Quote:
Originally Posted by thereef510
And when was the last time you went to a refrigerator dealer? I guess you can say a 3rd party big box retailer is a "dealer", but you can also buy a fridge directly off any manufacturer's website. You can't do that with any car except a Tesla. And the automotive dealers association has fought tooth and nail to prevent Tesla from doing business without setting up a dealer network first.
Some dealers/salespeople are honest and I'm happy for those of you who have dealt with only those types of places. Unfortunately I haven't. Buying/leasing a car is the second most expensive thing, typically, a person will get. I've been to dealers that have lied/been condescending, etc and it sours your whole day. like you wake up all excited to buy a new car and then get treated like that, and we all accept it as 'normal'. it literally wouldn't be tolerated in any other 'form of capitalism', except we just deal with it in this industry... because?
what essential part of buying a car does the dealer facilitate exactly? I understand that it is what it is now, they're too powerful and they're not going anywhere any time soon. But I can see no real benefit for consumers having to first engage with a dealer just to buy an appliance on wheels.
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Me calling cars a commodity was wrong. In the true economic sense, they are, of course, not a commodity. My econ teacher way back when would have flunked me for saying that.
What I should have said we car buyers have online access to information about cars for sale at our fingertips. It is no longer a mystery. Because consumers have ready access to this information and there are so many choices of really good cars, we can have more control over the car buying transaction than we ever did in the past. Yes, the dealer is still involved (except Tesla). But, how we deal with the dealer can be different for those who what control over the process.