Posted by
Corthell on Saturday, July 04, 2009 10:38:00 AM
I had a dream the other night. Shopping for a new car, I logged on to a manufacturer's Web site. I found the model I wanted and clicked on my options. Days later, a deliveryman showed up with the car and the relevant paperwork. But then I woke up, back in the real world, where the only way to get a new car is to go to a dealer and haggle with a salesman who keeps ducking out to "check with the manager." In the real world, my dream -- ordering straight from the factory -- is illegal. State laws forbid anyone but a licensed local dealer to sell new cars....
There was a time, long ago, when it might have made sense to chop America into sales "territories," each allocated to a dealer whose protected local market compensated for the risk of investing in a brick-and-mortar building and a large inventory of cars that might or might not sell.
Today modern techniques can take the guesswork out of inventory management, and Internet-savvy consumers don't need grinning salesmen to explain their choices. Actually, the old business model has been obsolete for decades, which is why local dealers turned to their state legislators...
...many a small town mourned the village blacksmith. Greater efficiency would destroy some jobs -- and free resources to create new ones. The truth is that cutbacks of GM and Chrysler dealers fall far short of the radical change that the car-buying process needs, and the car-buying public deserves. Instead of contemplating putting taxpayers on the hook for the "economic rights" of a long-favored few, Congress should be making car-buying cheaper and simpler for everyone. Instead of "restoring" the past, it should be building the future.