Thinks dealer model is adding $2,000 per vehicle.
No more dealer markups: Ford wants to move to online-only sales for EVs
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/06/ford-wants-to-sell-evs-…
intercst
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Thinks dealer model is adding $2,000 per vehicle.
No more dealer markups: Ford wants to move to online-only sales for EVs
I’d like to see that on all car sales. There is nothing I hate worse than walking onto a car lot and seeing cars with no price tag, just the credit payment rate and a smirking salesman waiting for you. }};-@
I’m probably going to spend the rest of my driving days with the Micra? My 3 California grandsons had never seen it until we all came out of the restaurant … eldest commented that I probably didn’t spend much on gas. }};-D
Anymouse
eldest commented that I probably didn’t spend much on gas. }};-D
You missed the greatest chance to “impress” your grandchildren.
You would have said “Correct” and then taken a LARGE windup key from the car–and asked them to help you “fill 'er up by winding the spring !!”.
That fits with the expected EV price war.
Plus internal combustion engine requires more service and parts. EV simplicity could make dealers redundant. They are more likely to become used car dealers.
Auto dealers have strong lobbys in state legislature and laws that protect them. You wonder how that will play out.
Ford seems to be copying the Tesla model for EVs. Ford is splitting out EVs from its other business. GM has already purged Caddilac dealers who refused to invest in EV equipment.
Auto dealers have strong lobbys in state legislature and laws that protect them. You wonder how that will play out.
Exactly. The only feasible way that GM got rid of Oldsmobile and Pontiac was through bankruptcy. That’s how much leverage the dealers have. (One reason we have those dealer laws is how the manufacturers screwed dealers in the past, so karma?)
Here in Austin we have a location where you can schedule a test drive, so that you know if you actually like the car. There is also a service center, to get work and maintenance done. And that’s it. No dealer. No haggling. No hassles on purchase.
Still can’t stand Musk. Would still want a different EV. But the direction he has taken the sales experience, it’s going to be more wide spread. Dealers are going to hate nearly everything about the transition to EVs.
bjurasz
(notices the Oddyssey is at 20% oil life, and know that a trip to the dealer is going to “recommend” other services I don’t need)
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We were kicking that idea around on an automotive FB group.
My concern is, as automakers pile more and more technology on to cars, who is going to train customers to use all that? You think dealers will be willing to sit the customer down and go through it, like salesmen do now, when they deliver a new car, when there is nothing in it for them?
Farley must never have worked retail in a technology business. I had people in my RS every day, pumping my people for free information, then they would to to a discounter to buy, because RS’ price was 40% higher than the discounters. The people who really had chutzpah would then bring the owner’s manual for the Sharp or Samsung product into the RS, and demand the salesman spend even more time teaching them how to use it.
Typical phone conversation in an RS:
caller: the people on my TV look green and there is smoke coming out of the back. What’s wrong with it?
RS: it’s broken
caller: how do I fix it?
RS: take it to a repairman
caller: what will that cost?
RS: ask the repairman
People who are buying Teslas now, realize they aren’t getting face to face support, and accept that. As offered before, Tesla is a cult, so people put up with the lack of support, to join the cult.
Ford is not a cult. Chevy is not a cult. It was the Ford/Chevy sort of people that always came into RS looking for free support for the products they bought elsewhere.
Steve
Exactly. The only feasible way that GM got rid of Oldsmobile and Pontiac was through bankruptcy.
Olds was dropped several years before the bankruptcy. I saw how much GM paid out to dealers in restitution. Forgot the amount, but it was a significant stack.
GM had been encouraging Buick and Pontiac dealers to merge together for several years, so I figured one of the brands was going to be dropped. Expected it to be Buick, as that brand had a much smaller line. With Buick and Pontiac dualed up, the dealers would not be out of business if one brand was dropped.
The real carnage was when Chrysler leveraged it’s bankruptcy to roger a lot of dealers. Auburn Hills decreed that all dealers carry all Chrysler brands, and not be dualed with any other brand. In Kalamazoo, Dodge was dualed with Honda. Jeep was dualed with Mazda and Mercedes. Chrysler was dualed with Subaru and Hyundai. Auburn Hills yanked all the dealerships, leaving all the Chrysler product owners with nothing but a small dealership in Vicksburg, some miles away, for service support. The former Jeep dealer sued to get it’s dealership back. They won, but they had to have a separate building for Jeep, rather than sharing the Mazda/Mercedes store.
Steve
My concern is, as automakers pile more and more technology on to cars, who is going to train customers to use all that?
You Tube
IP
2 Likes
You Tube
Absolutely.
For anything you want to do, from changing a washer in a dripping faucet, to pulling an engine from an automobile, there’s a helpful instructional video on youtube.
intercst
3 Likes
heh heh…there’s an amazing number of things on an EV that can go wrong. Same as your ICE car.
- Electronics - from navigation to radios to satellite to GPS to ‘sterios’
- Wheels and tires and alignment.
- Power windows, wipers, steering, brakes,
- Air conditioners,
- Batteries and charging systems, regenerative brakes, brake linings, systems.
- Routine maintenance - from checking wiring, charging systems, etc.
Yeah, my ICE car needs an oil change every 8000 miles or so (tells me when oil life is low). Air filter at 45,000 miles. Big deal. Engines last 200,000 miles. Not sure EV batteries will. Mufflers last that long.
EV cars have ‘start batteries’ too that die.
YEah, with 30 models of EVs, I can just see trying the seats and heat room and visibility on line…NO NO NO… if I can’t view different models, I’m not likely to arrange local ‘test drives’ of 4 or 5 different models - or just sitting in them before buying an EV.
Where are all these ‘certified’ mechanics going to come from, and who is going to stock the spare parts needed? The average dealer probably has 10,000 different spare parts in stock. Oh, right…wait a day or two or three for the part to show up while you’re stranded on vacation somewhere…if there’s a mechanic willing to drive to the boonies of North Dakota or WY or Montana…
Oh, right…there’s a YouTube video to fix ‘error 4405 - fatal drive train error’…all you need is some special tools to remove the back half of the car to get to the computer $37 buried under the battery pack. And a lift…and 4 hands and special disassembly tool.
So where do we tow your car?
t.
3 Likes
heh heh…there’s an amazing number of things on an EV that can go wrong. Same as your ICE car.
1) Electronics - from navigation to radios to satellite to GPS to ‘sterios’
2) Wheels and tires and alignment.
3) Power windows, wipers, steering, brakes,
4) Air conditioners,
5) Batteries and charging systems, regenerative brakes, brake linings, systems.
6) Routine maintenance - from checking wiring, charging systems, etc.
These are the reasons why horseless buggy sales never took off in America. There was no need for the Interstate Highway System so Eisenhower never though of building it. America with horse and buggy is much better off, no CO2 emissions to heat up the Earth, no Climate Calamyite.
Please pass the brie but make sure it’s fully ripe.
The Captain
is off on another wild adventure
3 Likes
>>You Tube<<
Absolutely.
The people who refuse to read an owner’s manual, are going to look something up on youtube? I have the owner’s manual for my grandfather’s 86 Dodge Omni: 120 pages. The manual for a 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee is 412. I guarantee, a lot of people will refuse to read all that. There was a chant at RS “RTFM” (read the freaking manual). Some people are lame. They want their hands held as they are spoon fed information. As offered before, I doubt Farley has any clue how lame some of Ford’s customers are.
Again, that is why, these days, car salesmen gets in a car with the customer and go over how everything works, because they know some people will refuse to read the manual. At the Honda dealer in Columbus, where my aunt bought her new Fit some years ago, the dealer had a specific person to do those new owner orientations.
Who will provide the free handholding for people with new mail-order cars, who are too lame to look anything up for themselves? They can’t dump their problem in the lap of the guys at RS anymore.
Steve
The people who refuse to read an owner’s manual, are going to look something up on youtube?
In a heartbeat. I recently had a water heater that needed repairs and could not get a plumber to come after calling 4 of them. I looked it up on YouTube and figured out how to fix it, only as a last resort realizing we had the manual and looked there also, (but found very little of interest.) Did the same thing for kitchen cabinet installation, bathroom vanity replacement, and on and on. Many of us are visual learners and the printed word is not the most efficient way of doing it.
Who will provide the free handholding for people with new mail-order cars…
We had a salesperson give us the new car tour for our car. Useless. Too much too fast and I underutilize the tech in that car in a big way. Now a video that you could watch multiple times would be fabulous.
IP
5 Likes
America with horse and buggy is much better off, no CO2 emissions to heat up the Earth, no Climate Calamyite.
Horses do have methane emissions …
3 Likes
The Captain: “These are the reasons why horseless buggy sales never took off in America.”
The the era of the horse, 25% of all agriculture land was devoted to raising crops (hay, oats) to fuel those tens of millions of horses. NYC had 10,000 daily poop cleaners working day and night to remove the poop from over a million horses that brought goods and services into the city from outside and moved them around (along with people) daily.
The average farm had 25% of it’s crops devoted to fueling the family horse or two or three…or traded crops or goods for that necessary amount. Oh, and you had to pay a blacksmith to make and repair horse shoes…and a vet to diagnose and fix horse illness and problems.
People loved the ‘freedom’ from the stench of horse poop when ICE cars and trucks came out. - even more so after a shower than made it horrific in the summer - which is why anyone with means fled the cities in the summer months and went to ‘summer resorts’. (along with disease and flies).
t
2 Likes
Steve: Who will provide the free handholding for people with new mail-order cars
Catch up! Cars have become large video game consoles and new owners will consult their children!
david fb
david fb: “Cars have become large video game consoles and new owners will consult their children!”
“Your car software is updating…20 minutes to go. We’ll inform you when you can resume driving again”
t
n a heartbeat. I recently had a water heater that needed repairs and could not get a plumber to come after calling 4 of them.
I replaced the radio antenna, repaired a faulty ground, and replaced light bulbs in the license plate holder on an old beater I used to own, from watching youtube videos.
I suggest that the people on this board are far more self-reliant than the average USian. Case in point, we have provided for our retirement, unlike many of my coworkers, whose retirement plan amounted to trying to hit the lottery.
Steve
“Your car software is updating…20 minutes to go. We’ll inform you when you can resume driving again”
My Tesla does that every few weeks. It defaults to letting me schedule it at 3am, or I can choose any convenient time for me.