Only thing in the industry I would de-regulate would be on the state level and eliminate the old archaic dealer model. Again, I dont think people understand what de-regulation means... regulation by the government in an industry is used to eliminate competition. They do this under the premise of keeping pricing fair for everybody... yet then we have monopolies that screw people constantly(which the government is always leery of monopolies and threatens to de-rail mergers break up companies they deem to big) i.e. California PG&E. Our system in Texas might not be perfect, but we are de-regulated and I can choose from 30+ electricity providers who are all competing for my business so our costs are pretty low.

Tesla seems to be doing well with their direct to consumer sales and simply having a demo and service center. My dad bought a Tesla recently and the whole experience was refreshing. Show up at the demo center and get 30 minutes to drive the car, no sales pushes, no negotiating, no hours on end of needless back and forth, no finance center, etc... Decide you want to buy they point you to the website where you say "cash or finance" and then you can do wire transfer or bring your own check from a credit union or you can arrange financing through them(I guess, my dad did the wire transfer cash route)... none of this "oh if you dont finance through us the price is 1000 bucks higher" bs...

And not that I think any manufacturer would do it, but cutting out the dealers could cut, by my estimation 10-15% or more off the price of the car since they need to bake in the dealers cut of the sale, floor planning, etc...

 

Fair enough. Who will service your vehicle during warranty? Who will showcase your car?

 

Another thing to consider, no dealers, no trades. Without a dealer you can't get the tax breaks you get with a trade in. You will never get a tax break on a Tesla since they don't take trades so you owe full tax up front. When it breaks, do they come to you? If Ford did away with dealerships, and your F350 blows the fuel system, are you going to be OK with them tearing your truck apart in your driveway?

 

go make an appointment to drive a Tesla simply to experience their setup... They will give you a tour of the service side and everything if you ask... That is if your city or close to you has one of the big centers like we do in Dallas.

I believe they have concierge pickup service depending on where you live to get it to the service center also that is no cost.

Im just saying there is a different way to do business without the archaic dealer model that a huge percentage of buyers detest simply due to their tactics and the manufacturers cant control them... or at least claim they cant control them due to their dealer agreements.

 

not true at all...

Tesla takes trades. Their trade valuations are disgustingly low though. We got better offers through Carvana, Carmax, Vroom, etc... by like 6k bucks.

But thats another thing that could be de-regulated and some states have that already. In Missouri you get 90 days to buy a new vehicle to claim offset. You can sell private and use that private sale to offset the new. In Texas you have to trade... guess what, its a racket to help the dealers and screw the private individuals under the guise of "fairness"...except its not fair at all and dealers know this and thus why you get horse **** trade in offers. If they knew you could sell wherever and have 30, 60, 90 days to buy something else and still claim the offset, maybe trade offers would be more realistic.

 

Nearest to me is 80 miles, one way. Closest Ford dealer is 10 minutes.

 

Again, go check out a big Tesla center.

They have concierge service to get your car to the service center...i.e. flat bed tow trucks.

You would have the manufacturers build service centers in various area's, employ the techs directly, control everything, etc... its not that big of a stretch honestly... And if I was a dealer owner who, by everybody's claim, only makes money on service and sales is a net loser, I wouldnt care at all and I would volunteer to be a localized service center only... now I think that whole claim about sales being a net loser is horse ****, but ya know...

 

if they come and get it during warranty(which Ford will do also, since most warranties include road side for some time period) who cares where the service center is?

Bring you a like model on the truck, offload it, load your broke truck, drive off, repeat the process once your truck is fixed...

Again, its a paradigm shift in sales, service, etc... but it works for Tesla...


All I was really commenting on was everybody saying "we just need to de-regulate the industry" but there arent really a ton of regulations outside of the EPA and NHTSA safety things which we could argue about all day.

 

So they would flat bed me a loaner truck 140 miles away if mine breaks down on the way to or at work which is 60 miles further away. Thats an expensive tow charge when no longer under warranty. I think I will stick with having actual dealers that can easily be found instead of a service center that will more than likely only be located in a big city area and not in rural areas where I live and work. Farmers especially would not like that.

 

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again, it wouldnt be hard using existing dealership infrastructure to have only service centers located all over the place. It seems most dealer service departments are crazy busy with reports of 2-3+ week waits just to look at a vehicle let alone order parts and fix it... so if they are that busy, the financials probably make sense to keep a bunch of smaller localized service centers open.

but if folks arent willing to think outside of the current box, even slightly, the biggest pain in the *** portion of vehicle ownership, will remain in place and people will keep complaining about slimy dealers and sales guys, paying ADM, getting screwed on their trade, etc...

There is a different way. I'm not saying Tesla's model is perfect, but its different and seems to be working. But maybe their logistics people pull their damn hair out constantly and would love to have more service centers.

 

But then they all lose the trade in tax credits. Then also have the burden of having to sell the current vehicle. All trade offs need to be considered. Who does the registration and title work? When I wrenched on cars we also sold some on the side and the amount of paperwork required to sell a car is horrible, and highly regulated by the state. Big brother always wants their cut.

 

who loses trade in credits?

TESLA TAKES TRADE IN'S and you get the sales tax offset... but they simply ship them off to auction so they only offer basically auction price which sucks. There is already a large market for used car purchasing with carmax, carvana, vroom, private brokers, etc... this would actually INCREASE competition for them if you could sell to them(any one of say 6 or 7 different business's competing for your car). Right now they dont really even offer top dollar IMO, because they know the dealer could offer you more on paper based on the overall deal financials, but if that was taken away and they were indeed competing directly with the dealer for your car, and the tax offset was portable i.e. you take it with you, the value of used vehicles COULD go up... I dont know that it would, but it could. I dont think that selling your used car in my scenario would be a huge burden honestly... I mean hell the guy that sells NEW vehicles right now could use his lot to sell those used traded in vehicles directly...but he would be competing with Carmax, Carvana, etc... Also as it wouldnt, again in my scenario, be almost mandatory in a lot of places for you to trade your used car to them. In Texas the dealers know this so they offer you a low ball offer, but when you add in the sales tax offset, its comparable to what others offer you, but you lose the sales tax offset. The dealers dont care because they arent eating the taxes, the state is so the dealers make out like bandits on the overall deal.

Tesla currently handles the paperwork, they fedex it to you, you go to the DMV/tax office to pay the tax and registration and get your plates... lots of states do this currently where you deal with everything after the sale. Some states(like Texas) the dealer pays the tax and handles everything. Again, just a different way to skin the cat.

 

And domestic brands are more foreign based than ever, Ford only has 57k union employees left in the US, GM is down to 46k. The EV push is going to reduce that number further as all 2.5 domestics get rid of more union workers via less headcount’s needed, attrition, buyouts, and down the road layoffs.

today UAW has only about 383k members left and out of those, headcount’s increasingly rely on university graduate students

https://www.npr.org/2023/10/19/12062...s-big-3-strike



As a result I expect MORE support for direct government intervention as the acamedia membership yields more influence. At the current rate it won’t be long before UAW is mostly career students and untenured college instructors. If the remainder of the traditional UAW members don’t see where this is headed, that’s on them. Also something to ponder, how many UAW members now a days drive UAW vehicles now that so many of them work in higher education?

 

There is one within 40 miles of me and the other one is an hour and a half away. So yes, you do have to live nearby them. Not sure how they can make money sending a tech all the way to wherever you live so how long can they sustain this pace especially if it ramps up.

I don't believe the manufacturer wants to control them. Might be easier giving them free reign as long as the product sells. This isn't an easy task where you can say "You're Fired" and life goes on. It is easy to fire someone. Any fool can say the 2 words. Replacing them with someone better? THAT'S THE TRICKY PART. Do you think many will want to be your dealer WITHOUT the sales portion? I'm not bothered by the dealer's tactics and I'm actually OK with them doing what they do. Why? Because the customer isn't exactly without fault. I have to believe, based on my car buying experience, that if the seller can be sleazy with me and not tell me things that they obviously know are wrong, they can pull the same stunt with the dealer. Go work a few months in retail and you will see that these wonderful customers have all kinds of tricks. So you got your tricks and it's cool but I can't have mine? For example, I wait till October to buy watercraft where I can squeeze the seller and tell him "Fine, it might be worth more in spring but that's 6 months away." and beat his price down. Now when he has the upper hand, what right have I to complain that he is using the fact that he has a product I want NOW to push the price up?