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Gov. DeSantis signs bill banning most direct-to-consumer auto sales

floridapolitics.com

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Re: Gov. DeSantis signs bill banning most direct-to-consumer auto sales

#111

Post by ceejayoz »

j16sdiz wrote: post #107
jackmott42 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There used to be a very few number of car companies who held a lot of power over dealerships and used to abuse that power, which led to laws protecting dealers in ways that at least arguably made sense at the time, but don't anymore.

Do we now have lots of new car company? ( i don't think so ) Does car company now have less power? ( with subscription and OTA updates , I think they have more power than ever)

> Do we now have lots of new car company? ( i don't think so )

Yes, we do. The "Big Three" of Ford, GM, and Chrysler now face significant competition in the US from Japanese, German, Korean, etc. carmakers.

Re: Gov. DeSantis signs bill banning most direct-to-consumer auto sales

#112

Post by jwestbury »

wesapien wrote: post #44
belval wrote: post #17

> The attempt by auto manufacturers to cut out the dealer would only result in higher prices and less customer service to the public,” he said. “The new car dealer is the customer’s advocate when it comes to warranty work and service on a manufacturer’s product, and this bill will protect that So this is the reason given in the article, but what are good reasons, if any, to prevent direct-to-customer sales? I haven't…

It's complete bullshit. I despise both car dealerships and realtors. They exist to service themselves.

Realtors provide a valuable service. We bought in a particularly desirable region in 2021. We put in eight offers before getting one accepted. Our realtor knew the necessary legal forms and requirements, and wrote each offer for us. They also had a background in flipping houses, and were able to give us advice on renovations, and which houses were just bad choices during tours, pointing out flaws we might not have noticed, and telling us when problems were probably easier to fix than we might expect.

Car dealerships are mostly useless. If you've done even cursory research, you probably know more about the car you're buying than the salesperson. Their only purpose is to extract money from you.

Re: Gov. DeSantis signs bill banning most direct-to-consumer auto sales

#113

Post by colpabar »

ack210 wrote: post #85
CydeWeys wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use just a little bit more cynicism and the actual reasoning becomes clear. Car dealership owners are one of the most reliable Republican constituencies. They make outrageous amounts of money through government-mandated rent-seeking and donate to Republican candidates 6-to-1. What we see here is nothing more than a quid-pro-quo, a handout to the dealership owners in exchange for their loyal monetary support over the…

I certainly don't mean to be defending either party, but the bill received bi-partisan support. Only 2 reps voted against it in the house, and it received unanimous support in the senate (which includes 12 democrats). https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/637/?Tab=VoteHist...

A lot of people pretend this isn't the case, but democrats also receive political donations from rich people and then pass legislation that is favorable to those rich people. But the underlying cynicism is correct. It's a racket.

required disclaimer: i don't like republicans either

Re: Gov. DeSantis signs bill banning most direct-to-consumer auto sales

#114

Post by tmaly »

belval wrote: post #17

> The attempt by auto manufacturers to cut out the dealer would only result in higher prices and less customer service to the public,” he said. “The new car dealer is the customer’s advocate when it comes to warranty work and service on a manufacturer’s product, and this bill will protect that So this is the reason given in the article, but what are good reasons, if any, to prevent direct-to-customer sales? I haven't…

I am hoping if he wins the nomination, he will select a car salesman as his VP.

Re: Gov. DeSantis signs bill banning most direct-to-consumer auto sales

#115

Post by nunez »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #42
belval wrote: post #17

> The attempt by auto manufacturers to cut out the dealer would only result in higher prices and less customer service to the public,” he said. “The new car dealer is the customer’s advocate when it comes to warranty work and service on a manufacturer’s product, and this bill will protect that So this is the reason given in the article, but what are good reasons, if any, to prevent direct-to-customer sales? I haven't…

> So this is the reason given in the article, but what are good reasons, if any, to prevent direct-to-customer sales? because cars require service, someone needs to do that service, be trained and have master techs on that service. How do you handle lemon laws without dealerships? Just look at the nightmare tesla has been for owners with years of bad repairs, delays, etc. OEMs provide a bunch of stuff that is adhoc t…

Ah yes, having Tesla service come to my house and do repairs as needed in my garage while I'm working is a complete horror show.

It's absolute nightmarish when they don't try to upsell me or berate me for not knowing how cars work, like a RAM service center did to me in the past.

Re: Gov. DeSantis signs bill banning most direct-to-consumer auto sales

#117

Post by antisthenes »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #87
randomdata wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That provides an explanation for why the consumer might choose to buy from a dealership, but not a reason for why they must. In fact, said bill still allows Tesla to sell direct-to-consumer, so the lawmakers couldn't even find a reason to not let consumers make a choice in the general case, only if buying from a set list of manufacturers.

> That provides an explanation for why the consumer might choose to buy from a dealership, but not a reason for why they must. The same could be said of basically anything. Consumers could choose to do anything. Suppliers anything. Now we are anarchists. yay! But we don't we live in a heavily regulated society, and what seems to work fairly well is having a dealership system. Now we could just remove the word dealers…

> But we don't we live in a heavily regulated society, and what seems to work fairly well is having a dealership system.

This is a simple just world fallacy. Most of the times the reason something exists is that it's the best available alternative, but there are definitely times when a systems exists because it is entrenched regulatory capture and rent-seeking, e.g. dealerships and healthcare insurance.

You have to critically evaluate complex systems on a case-by-case basis and see where the money flows to make a determination whether it's good for society as a whole.

Re: Gov. DeSantis signs bill banning most direct-to-consumer auto sales

#118

Post by wesapien »

axus wrote: post #64
wesapien wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's complete bullshit. I despise both car dealerships and realtors. They exist to service themselves.

I wouldn't say complete BS, they do provide services. The problem is the monopoly practices which go unrestrained by the government.

They do but in this day and age the information asymmetry is not that huge or isn't there anymore (depending on the customer). They put up a good face to hook you in. My experience is that they become less enthusiastic (to say the least) once they know that their "sales" force powers will not work on you.

Re: Gov. DeSantis signs bill banning most direct-to-consumer auto sales

#119

Post by asveikau »

voisin wrote: post #51
jackmott42 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These dealer protection laws made sense decades ago, they no longer make sense, but dealers bribe our politicians to protect them. That is all it is.

How did they make sense decades ago? What changed?

I'm not an expert in this topic, but coming naively to it, it strikes me that direct to consumer retail of all types was harder before the internet, which required more middle men to distribute goods.

Re: Gov. DeSantis signs bill banning most direct-to-consumer auto sales

#120

Post by emodendroket »

voisin wrote: post #51
jackmott42 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These dealer protection laws made sense decades ago, they no longer make sense, but dealers bribe our politicians to protect them. That is all it is.

How did they make sense decades ago? What changed?

My understanding of the history of this system is that auto manufacturers wanted a way to dump their inventory reliably and so independent dealerships came into being. Then the dealership owners got rich and influential enough to essentially get themselves enshrined in state law in multiple states. But someone else can fill me in if that’s incomplete or not quite correct.
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