I realized in my US stay of many years that a lot of economy is rent-seeking like everywhere. Dealers primarily exist as ICE cars needed maintenance and legacy reasons. However it is a pity that they cannot be disrupted. I have not had experience with platforms like Carvana but i avoid used cars from people because i have had bad experiences before.

Where I see the street is littered with unused bikes for sharing (sometimes a trip hazard if you are not looking where you go while on the iPhone SE talkin) and unused cars parked for sharing. They multiply. The disruptors must be using a utility function with payoff after the sovereign wealth fund managers backing the thing cashout at the top, retire and die. And then there is no return on investment after WeWork's hard partying and snort.

She ended up with a competitor. That dealer had a mandatory "package" they applied to every car on their lot (window tint, door edge protector, etc.) which was grossly overpriced.

Something I haven't seen the numbers on but I suspect is true, is that they make more profit on the financing rebate than they do on the sale of the vehicle. The pressure to finance with them is so high that some dealers will refuse to accept cash offers. Or they will add on $2500 as an "external finance fee" when a buyer already has financing arranged.

I have actually never had a dealer pull this on me (and if one did, I would simply walk out the door), even though I always have financing already set up with my credit union before I ever start talking to a dealer about a car, so from their standpoint I'm paying cash. However, every dealer but one has tried to either sell me their financing instead, or sell me a lease deal instead of a purchase. (The one that didn't knew there was no point because I was a GM employee buying a GM car at that time so every single aspect of the transaction was already predetermined.) I've never taken them up on it, but the fact that they try so hard supports your hypothesis that they aren't making any real profit on the sale itself, but only on the financing.

(When I was working for GM, which was some time ago, I had access to enough numbers to make it clear that GM itself was not making any real profit on the sales of any vehicles except full size trucks and SUVs; all of their profit was from GMAC, the financing arm. I used to say that GM was really a financing company that happened to make vehicles on the side. I suspect the other US automakers are similar. I don't think most non-US automakers are; their incentives are different and they are mostly run by technical people, not financial people.)

You may have heard TV & Radio ads offering 84 month 0% financing. For certain slow-selling vehicles, 90 month 0% is available. Which is insane - a loan of 7.5 years on a vehicle? You'd probably be under water for almost 4 years. Which has big concerns if it gets wrecked and you don't have gap coverage.