1st gear: I’m an asshole. I do not want electric vehicles or autonomous vehicles. Rather than educate people and train them, we instead resort to enabling uneducated driving with autonomy. However, I do realize that this aspect will bring safety on another level, one that even trained drivers can not offer. I love the…

You are paying MSRP at Tesla. The manufacturer is setting the price, and you are paying it. There is not an argument here. You have proved nothing.

It is safe to “assume” that the vast majority of buyers want to test drive a vehicle that has been prepped and explained the use of it’s functions.

You make no sense. You don’t know what car you want to buy until you’ve driven some options. If you do know what car you want sight unseen, then you either A. are obsessed with the car no matter how shitty it is, or B. you have zero preference for comfort, visibility, performance, practical utility, or any other…

Please explain how allowing direct sales to compete with franchise dealers would improve the price you pay for the typical vehicle? I’m not saying I don’t think manufacturers should be able to sell direct. I think it would be fine. But I don’t see how it would change the market for consumers.

Target and Walmart and Best Buy make money selling other peoples products too. So we should close them all down, yes?

Once again... don’t shop anywhere that isn’t a factory direct store. If you do then you are part of the “problem”. Bye bye to buying anything for less than the manufacturer says it is worth.

Dealers will always offer the manufacturer’s customer incentives. A dealer may not itemize every discount in their offer, but they will always pass along a discount that isn’t coming out of their own pocket.

Who delivers it to you? An employee with a wage? Hmm. And who do you suppose offers you finance specials, extended warranties, GAP insurance, etc? Half the stuff dealer sell are from the manufacturer. The stuff that isn’t- nitrogen in the tires, paint sealant, etc- would still be offered by any dealer, franchise or…

Ok. You can still shop online. Call and get price quotes for you... negotiate. Can’t do that with direct sales. I dare you to negotiate the price of a tesla. Or an iPhone.

Says someone who worked at one.

I get that, but when I bought my Honda Civic, I had already owned a Honda del Sol for 17 years. There was absolutely no reason to test drive, touch and feel. I knew exactly what the quality and driving experience were going to be because it was essentially the same car.

This is half correct. Some states regulate the fee to something reasonable- $80 in CA, $169 in IL, $75 in NY, etc. But some states allow dealers to charge much more than what is justifiable for processing fees. Florida is the worst in the country, with doc fees ranging between $700-1000. Colorado and Virginia/Maryland…

With a dealership, profit from a car sale needs to cover the manufacturer, plus a portion of the following, the salesman’s wage, the sales manager’s wage, floorspace rent, floorplan interest, dealership operating profit.

It sounds like you’re calling the spread between invoice and MSRP “markup.” If this is the case, you would be wrong. You pay MSRP for all retail items. Few industries will regularly offer to give away a portion of that spread to earn your business.

Anything you buy directly from the manufacturer is sold at MSRP. You don’t buy anything at invoice, unless you are a reseller. Apply your thought process on cars to smart phones and you will realize that you cannot buy an iPhone at invoice, buying directly from Apple does not get you a discount versus buying from a…

Yep. Any dealership will be more than happy to sell you a car at MSRP. Any dealership.

I do work for a dealership and I’ve never hidden that at all.

There is very little service from King Soopers or Safeway or Home Depot too. You don’t whine and bitch about them. At least a decent car salesman can teach you about cars.

There is a set price. It's on the window sticker. It's the consumer who wants to "play the game". They're more than happy to pay 50% or higher mark up at the Apple store, but they'll be damned if they'll pay the 4% mark up on a Chevrolet Cruze.