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This story is about a month old but I came across it looking at truecar for pricing a car.
FTA: The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether car dealers across the United States ganged up against TrueCar, agreeing among themselves not to do business with the California-based Internet company because it was driving down prices, said people who have received letters from the FTC including TrueCar Inc chief executive Scott Painter.
As dealers saw what other dealers were offering customers on Truecar a bidding war would start and drive prices below cost. Dealers finally started dropping out of Truecar's network because it was driving their prices down too much.
Truecar recently decided to stop this online bidding process where dealers see what other dealers are offering because they were losing dealerships from their network and that's where the FTC comes in. Was it collusion?
Anyhow, I sort understand the dealers point of view, but as a consumer I wish this was still happening. I like the idea of them bidding for my business on a website that's easy to use.
Let's face it, car dealers perform no useful function. If I could, I would buy my next car from Amazon. Or, better still, directly from the manufacturer.
There is a car website called CarGurus that I think this is happening to also. When I first started looking at it, there were lots of used car listings. Now there aren't many. The website will give you pricing reports and tell you whether a dealer's price is a good or bad deal by doing an analysis of all the listings.
Sorry but I do my car buying online and know more than any salesman could tell me about a vehicle before I even walk into the showroom. They are just middle men to my goal. My GLI was a simple purchase, I did my research and walked into the dealer asked the salesperson if they had a GLI in a 6MT to test. He walked me out to the only one in stock at the time, got the key and we took it for ride. I went back that weekend with the wife for a second drive and then emailed him and the manager back and forth to get the deal done. I had my # and wasn't budging, my advantage to them was that I was not trading in my old car and I stressed repeatedly that I "Did not need a new car, I wanted one". Therefore walking away from a deal was not going to hurt me in anyway.
I'd prefer to go to a place similar to a dealer but instead of the area covered in loads of the same model, they would have say different specs. So a Jetta S, SE, SEL, TDI, GLI in a few configurations and different colors. You could drive whichever you chose either by stop in or appointment and then just pick your options and sign the paper. The car is then delivered to your home, office, or you pick it up at this place. It's pretty much like a dealer without all the salesman nonsense, up-selling managers, and the like. Basically like a Tesla showroom but with an actual car you can drive.
I'd prefer to go to a place similar to a dealer but instead of the area covered in loads of the same model, they would have say different specs. So a Jetta S, SE, SEL, TDI, GLI in a few configurations and different colors. You could drive whichever you chose either by stop in or appointment and then just pick your options and sign the paper. The car is then delivered to your home, office, or you pick it up at this place. It's pretty much like a dealer without all the salesman nonsense, up-selling managers, and the like. Basically like a Tesla showroom but with an actual car you can drive.
Yeah, it is really easy to say Car Dealers suck, ban them, but the reality is many people prefer the model so coming up with a solution that does not end up as a dealer is not so easy. Personally, I do think that some dealers suck and when they all get together to squash competition it sucks, so maybe reform would be good, but I can't see getting rid of all dealers. Like it or not, warranty service will still be needed and a dealer is one way to take care of that.
On the other hand, it sucks the dealers have to compete on price. Boo Hoo, welcome to the world just about the rest of us live in if we deal with pricing of products and services to make money. The solution is, don't offer to sell cars to people below your actual cost. (not the fake invoice crap)
Let's face it, car dealers perform no useful function. If I could, I would buy my next car from Amazon. Or, better still, directly from the manufacturer.
Then when you need warranty work. You can just pack the car up in some bubble wrap and send it back to Japan to be worked on. Oh wait..
..
Buying from the manufacturer would mean one price.
I'm pretty sure what their trying to say is, yes a car dealer, but not a car dealer.
I'm the same way. When I want to buy a car, if I need to go look at one and don't have one set in my mind already...
I'd want to be able to go to the Car Store and see what cars they have in stock. If they have one in stock and I like it, I can try it on, and see if it fits me and my style. If I want to buy it, I go to the counter to pay for my purchase at the price that was on the price tag plus sales tax, plus title, plus no bogus fees.
If I like a model that they have in stock, but want something specific about different, like color, I could then order it, and they would have shipped to the Car Store and then I would pick it up.
I don't know why buying a car has to be so drastically different than say, buying a pair of shoes.
Simple model - A shoe store buys shoes from a distributer, who buys them from a wholesaler, who buys them from the maker. Everyone makes their markups so they make a profit and stay in business. But the end price, it doesn't matter if I'm buying the pair of shoes online, in their store in NYC, in their store in LA, or wherever, it's the same price. If they're blue, black, green, yellow... same price.
A car goes through essentially the same path, but for whatever reason a car dealership gets to be unlike every other store out there and can just charge whatever price they want and then make someone haggle in hopes that they think they got a good deal.
There is a car website called CarGurus that I think this is happening to also. When I first started looking at it, there were lots of used car listings. Now there aren't many. The website will give you pricing reports and tell you whether a dealer's price is a good or bad deal by doing an analysis of all the listings.
This site was great, told you all the price drops, etc...many cars. I checked it a month or two ago, hardly any cars on it, basically worthless now.
I'm pretty sure what their trying to say is, yes a car dealer, but not a car dealer.
I'm the same way. When I want to buy a car, if I need to go look at one and don't have one set in my mind already...
I'd want to be able to go to the Car Store and see what cars they have in stock. If they have one in stock and I like it, I can try it on, and see if it fits me and my style. If I want to buy it, I go to the counter to pay for my purchase at the price that was on the price tag plus sales tax, plus title, plus no bogus fees.
If I like a model that they have in stock, but want something specific about different, like color, I could then order it, and they would have shipped to the Car Store and then I would pick it up.
I don't know why buying a car has to be so drastically different than say, buying a pair of shoes.
Simple model - A shoe store buys shoes from a distributer, who buys them from a wholesaler, who buys them from the maker. Everyone makes their markups so they make a profit and stay in business. But the end price, it doesn't matter if I'm buying the pair of shoes online, in their store in NYC, in their store in LA, or wherever, it's the same price. If they're blue, black, green, yellow... same price.
A car goes through essentially the same path, but for whatever reason a car dealership gets to be unlike every other store out there and can just charge whatever price they want and then make someone haggle in hopes that they think they got a good deal.
Agreed ever since I wish they'd set something up like this, the only real downside I see is there'd be no more negotiating BUT you'd get the car exactly how you want it which is what some of the higher end car companies do already
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