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What if you wanted, or needed, a car today, rather than wait 3-6 months? How would the car get from the factory to your home? Who would arrange financing? If th

What if you wanted, or needed, a car today, rather than wait 3-6 months? How would the car get from the factory to your home? Who would arrange financing? If there was a recall of your particular model, who would make the fix for free? Who would you send an "order form" to if buying a used car? You personally may prefer to handle each of the above on your own, but millions of people prefer one-stop shopping where everything is taken care of, along with services like title registration, having a person show you how to use the electronics, offering coverage for regular maintenance, etc.

BobbyJo 2y ago
> What if you wanted, or needed, a car today, rather than wait 3-6 months? Why would direct delivery take 3-6 months? Also, most dealerships wont give you your car the day you buy it anyway. As far as financing goes, thats totally orthogonal to the process of buying the car. As it stands now, car dealers get kick back from financers and try to steer customers into the highest interest loans they can, so decoupling the two processes would probably benefit customers. Recalls aren't handled by salesmen. Used care sure. Dealers make sense. Secondhand markets need price discovery too afterall.
- listenallyall 2y ago
  3-6 months is how long it takes when you custom-order a car, pretty ridiculous that you don't understand this simple fact. It's actually more complicated, factories have specific allocations of builds they distribute to their dealer network. Direct ordering would open the allocation system, especially of popular cars, to be monopolized by independent people or groups, similar to concert ticket scalpers. Every consumer bank offers auto loan financing and yet somehow, tons of people prefer to go with the dealer. You still didn't state how the car would get from the factory to your house - would you have to hire a delivery company? Or you think GM is going to put up with "your car delivery is approaching your house" and you reply with "I'm at work can you come back at 6?" Recalls are handled by dealerships, which is where salesman work. Like most of HN, you are choosing to ignore the real-world reasons these companies exist and assume some techno-utopia would solve all problems. Indeed, a small percentage of car buyers would benefit from a pure direct-from-factory purchase option, but the vast majority of car buyers want or need one or more of the services that car dealerships provide.
  - BobbyJo 2y ago
    > 3-6 months is how long it takes when you custom-order a car, pretty ridiculous that you don't understand this simple fact. That's how long it takes now. Relying on dealerships is part of the reason for that. If manufacturers were allowed to direct deliver, they could do away with dealerships as the only warehousing mechanism, and do their own warehousing to cut down that time. I was trying to point out that the constraints of the current system would not apply to a different system, but you missed that. No biggie. > Every consumer bank offers auto loan financing and yet somehow, tons of people prefer to go with the dealer. Again, why is that? Go to a dealership and see what price you can talk them down to with financing, and what price you can talk them down to paying cash. You'll be surprised at the results. > You still didn't state how the car would get from the factory to your house - would you have to hire a delivery company? You could pick it up from the warehouse, or have it delivered. Both of those technologies have existed for a long time :) > Like most of HN, you are choosing to ignore the real-world reasons these companies exist and assume some techno-utopia would solve all problems What does doing away with dealerships have to do with technology? Im confused by that statement.

BobbyJo 2y ago

> What if you wanted, or needed, a car today, rather than wait 3-6 months? Why would direct delivery take 3-6 months? Also, most dealerships wont give you your car the day you buy it anyway. As far as financing goes, thats totally orthogonal to the process of buying the car. As it stands now, car dealers get kick back from financers and try to steer customers into the highest interest loans they can, so decoupling the two processes would probably benefit customers. Recalls aren't handled by salesmen. Used care sure. Dealers make sense. Secondhand markets need price discovery too afterall.

listenallyall 2y ago
3-6 months is how long it takes when you custom-order a car, pretty ridiculous that you don't understand this simple fact. It's actually more complicated, factories have specific allocations of builds they distribute to their dealer network. Direct ordering would open the allocation system, especially of popular cars, to be monopolized by independent people or groups, similar to concert ticket scalpers. Every consumer bank offers auto loan financing and yet somehow, tons of people prefer to go with the dealer. You still didn't state how the car would get from the factory to your house - would you have to hire a delivery company? Or you think GM is going to put up with "your car delivery is approaching your house" and you reply with "I'm at work can you come back at 6?" Recalls are handled by dealerships, which is where salesman work. Like most of HN, you are choosing to ignore the real-world reasons these companies exist and assume some techno-utopia would solve all problems. Indeed, a small percentage of car buyers would benefit from a pure direct-from-factory purchase option, but the vast majority of car buyers want or need one or more of the services that car dealerships provide.
- BobbyJo 2y ago
  > 3-6 months is how long it takes when you custom-order a car, pretty ridiculous that you don't understand this simple fact. That's how long it takes now. Relying on dealerships is part of the reason for that. If manufacturers were allowed to direct deliver, they could do away with dealerships as the only warehousing mechanism, and do their own warehousing to cut down that time. I was trying to point out that the constraints of the current system would not apply to a different system, but you missed that. No biggie. > Every consumer bank offers auto loan financing and yet somehow, tons of people prefer to go with the dealer. Again, why is that? Go to a dealership and see what price you can talk them down to with financing, and what price you can talk them down to paying cash. You'll be surprised at the results. > You still didn't state how the car would get from the factory to your house - would you have to hire a delivery company? You could pick it up from the warehouse, or have it delivered. Both of those technologies have existed for a long time :) > Like most of HN, you are choosing to ignore the real-world reasons these companies exist and assume some techno-utopia would solve all problems What does doing away with dealerships have to do with technology? Im confused by that statement.