"Why Buying A Car Is So Awful"

Surprise, surprise: the reason is government.

(And since the source is Government Radio--TM Steve Margolis--we know it's true.)

Comments

[JorgXMckie]

Certainly an interesting take, and one I could never have imagined. The internal logoc seems sound, though.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Stan Liebowitz has a good explanation of why 'haggling' went the way of the dodo, in his unfortunately not widely read, 'Re-Thinking the Network Economy.'

I think the reason it has survived in autos is that they are a big ticket item, and with the salesmen paid a portion of what they get the customer to cough up, there is incentive enough for salesmen to develop the necessary skills.

Certainly the big auto dealers seek rent in their respective legislatures, but there is competition aplenty in the auto industry for customers. Back in the 1930s it was Nash, Studebaker, Packard, Kaiser...against what came to be called The Big Three. Today that competition comes from all over the world.