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Re:Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegoti... by wumpus on Thursday June 02, 2022 @09:23PM (#31603060)
People who like negotiations generally think they're good at it.

Guess what? The dealer sells multiple cars per day. You don't know enough to be a good negotiator against them.

Same thing as venture capital vs company founders. Founders found a couple of companies which do a couple of rounds each. VCs make way more investments.

Re:Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegoti... by grogenaut on Thursday June 02, 2022 @10:27PM (#31603526)
I don't think I'm a good negotiator, I just think I'm better at it than you who is dealing with a "no-haggle" dealer.

You don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the slowest person to come out better.

When I buy cars I shop around, there's surprising variance in dealers depending on what's going on with them. If a no haggle place has the best price I'll buy that. I haven't had that ever be the case as they quote MSRP.

Re:Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegoti... by wumpus on Thursday June 02, 2022 @10:35PM (#31603572)
I'm glad you think you are so smart.
Re:Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegoti... by Alupis on Thursday June 02, 2022 @09:36PM (#31603166)
> Guess what? The dealer sells multiple cars per day. You don't know enough to be a good negotiator against them.

Right - so let's get rid of negotiations all together and everyone pays whatever absurd price the sales team at Ford can think of without laughing out loud.

This isn't a box of cookies folks... besides your house, it's likely the most expensive thing you'll ever buy.

There is no "one" price for the asset... unless we remove all the competition that drives down prices (dealerships) and put all the assets into a single basket owned by one of a small handful of manufacturers in the world. What could go wrong?

Re:Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegoti... by wumpus on Thursday June 02, 2022 @09:40PM (#31603194)
Wait what?

If there are no negotiations, and Ford's price is too high compared to the market, Ford is going to lose sales. That's micro-economics.

> besides your house, it's likely the most expensive thing you'll ever buy.

This is Hacker News, and I've spent 10s of millions on servers, colo, and cloud.

Re:Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegoti... by Alupis on Thursday June 02, 2022 @09:43PM (#31603209)
The problem is Ford will be the market. They are only offering these EV's direct from their website. There will be no dealerships to compete with on price and service.

> This is Hacker News, and I've spent 10s of millions on servers, colo, and cloud.

I'd bet you negotiated those contracts too.

Re:Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegoti... by wumpus on Thursday June 02, 2022 @09:50PM (#31603265)
I have no idea what you mean with that Ford comment. My best guess is that you think consumers are too stupid to consider anything but a Ford?

I did negotiate server/colo/cloud prices, but I spent person-months of effort deconstructing what the right price was. I've never done that for a car.

I once interviewed for a CTO job at a major storage vendor, and in the discussion they said that most of their major customers successfully reverse-engineered prices, and that kept their margins down. I've heard that (over beers) from some server resellers, too.

Re:Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegoti... by gruez on Thursday June 02, 2022 @10:22PM (#31603496)
>they said that most of their major customers successfully reverse-engineered prices, and that kept their margins down.

What does this mean? Did they perfect the negotiating process? Did they figure out what your margins are, then demanded that you halve them?

Re:Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegoti... by wumpus on Thursday June 02, 2022 @10:34PM (#31603563)
These major storage vendors only make the software; the hardware is commodity.

The customers figured out the prices of the hardware: disks or flash, a way to connect them to a "server", the "server", the network that the "server" offers.

Re:Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegoti... by BHSPitMonkey on Thursday June 02, 2022 @09:43PM (#31603211)
> everyone pays whatever absurd price the sales team

If it's truly absurd then they'll walk away and buy a cheaper car (or a used car) instead.

Re:Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegoti... by tomc1985 on Thursday June 02, 2022 @09:46PM (#31603237)
Ah yes so let's ruin a good thing so the incompetent have a fair chance? Pah.

What is the point of learning and trying to be intelligent if everything around you gets training wheels put on it? Oh wait, it isn't for our benefit.

Yet another case of losing opportunities under the guise of helping stupid people.

Re:Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegoti... by wumpus on Thursday June 02, 2022 @10:36PM (#31603580)
Did you leave off the sarcasm marker?