The first comment talks about stealership, the next about weird us practice and I have no idea what they are referring to 😁.

In Europe we habe car dealers, franchise, independent or do buy privately but they can all act independently.

Is there a cartel or something in the US for car dealerships?

I mean I don’t either, but us unitedstatesians are now subjected to the tender mercies of Palantir, which is kind of fucking awful… so, potato, potato.

If you go to a us dealership, there’s pretty much always some sort of financing deal or somesuch. But there’s also very often a “dealer markup”. Never, ever pay that.

That said, for some cars, they refuse to budge on that. For instance, when the new Nissan Z came out a few years ago, the dealers tacked on like 10-15k pretty much across the board, and then Nissan corporate was surprised when it didn’t sell too well… because the dealerships got too fucking greedy.

If I needed to buy a new car, I’d vastly prefer to just spec it out online, click “order”, and then have a text come in when it arrives at my local Nissan or BMW or Hyundai maintenance facility (as appropriate for the car). I do not want to talk to a human and have to literally socially engineer them into giving me a fair fucking price. Jesus christ.

Go to website, order car with exact color, accessory you want.

Vs

Company orders 55 blue, 55 red, 56 yellow, 55 black with 55 power seats, 55 power consol, 55 ...

Tesla does this. They have showrooms to test drive cars and then you order it online or at the showroom and wait for delivery.

For example Tesla does not have dealers. They have to have similar functions but they’re owned and operated by Tesla, not a third party

• they have showroom, including visible places like malls
• they have service centers, somewhat regional. I have two within half hour drive, but also do a surprising amount of service visits mobile
• they have places to pick up your vehicle, typically a service center, or some of the time they are delivered

New car experience you go to a dealer, independent middlemen, where they attempt to steer you toward higher profit choices, and the prices are all negotiated where they’re the only ones who know the cost and they have a practiced skill to extract money. It’s exhausting and time consuming

New car experience with Tesla: you may look at the vehicle in the mall or online. you schedule a test drive from wherever is nearest: mine was at the mall they had a showroom in the shopping area and a small section of the parking garage for test drive. You buy online and pay list price where all the options, prices, and financing are visible before you choose to buy. They schedule a pickup time, which might be from a regional service center. Much simpler and easier, and you never feel exploited or scammed

You’re not spending any time getting exploited by a sales-bro, none of that stupid thing where they “have to speak to their manager” so you can stew or second guess. No games with interest or tradeins, surprise incentives, bargains with the devil

They are collectively known as "Fucking Stupid"

You can still have a screen without it being a touchscreen.

My lexus uses a small screen built into the rearview mirror for the backup cam. Car was designed by people who can do math in their heads.