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Comment by argonaut | Hacker News Reader

This doesn't make any sense.

You would only feel ripped off because some dealerships say "No Haggle" and some do haggle. If every dealership has the same price for a specific car then literally by definition you cannot get ripped off.

You're also fixating too much on the meaning of MSRP. Before the car shortage MSRP was basically just a marketing number to anchor negotiations at a high number (except for cars in super high demand). Some automakers were notorious for deeply discounting below MSRP and some didn't discount much.

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To make it as clear as possible -

Dealerships compete to win your business. They compete in varying ways, which include price and service.

Who does Ford compete with if they set all of the prices and offer direct sales for an entire product line (EV's in this case)?

The answer is "nobody". And we all know competition is what benefits the consumer... this is a regression, not an advancement.

The dealership model can use a shake-up - nobody will argue otherwise. But the answer isn't to destroy competition and allow manufactures to set whatever price they want. That benefits literally nobody except Ford.

> Who does Ford compete with if they set all of the prices and offer direct sales for an entire product line (EV's in this case)?

Literally every other car manufacturer. Wtf…?

Doesn’t Ford compete with . . . All the other car companies? Tesla, VW, GM, Kia, Honda, Toyota?

If Ford sells a car at $20000 to a dealership, no way they sell it to you below $20000 given they even have additional costs due to the inefficiencies of being a middleman, rent, transportation, manual staff, insurance, etc

Just like Ford can give the purchaser rebates, they can give the dealer rebates or holdbacks or various other payments when the car is sold (or if enough of certain types of cars are sold) or payments while the car is unsold; just because Ford sold the car for $20,000 doesn't mean the dealer gave them net $20,000 for it.

>Who does Ford compete with if they set all of the prices and offer direct sales for an entire product line (EV's in this case)?

>The answer is "nobody".

It would seem to me that the answer would be "every other EV manufacturer"?

They compete with other automakers.

By your logic Ford can just jack up the price they charge to dealers and the dealers would have no choice but to accept it. But that's not true because Ford has to compete with other automakers.

Very few automakers make competing vehicles.

There's a reason Tesla/Rivian can charge so much, and it's not because they're so much better built or way more luxurious than others.

You're basically arguing that Ford has a semi-monopoly over the car categories they compete in. Which is pretty laughable.

Again, by your logic Ford can just jack up the price they charge to dealers and the dealers would have no choice but to accept it. But that's not true because Ford has to compete with other automakers.

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