Why can’t you just buy a new car?
I mean, without the middleman.
Without having to go through a dealer?
You can buy almost anything else directly – including very big ticket items like a house. It’s not illegal, in any event, to buy most things this way. Buyer and seller. Just the two of you.
But with new cars, it’s different.
There are three of you. The manufacturer of the car, the dealership (a franchise of the manufacturer) and then you.
It is actually illegal in most states to buy a car directly from the company that made it. Laws exist that force you – if you want a new car – to buy it literally third-hand, from a dealer. Who did buy it directly from the manufacturer (the first owner) and who is now re-selling it to you, the prospective third owner, at a marked-up price.
This part – the marked-up price – is not unreasonable. The dealer has every right to make a profit, just like anyone else who sells something he owns. But he doesn’t – shouldn’t – have the legal power (as opposed to the moral right, which he lacks) to force you to do business with him.
And yet, he does.
It’s – incredibly – the law.
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In most states, new cars may only be sold through authorized franchises of the manufacturer – i.e., a dealership. You can guess who saw to it that such laws were put into place.
Tesla – Elon Musk’s state-subsidized electric car operation – has been truly innovative in one area (electric cars are not innovative; they’ve been around for 100-plus years and still are beset by the same problems – high cost/not enough range/too-long recharge times – that beset them 100 years ago).
That area being Tesla’s attempt to sell its cars directly, without a dealer network.
Unlike state-subsidized electric cars, this is not objectionable. How could any reasonable person object? If you’re interested in a Tesla – or whatever – and want to buy one, why should you have to go through the dealer rigamarole? The ancient dog-and-pony show?
And pay for it, too?
Why not just go online and order the thing? More precisely, why should you be legally forbidden from being able to do so?
Because it costs the established dealer mafia – and the car companies that collude with them – money.
Your money.
