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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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If you are talking about direct from the manufacturer, it's not likely. As they will tell you, it can be done now. Anyone can order online from any local dealership and as long as you have check in hand they will be happy to bring it out to you.
If you are talking about direct from the manufacturer, it's not likely. As they will tell you, it can be done now. Anyone can order online from any local dealership and as long as you have check in hand they will be happy to bring it out to you.
That's as far as the manufactures will ship them to a dealer only. You are talking many years of dealer association and they have allot of political clout. Don't forget these owners are millioners.
I don't know if this is much of a problem now anyway. Don't the dealers have people that will work with you online now? I would bet that if you went to any dealers web site you will find someone willing to help you complete the transaction.
Have you read any of the stories about Tesla trying to sell its cars factory-direct ( no francised dealers)?? They are getting resistance in most all states from existing dealers wanting that made illegal, if it isn't already.
If you could order direct, where would you go for warranty service etc ? The Volvo dealer I know does not even like the "European delivery" method.
There's a new auto maker called Elio that has teamed up with Pepboys to do their warranty/service work for them.
Anyone who isn't haggling on the price of their car with a dealer is paying too much. Whether the convenience of online ordering and not having to deal with salesmen and the "dealership experience" is worth it to you is a different story.
I think dealers could make a TON of money by not hassling everyone to death, and giving people a way to buy a car at a set price online. Just charge MSRP and leave it at that. Select your car, complete the information fields, they show up with your car, you sign paperwork, done deal. People are total suckers for convenience.
Didn't Saturn do this in their early years? I seem to remember a commercial of a college student ordering a Saturn online and one of his roommates answering the door saying, "hey, did someone here order a Saturn?"
I read a story that Volvo is trying to experiment with selling cars online, but isn’t going all the way. They still want to keep the dealers in the loop. Will we ever see the day when we can build and configure cars online and have them delivered to us? Is it even a good idea?
As we have seen with Testa; some states require a dealer middle man. Many manufacturers also like it that way. Not many want to have sales and service centers they own. Its very much like many other retail sales really. I can't imagine a major car maker having to manage that around the nation.
It's a quaint idea by those not in the business, but isn't that simple.
Any motor vehicle sale has federal, state and local regs in the mix. There are a lot of docs that have to be signed.
Where will these online cars come from exactly? A mystical central factory?
Answer: a dealer-distributor, a brick and mortar facility.
Financing must be arranged in person. Where will this take place? Where will warranty claims be handled?
Who will handle recalls? Who will take care of registration? Who will inspect the vehicle before delivery?
If you think this through, you see how streamlined the process is already. Sales people will likely become order processors like Carmax uses, but someone will still have to deliver the car.
It will evolve but won't change any time soon.
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