LexFather

The loss of jobs would be immense. Dealership groups and Toyota have a long successful and flourishing history together.

Gold has been back for awhile though in fashion....No further proof than the gold iPhone...

Toys4RJill

Agreed, the loss of jobs would be huge. Having competing dealers helps keep costs and customer service in balance. Sure, at first buying from the manufacturer would probably yeild lower prices, but eventually the prices will go up.

Its easy to tell what dealers suck. I went to three different dealers when looking for my Corolla.

Dealer 1: had all flagship imports on their used car space and a Bentley and Ferrari inside on the showroom floor (This was a Toyota dealer). The salesman said they were under new owner ship and wanted to try new things.

Dealer 2: Had all these stupid fees included in the price such as green tire warranty etc. They then said they could not remove the warranty , yeah right. No thanks.

Dealer 3: (where I buy all my past Lexus/Toys) said here are the keys, we don't need to go with you on.your test drive. No issues with cost disclosure, no problems with having a regular cheque (no need for a certified one) and paperwork was done within 90 mins of arriving/test driving/etc.

And then just today, I got a thank you letter with a free service vochure included.

I have no problems with dealers, they need to eat too. Eliminating them would be bad.

spwolf

as usual, probably nothing of that is actually going to happen.

spwolf

well, it would be dealership still, just owned by manufacturer... who would not want to compete with itself and lower their profits by offering you a discount...

At no point would they drop the price. We have dealers owned by manufacturers in Europe... they have strict policies on discounts and parts/service costs, basically most expensive place to buy the car from. Thankfully, EU has laws now forbidding them competing clauses they had before - for instance, few years back, we could not sell cars outside our city or offer any kind of discount not agreed by the manufacturer. Now, due to EU anti-monopoly laws, any EU dealer can sell car to any EU customer, without them being able to intervene.

cino

iTrader: (1)

Inspired by Chinese culture. Everything has to be gold to be valuable.

Toys4RJill

So you are saying the manufacturer owned dealer would not drop the price?

I think at first there would be some decrease, then the prices would slowly increase over time. A monopoly is never good.

mmarshall

I'm not sure what they meant by a 'Green" tire warranty, but, right off-hand, it sounds like they were feeding you a line of B.S. Most OEM factory tires, on most new cars, are not warrantied through the auto manufacturer or dealership. They have a separate warranty from the tire manufacturer itself. That's why, when you purchase or lease a new car, a copy of the tire warranty is usually placed inside the envelope that contains the Owners' Manual, Maintenance Schedule, State Lemon/Arbitration Laws, and the other necessary documents.

yowps3

Yeah exactly dealerships aren't as bad as Tesla is making them out to be.

Tesla is pure greed. If manufacturers sells directly to customer prices will keep going up.

Toys4RJill

mmarshall, you are incorrect, you are mistaking a tire warranty with a tire protection warranty. Tires which are damaged by road or road hazards are in fact covered by Toyota and Lexus via their extended service plans via Toyota corporate. This is what the Green Tire Warranty is.

mmarshall

Well, OK...I agree that makes more sense, if you are paying for an Extended Service Warranty through Toyota. But, in most cases, I'm correct.....tires are covered by the manufacturer, and, no, don't usually cover road hazards. If you pick up a nail and need a plug, you pay for the plug....which, fortunately , doesn't usually cost very much.

mmarshall

Not quite pure greed. Tesla prices, yes, are high, but you are buying some of the best state-of-the-art electric-car technology in the business.....especially with the advanced long-range lithium-ion battery packs. Just look at how much further a Tesla product will go on a full-charge, in most driving conditions, than other pure-electric cars.

Toys4RJill

Totally agree

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

so apple stores are evil, right?

mmarshall

I'm not taking a position on whether prices will go up or not.......there are several factors that could affect it either way. But Tesla, not surprisingly, does seem to be running into trouble in states that don't allow (or discourage) direct auto-manufacturer-to-customer sales.

cino

iTrader: (1)

We're in a competitive market, if they charge more, they can kiss most customers good bye. Even without a distribution channel, they still can't do what they want because there is competition out there. Some will take the chance to gain market share by selling cars at lower price since they don't have a middleman getting a piece of their pie.