4 ms·

This seems like an opportunity for an Uber/AirBnB move. Find a jurisdiction anywhere in the USA where direct manufacturer sales are legal. Negotiate with the

This seems like an opportunity for an Uber/AirBnB move. Find a jurisdiction anywhere in the USA where direct manufacturer sales are legal. Negotiate with the manufacturers to handle direct-to-consumer sales for them. Write your "app" so that customers can build their car online and have the order go straight to the factory. Charge the customer a "delivery fee" to get their heavily discounted car to them, from which you make your profits. Seems like a lot of work, and a lot of fighting with a lot of bureaucracy, but that's what all these "disrupt the industry" startups like to spend their billions doing. I'm surprised that nobody is doing it today.

jpatokal 11y ago
> Negotiate with the manufacturers to handle direct-to-consumer sales for them. As in, found a startup and then negotiate with Ford, GM, Toyota, Volkswagen etc about a deal that's guaranteed to piss off the existing dealer networks that make ~100% of their revenue and will view this as an existential threat? Good luck with that! Above all, this seems to assume car companies are stupid. Ford, GM & co would sell their grandmothers to get an extra 6% margin on their cars, the reason they're not selling directly already (in the US) because they figure it's not worth the risk -- and if they do decide to try, they're certainly not going to give the opportunity to a random startup trying to form a new monopsony that would leave them even worse off than before.
- jasonkester 11y ago
  Thus the billions of dollars of VC and fighting mentioned above. In the context of what you've written, though, can you explain why Tesla chooses to sell directly to consumers? They have the ability to sell through dealers, just like the established automakers. And it would cost them a lot less money and hassle to do so. Why then would they choose to sell direct if not that it actually made good business sense to do so.
  - jeromeflipo 11y ago
    > They have the ability to sell through dealers, just like the established automakers. And it would cost them a lot less money and hassle to do so. Not in a world dominated by fossil fuels. This is worth a read: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesla-approach-distributing-and-servicing-cars http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesla-approach-distributing-....
  - jpatokal 11y ago
    Because Tesla is starting from scratch and doesn't have an established dealership network to worry about disrupting. The PR angle and having full control over the experience also helps (see also: Apple Store). And like Apple -- on second thought, much more so than Apple -- they're a niche producer and can cover a good chunk of their potential customers with only a few stores. For example, here in Australia, they've got two (2) stores for a market of 20+ million, consisting of one each in Sydney and Melbourne, while (eg.) Toyota has 36 dealerships in Melbourne alone.
amelius 11y ago
> This seems like an opportunity for an Uber/AirBnB move (...) Find a jurisdiction anywhere in the USA where direct manufacturer sales are legal. Like Uber/AirBnB care for what is legal or not... In fact, I would say that the prototypical "Uber/AirBnB move" is characterized by a businessmodel that is just over the edge of what is legal.
ecopoesis 11y ago
Why bother to find a place where direct sales are legal? You're already acting as a middleman, use the laws to your advantage. Buy franchises for all the car brands, and just don't keep inventory. Do everything build-to-order and online. From the manufacturers point-of-view, you're just normal dealer. Heck, this is basically what I did the last time I bought a car. My local dealership in MA treated me like shit, so I called up one in NH, told him over the phone what I wanted. When I got there, he had the order ready to go. I signed some paperwork and gave them a deposit. 6 weeks later my car showed up. Make that an app and save me a drive to NH and I'll pay $1000 premium.
prostoalex 11y ago
The trick is to get that delivery fee and associated costs anywhere reasonable. Hiring a car transporter, negotiating time and date when one can be home to accept the vehicle, signing off the paperwork - all of this is overhead someone (most likely you, the consumer) has to pay for. So at some point a new economic model emerges - you buy a large parking lot to stabilize the storage costs and minimize expense on car transporters, you hire someone to inspect and sign off on the delivered vehicles, and you start ordering cars by a dozen to spread out that vehicle delivery cost...
sgustard 11y ago
One such startup is Roadster.com. They aren't taking on the dealers yet, just making the process easier on the customer. Lots of dealers want to move more sales online and reduce spending on their sales staff.

jpatokal 11y ago

> Negotiate with the manufacturers to handle direct-to-consumer sales for them. As in, found a startup and then negotiate with Ford, GM, Toyota, Volkswagen etc about a deal that's guaranteed to piss off the existing dealer networks that make ~100% of their revenue and will view this as an existential threat? Good luck with that! Above all, this seems to assume car companies are stupid. Ford, GM & co would sell their grandmothers to get an extra 6% margin on their cars, the reason they're not selling directly already (in the US) because they figure it's not worth the risk -- and if they do decide to try, they're certainly not going to give the opportunity to a random startup trying to form a new monopsony that would leave them even worse off than before.

jasonkester 11y ago
Thus the billions of dollars of VC and fighting mentioned above. In the context of what you've written, though, can you explain why Tesla chooses to sell directly to consumers? They have the ability to sell through dealers, just like the established automakers. And it would cost them a lot less money and hassle to do so. Why then would they choose to sell direct if not that it actually made good business sense to do so.
- jeromeflipo 11y ago
  > They have the ability to sell through dealers, just like the established automakers. And it would cost them a lot less money and hassle to do so. Not in a world dominated by fossil fuels. This is worth a read: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesla-approach-distributing-and-servicing-cars http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesla-approach-distributing-....
- jpatokal 11y ago
  Because Tesla is starting from scratch and doesn't have an established dealership network to worry about disrupting. The PR angle and having full control over the experience also helps (see also: Apple Store). And like Apple -- on second thought, much more so than Apple -- they're a niche producer and can cover a good chunk of their potential customers with only a few stores. For example, here in Australia, they've got two (2) stores for a market of 20+ million, consisting of one each in Sydney and Melbourne, while (eg.) Toyota has 36 dealerships in Melbourne alone.

amelius 11y ago

> This seems like an opportunity for an Uber/AirBnB move (...) Find a jurisdiction anywhere in the USA where direct manufacturer sales are legal. Like Uber/AirBnB care for what is legal or not... In fact, I would say that the prototypical "Uber/AirBnB move" is characterized by a businessmodel that is just over the edge of what is legal.

ecopoesis 11y ago

Why bother to find a place where direct sales are legal? You're already acting as a middleman, use the laws to your advantage. Buy franchises for all the car brands, and just don't keep inventory. Do everything build-to-order and online. From the manufacturers point-of-view, you're just normal dealer. Heck, this is basically what I did the last time I bought a car. My local dealership in MA treated me like shit, so I called up one in NH, told him over the phone what I wanted. When I got there, he had the order ready to go. I signed some paperwork and gave them a deposit. 6 weeks later my car showed up. Make that an app and save me a drive to NH and I'll pay $1000 premium.

prostoalex 11y ago

The trick is to get that delivery fee and associated costs anywhere reasonable. Hiring a car transporter, negotiating time and date when one can be home to accept the vehicle, signing off the paperwork - all of this is overhead someone (most likely you, the consumer) has to pay for. So at some point a new economic model emerges - you buy a large parking lot to stabilize the storage costs and minimize expense on car transporters, you hire someone to inspect and sign off on the delivered vehicles, and you start ordering cars by a dozen to spread out that vehicle delivery cost...

sgustard 11y ago

One such startup is Roadster.com. They aren't taking on the dealers yet, just making the process easier on the customer. Lots of dealers want to move more sales online and reduce spending on their sales staff.