and everyone would have places to take warranty repairs still. They cut out the middlemen so repairs for normal things could possibly even be less. They send the parts to themselves so the parts don't need markups. Dealer fees no more and ship them to either their house or to the showroom for pickup if the buyer wants.

the american system with car dealers, and how they fuck people, is intrinsically connected to how the financing for them works.

I cant tell you what the numbers are because Im a non-american car dealer person, but the system in the US is built around the fact that the dealers can ruthlessly mark up the price. depending on the manufacture company too.

(for context Im a Canadian Toyota dealer that is strictly MSRP and no haggle , although I admittedly work for a very good dealership. 95% of the time the only complaint or drama we ever get is people just complaining that its taking too long for their order to arrive or get fulfilled

I dont think I'd stay in the industry if I had to work at another one though. The bar is very very low for the field. constantly being pulled down by people exactly like you describe, in my town there is I think 8 car dealerships (new ones at least), and 4 of them are owned by one man. and he's a total sleazebag. he tried to poach me once, fuck that

I mean, there shouldn't be less sales people, just they'll work for the manufacturer interested in getting more of their inventory sold rather than a slimeball third party interested in predatory lending, needless add-ons/ accessories, and inflating the prices of already expensive vehicles so they can parasitize a few dollars more.

I was desperate for a job years ago and took a car sales job. Firstly, I felt slimy as fuck doing it and didn't sell many cars because of it.

That said, the guy that owned the auto group owned 4 dealerships out of the 6 in town that weren't used only car lots. Hyundai/Genesis, Honda, Nissan and Toyota/Scion. They constantly ran "sales" that only saturated the market since the town was like 200 miles from another city. Then he goes and buys the Ford/Lincoln dealership, leaving only the GM (Chevy, GMC, Buick and Cadillac) and Dodge/Chrysler ones not owned by him.

Dude was stupid rich, had literally the largest house in the city and bought a brand new C8 Corvette (when it was first released), burned through 4 sets of tires, got 3 speeding tickets then totalled it all within 2 weeks. To him it was a tax write-off. Not to mention all the other toys this guy bought and abused.

I met him once, he was a complete dick to even his store managers. Fuck that guy.

In the age of the internet, where a manufacturer could sell direct to consumer, it seems it would make little sense to have resellers and that was the idea in the 90s when the Internet was in it’s infancy. But the hard truth is that selling is hard. You can bring a great product to market and yet it can still flop.

This is precisely why Alibaba is such a successful platform. It gives manufacturers, who specialize in making things, a marketplace and a sales process at a fraction of the cost of building out a whole sales team.

But, as anyone who has tried to sell their used items on Facebook likely has seen, consumers are fickle and the sales process can take an inordinate amount of time. For many, the time invested simply isn’t worth the effort.

And so, in the age where anyone can make a purchase instantly with the click of a button, we’re back to having middlemen. But if we’re going to have them, then we need to incentivize them. And just like for anyone else, the rules should be stable and fair enough to foster a healthy and innovative market.

They were real mad when typing that

You don’t need a VW branded service center. You just need a certified mechanic.

Manufacturers should offer and be responsible for warranties - for used cars it'd probably be healthier if the certification was separate from the seller.

Their service centers could make bank though.

Nope. In the US we have a system enshrined in state laws that cemented a layer of middlemen between auto manufacturers and consumers. These middlemen are called dealerships. They typically run showrooms, sales, and service for one manufacturer and hold a stock of vehicles on site.

These guys made so much money fucking consumers over they're universally distrusted. "Car salesman" is a dirty profession in the US. Because they don't really add value to the process and had a ton of money, they lobbied aggressively to protect their fiefdoms to state governments and successfully made it illegal in many states for a manufacturer to sell directly to consumers.

Awful system. I hate buying a car because of it and go to extraordinary lengths to lie and cheat their system when engaging with them, as they're doing the same by default.

My brother is a car salesman, I was a car salesman, it's sleaze all the way to the top. Never met an honest car salesman, and the ones that were semi decent were still pumping their fists over 12-pounders sold to unwitting and often financially compromised individuals

"Don't manage someone else's money" was the sentiment I was told time and again if i dared bring up how shitty it was to even offer an old woman with poor credit a $700/mo payment on a shit CVT ass lease.

You don't have to be a cop, you don't have to sell insurance, you don't have to sell cars. Calling jobs primarily inhabited by manipulative people 'slimy' is just how that works.