One of my recent YouTube rabbit holes is the Delivrd channel. It’s videos of a guy named Tomi negotiating car deals for his clients. His company charges a simple $1,000 to do the thing most people loathe about the car buying process: everything before signing on the dotted line. Customers save time and headaches, whilst getting a great price on the car they want.
American car dealerships truly make vehicle purchasing a horrible experience. Say what you want about the current CEO, but Tesla’s direct sales method is the absolute best. Customer can do the entire transaction in 15 minutes right on their smartphone. No longer do we have to beg some asshole salesperson to please take our money.
To be fair, the dealership system wouldn’t have its sour reputation if cars strictly sold at MSRP - no markups, no discounts. That fact that everybody practically pays a different price creates a competitive game, with opposing sides fighting to keep as much money as possible. The game then creates hurt feelings, because there are winners and losers.
Services like Delivrd have a finite ceiling it can scale to, at least with the current dealership system. Franchises can afford to give Tomi’s clients a great deal only because there exist other customers who are getting the opposite. People that pay above MSRP, plus all the add-ons, are effectively subsidizing those who are coming under invoice. For there to be winners, there has to be losers.
Credit card companies would close up shop tomorrow if every single account holder pays off their monthly balance promptly. In reality, it’s the profits from the minimum balance interest payers that allow the companies to give people like me 5% cash back. Someone loses so that I can win.
Is it fair?
Burnt it up.