Study Shows A Majority Of Buyers Still Want A Dealership To Buy From

People want to know where to go when their is an issue or a problem.

It's better to not incentivise having problems in the first place. Many dealerships make much of their profits on service and maintenance.

Do the same survey and ask what they would prefer if the price of the car was 10% cheaper without the dealer.

That's a stupid thing to say. Its like saying lets close restaurants because its cheaper to cook at home. Its all about providing a service.

That's not the right analogy. Would you rather pay more at a restaurant so that they could hire people to stand outside trying to convince you to patronize that restaurant.

SanJose, you are correct. I should of said, its like a restaurant charging you less to let you cook your own food in their kitchen.

That does work too.

It is not the same. The actual sales process at a dealership offers very little value to most customers. The Tesla model would actually serve the vast majority of customers better and more efficiently than the dealership model. Obviously the manufacturer would have to set up service/repair centers if dealerships were eliminated.

Actually, in the real world. Salespeople do provide a value to all customers who walk in the door. Many customers who walk in don't know about what car/item they want. They do need information.

Customers only get upset because they can't lease a $50,000 car for the same price of a $25,000 car they currently drive.

Profit is not a dirty word. Salespeople's job is to provide a service, sale the goods/services provided by the owner/store. Be a point of contact for the customer.

All Tesla is doing is charging a flat price where the customer doesn't know how much they could be over paying.

Too many articles labeling salespeople as wrong/evil. I enjoy what I do, and who I work for and respect all who I speak with.

I'm sorry time/information/service isn't free.

Dealer's earn the money they make in servicing the customers.

Most dealers are excellent (some are terrible but those usually go out of business or are "taken over" because they start to fail financially). Customer service at dealer's is generally consistently good because the 'invisible hand' of the free market is at work.

By they way - anybody else think Mercedes Benz' new standardized dealership architecture is just straight-up odd? WTF? Aside from being ugly (is it 'Far-East? Contemporary? Modernist? Pergola/indoor/outdoor?) its got to be super wasteful from an energy standpoint with all that glass!

Wonder how much "Mercedes Benz of West Houston" spends keeping the space air conditioned to 68 degrees when it is 100 degrees with 100% humidity in Houston? Yikes

Sure there are shady dealers, but to say that all dealers are shady is ridiculous.

Rusnak and Fletcher-Jones have made the dealership experience an art form.

There are plenty mainstream dealers that are very customer oriented.