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Comment by eatonphil | Hacker News Reader

The article ended just as it got good. What exactly does fixed price sales mean and why can't dealerships do that?

What is Ford's plan for dealerships? Tesla has dealerships too right? I walked past the one in Red Hook Brooklyn. Or maybe that was just servicing? But they did have new cars there.

And why won't Ford be advertising EVs? Super bowl ads always have car commercials. How else are they going to be able to tell people about the EVs? Unless they plan only to use their existing clout to attract people once they're already in the dealership or site?

Lots of questions.

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> Tesla has dealerships too right?

Tesla has corporate owned stores, which are different from dealerships which are independent businesses. The staff there will help you order a car, but ultimately they're just clicking through the website with you. All orders are processed through the website, and go into the same central queue.

They’re saying that since the F150 EV is sold out until two+ years from now they don’t need to do any of that stuff.

And they’re pissed at dealers doing markups I bet.

Probably. But DTC gives the brand a better relationship with the customer / market. Why wait for what gets filtered back from the dealerships? Why not have a direct relationship with a higher quality signal?

I say this because approx every month I get a postcard from a local dealership that references a car I haven't had for 12+ yrs. My sense is, many dealerships are highend mom & pops. That is, they suck at marketing.

That doesn't benefit the brand.

Tesla, at least in seattle, has a few demonstration rooms where you can see the cars and drive them and a human facilitates. Purchases though are done online. Service is done at largish service centers far from the demonstration rooms that are in pretty expensive places, like luxury shopping malls or SLU.

Fixed price means what it says - no negotiation, just a fixed price.

Advertising is probably unnecessary. Word of mouth more than exceeds their production capacities.

Tesla dealerships are service and test drive. If you go there and buy a car they'll just walk you to a kiosk and you order it online the same way you would from home.

Tesla's "dealers" won't sell you a car. They'll service it, and take you on a test-drive, but when it comes time to order, you still go to the website.

There are still a lot of showrooms that do nothing but “sell” cars. Tesla uses their model to have locations in major upscale malls. I assume Ford will follow a similar model for EVs.

The Fashion Square mall in Scottsdale has a Tesla, Polestar and Rivian showroom already, I suspect you're right and Ford will be on the way shortly.

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