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"I don't know where the author has been for the last 10 years... the [cars] will simply be dropped off at a dealers lot near you." The article is about it bei
by vlad 18y ago
"I don't know where the author has been for the last 10 years... the [cars] will simply be dropped off at a dealers lot near you."
The article is about it being impossible to buy a car straight from the manufacturer.
"In America you may not be able to buy a new car online, but the world is a lot larger."
As the first word in the entire article is Americans ("Americans can buy virtually anything over the Internet, (...) but a new car"), I don't think the author was trying to write about the situation on the global scale. But even ignoring that, articles of American origins often limit their criticisms to those within their own country, same as British and Australian journalists often write about problems with their own.
- jacquesm 18y agothe title is "Why You Can't Buy a New Car Online"
- vlad 18y agothe title is "Why You Can't Buy a New Car Online" Thanks for the reply. That is the title, but there are three pages of text to go along with it. The first word of the article mentions that this is American-centric and somewhere in the first few paragraphs, the author clarifies that he or she is writing about buying a new car without a dealer. It is interesting to learn that you have been able to buy a new car directly from the manufacturer where you live. Do you know if the dealers complained when this came about? Also, do friends and family members buy new cars this way now?
- jacquesm 18y agoDealers complained, but at the end of the day their profits are really in the service and maintentance of the cars much less in the initial sale. Most dealers get their profits only if they reach certain sales targets in the form of kickbacks. As for how friends and family members buy their cars, most of them drive corporate lease cars. Dealers get paid for the test-drives they arrange for such customers because it is a certainty in those cases that the dealer will not be involved in the actual sale. One example of an online store for cars is: http://www.nieuweautokopen.nl/ http://www.nieuweautokopen.nl/ (dutch, sorry and apologies for the irritating flash intro as well) Of course the dealers are trying their hardest to sketch buying of a car through the internet as the most terrible decision you could make. By law at least in Europe the whole concept of a brand dealer is no longer an acceptable concept, any car dealer can sell you any brand of (new) car. Importers / manufacturers can no longer make deals based on exclusivity. I realize HN is US centric, in spite of that I would suggest a title of 'Why Americans can't buy a new car online'.
- gravitycop 18y agoat the end of the day [dealer's] profits are really in the service and maintentance Amazon.com's profits are in the service and maintenance of the books it sells? Most dealers get their profits only if they reach certain sales targets in the form of kickbacks. Amazon.com receives "kickbacks" for reaching book-sale targets?
- jacquesm 18y agoI fail to see the relevance of injecting amazon.com flawed analogies in a discussion about buying cars on line, could you please explain what you mean with that ?
- gravitycop 18y agocould you please explain what you mean with [amazon.com analogies to online car sales] Wikipedia can do it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com Amazon.com [...] is America's largest online retailer
- gravitycop 18y agoat the end of the day [dealer's] profits are really in the service and maintentance Why would anyone bother paying to maintain an automobile cheaply-purchased online, when he could instead cheaply purchase another new automobile online?