Quote:
Originally Posted by mkoesel
Don't get too excited just yet. Dealerships will still be part of the process, at least in the US (and, I imagine, most everywhere else). Notably, they will still have the ability to control important transaction details such as pricing. I think the biggest change will be a centralized queue for distributing allocations rather than customers "getting in line" at individual dealerships. I believe this is how the i4 launch is being handled, though I admittedly haven't dug very deep on that myself.
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Franchise laws in the US give dealers immense leverage to push back on a broader change toward online. Even the cars across all brands where a customer "reserves online" still ends up subject to their local area dealer. In my experience franchisees rarely care about long term strategy or "rising tide lifts all boats"
An element that would have to be considered is dealer profit and vehicle pricing… the msrp is designed to allow the dealer some "give" in price while still making appropriate profit. If negotiation comes out of the equation it should in theory lead to relatively lower msrp and more consistent profits at the expense of dealers being able to gouge pigeons…. 9/10 a dealer will vote for the ability to gouge a pigeon over a more consistent model