> you can avoid the 4-hour dealership visit pretty easily these days I'm not a frequent new car buyer. The last two times I bought a car (over the past 5 years

> you can avoid the 4-hour dealership visit pretty easily these days I'm not a frequent new car buyer. The last two times I bought a car (over the past 5 years) we had agreed on a specific car, had cash in hand, and did not have a trade-in to negotiate. The wait wasn't over "coming to a deal" or anything. It just seemed like bureaucratic paperwork process that would normally be built into the haggling; waiting on tags, title, insurance or some other seemingly made up step. Late in the paperwork process there were upsells already added on to the car. I have zero idea what the average new car buyer is, but I feel like most will drive a bit to find the specific car they want but they want servicing to be nearby. I get that coupling financing, trade-in, test driving and purchasing is good for the customer. I also don't see things changing in the next 20 years, but black swan events do happen. Every decade or two someone, like Tesla, tries to shake things up and other events like auto bailouts or cash-for-clunkers has potential to disrupt things. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if EV adoption erodes dealership service center margins. I know cars.com was trying before Carvana to side-step the dealer process and Carmax seems to have found success--like you said, all eventually settled on used cars.