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Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

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Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#141

Post by jethro_tell »

themitigating wrote: post #115
serf wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That being said, is there any counterpoint to this view? Are there any benefits that dealerships offer today over direct sales? the only thing I can think to say is that they are still a convenient repair facility, Tesla is fairly notorious for slow turn-around for repair.[0] I think a nice middle-ground would be the conversion of dealerships into showrooms/receiving-centers/repair facilities -- oust the sales porti…

Tesla's wait times could be because they are scaling up and part delays.

Well, and becuse they don't have a dealership in every city. You can get a ford serviced anywhere and they have a waiting room for you to wait if needed. Even in rural areas, a very small percentage of the country is not going to be close to a dealer.

if your driving a newer car, theyll handle warrenty work, recalls, service packages that your car came with.

Everyone is having parts Problems, it's the scaling that Tesla still needs to do.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#142

Post by raz32dust »

Alupis wrote: post #127
paxys wrote: post #39

A lot has been said about the dealership model in the last few years, and the almost universal consensus is that it is an unnecessary and predatory industry and all auto makers should just sell cars directly like Tesla does. That being said, is there any counterpoint to this view? Are there any benefits that dealerships offer today over direct sales? What would we lose if we got rid of every dealership? If there is t…

When I see "No Haggle, Fixed-Price, Online Only", I think "Rip Off", and I can't be the only one. It's not that I enjoy haggling with car salesmen, walking out the door and getting hunted down in the parking lot like an animal... I don't... in fact I hate it. But at the end of the day I get a deal I'm satisfied and comfortable with - and it's always below MSRP - far below. I think what we're seeing here is a combinat…

Why would a fixed, online price end up being higher on average than what someone paid after haggling at a dealership. If anything, it should be lower because of (1) Reduced overhead, and (2) It is more closer to a free-market due to more transparency.

Yes, there might be outliers where an extremely good haggler paid less, but that would be outweighed by a novice who paid way more, and the average has to be higher because of the higher overhead.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#143

Post by smsm42 »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #118
c4wrd wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, we lose a lot, some things practical and others societal. Practically first, when I’m in the market for a new vehicle, I’m not sure which I honestly want. I like being able to go to a dealership and find something that convinced me otherwise from what I came to originally look at it. In the most recent case, I was really wanting a truck and being able to see them in person, how I fit, etc, was what sol…

Just a note, If you want to go sit in a Tesla or test drive one, you can still do that despite a complete lack of dealerships. In my experience, a Tesla is the only showroom experience where there was 0 pressure, and no-one trying to get my info or photocopy my driver license just to see the inside of a car. A lack of dealerships does not mean that there are no showrooms or test drives. There's nothing stopping Ford,…

The thing is Tesla is a luxury car for rich people - upper middle class and above. This means you only need a limited number of show rooms - where most rich people live - and rich people are also pretty mobile, so they can come to you. Scaling the same for car with more broad appeal may be hard to manage for the company, and there's no incentive for the third party to do it if they can't sell. Honda sells 4x more cars than Tesla in the US, Toyota - 7-8x. Can this still be managed by showroom-only? I have my doubts.

The state I live in has 1 (one) Tesla shop. For the whole state. Do you think the other car makers would be able to work with one showroom per state?

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#144

Post by wumpus »

paxys wrote: post #39

A lot has been said about the dealership model in the last few years, and the almost universal consensus is that it is an unnecessary and predatory industry and all auto makers should just sell cars directly like Tesla does. That being said, is there any counterpoint to this view? Are there any benefits that dealerships offer today over direct sales? What would we lose if we got rid of every dealership? If there is t…

One commonly said counterpoint is that having independent dealers means you get better warranty service. Here's how it works.

I had a Subaru, and Subaru had a problem for a decade+ that their head gaskets were tissue paper and frequently failed. So I had one free replacement mid-warranty.

I went in just after the warranty expired for a normal service and lo and behold, the head gasket was bad again. The dealer replaced it for free. What happened? They defrauded Subaru.

So sure, there's an advantage. Not only will a dealer happily be aggressive at any warranty repair, they'll even commit fraud doing it.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#146

Post by [deleted] »

slt2021 wrote: post #8
phinnaeus wrote: post #2

I'm surprised they see spending less on advertising as part of their EV strategy. Copying Tesla in that regard might not work out the way they want it to. IMO Non-Tesla EVs are already facing an uphill awareness battle.

Ford is already ahead of Tesla in EV Trucks

[deleted]

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#147

Post by Someone1234 »

rootusrootus wrote: post #133
walrus01 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe the amount of profit made in being a middle-man between the manufacturer and consumer end-user is unreasonable and unwarranted?

It's only unreasonable if they are not providing value. Lots of us get into business exactly because we can provide value and simultaneously become wealthy. This is no sin.

If they provided value then states wouldn't have needed to enshrine their existence into law. I say let them compete with the manufacturer and see if "go to a showroom for a test drive, then click click click, buy, deliver to your home" wins Vs. "Spend an entire day haggling and avoiding all kinds of poor treatment/predatory practices."

People HATE dealerships. They make a very fun purchase a very unfun purchase.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#148

Post by bombcar »

medler wrote: post #82

This article takes an off-the-cuff comment from the CEO of Ford and reads too much into it IMO. He wasn’t saying dealerships are going away; he was actually saying the opposite. The point he was making was that Ford is going to adopt some of Tesla’s practices while using the dealership network to compete with them. Here’s the quote with more context: “I believe for retail, we have to -- it's kind of like what happene…

Speaking of Target they’re getting sneaky - the online for pickup or delivery price is often higher than the same item instore.

Once I saw that I got a bit sad.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#149

Post by wumpus »

SnowHill9902 wrote: post #90
paxys wrote: post #39

A lot has been said about the dealership model in the last few years, and the almost universal consensus is that it is an unnecessary and predatory industry and all auto makers should just sell cars directly like Tesla does. That being said, is there any counterpoint to this view? Are there any benefits that dealerships offer today over direct sales? What would we lose if we got rid of every dealership? If there is t…

Try the car. Pay cash. Negotiate. Sell yours. Choose from different brands. Chat with the owner. Get serviced.

People who like negotiations generally think they're good at it.

Guess what? The dealer sells multiple cars per day. You don't know enough to be a good negotiator against them.

Same thing as venture capital vs company founders. Founders found a couple of companies which do a couple of rounds each. VCs make way more investments.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#150

Post by antiterra »

bombcar wrote: post #148
medler wrote: post #82

This article takes an off-the-cuff comment from the CEO of Ford and reads too much into it IMO. He wasn’t saying dealerships are going away; he was actually saying the opposite. The point he was making was that Ford is going to adopt some of Tesla’s practices while using the dealership network to compete with them. Here’s the quote with more context: “I believe for retail, we have to -- it's kind of like what happene…

Speaking of Target they’re getting sneaky - the online for pickup or delivery price is often higher than the same item instore. Once I saw that I got a bit sad.

In my experience it’s usually the opposite and I have to ask for a price match to the online price.

It is their policy in the contiguous US to price match target.com to Target Store and Target Store to target.com. The policy doesn’t cover Target Store to other Target Store.

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