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Comment by linuxhansl | Hacker News Reader

Personally I will not miss the car dealer trying to pull every stunt on the planet to get me committed (having you wait around "We're trying the find a car for you", the "I want to help you, but I need to convince my boss", mingling the trade-in with the new price, etc, etc).

I have yet to see a single car purchase where the dealer added any value whatsoever instead of just being a nuisance in the way to buying a car.

Of course they are afraid. They should be. Deep down they know they're not needed.

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>Personally I will not miss the car dealer trying to pull every stunt on the planet to get me committed

I think this is a relic of the past. My last two car purchases have been straight forward: I walked in and told them what I was willing to pay for the car. One dealer couldn't do it, another could. In fact, this dealer showed me their little spreadsheet of costs associated with the car and said, "This is what we'll make on this car at this price. If I go any lower than this it is no longer worth it for us to sell to you." I make the purchase and pick the car up the next day. The car dealer business is pretty competitive, at least where I live.

There is so much information available to consumers that there's no longer any reason for the process to be very complicated or opaque. Sure, you might not want to "negotiate", but then you're welcome to go pay retail ("sticker price") like you would anywhere else, including Tesla. If you do that you'll be out of there in a heartbeat at that price (and the dealer will love you).

I don't car what happens to car dealerships, honestly. I just don't find them to be such a problem.

I think the idea there was supposed to be that if no "negotiation" occurred for most sales (either dealerships reformed or they were replaced with direct manufacturer sales) and everyone paid "sticker price", then manufacturers would start to compete more on price, thus reducing the overall price and margins of vehicles in the long run.

Also, how come you didn't drive out if the dealer with your new vehicle that same day?

Exactly. There is little incentive for them to compete on price when they can instead play games with it due to information asymmetry and sales tactics.

A friend of mine does this when he needs a new car:

He goes to 3 dealerships in this vicinity, tells them exactly what car he wants to buy with the exact extras, asks them for their best price, and let's each know he's going to two other dealerships. Then he leaves his phone number and walks out.

Has worked the few times he did it so far.

The thing is, dealerships have incentive to keep dealerships in general in business, and they likely all know each other, so they probably won't undercut each other by a large margin. Since they all know the actual cost of the thing you're wanting to buy, dealership A gives you a price maybe a few hundred below dealership B even though it's a few thousand above what their actual cost is.

Consider how much prime real estate dealerships sit on, how many employees they have, and how many units they sell per day which must pay for the aforementioned items with their mark-up, and still turn a profit at the end of the day. Now consider how much less expensive every car would be if they didn't have those additional costs, and consider if the benefits a dealer adds are worth those costs. IMO factory-direct sales can't come soon enough.

As somebody with a scumbag relative who works at a dealership I can tell you that spreadsheet was fake. Very common tactic among the ethically deprived.

Have AAA deal with things. You'll be told where to get your car, with a pre-defined low markup. You walk in, sign the papers, maybe wait for title (depends on state law), and then off you go.

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