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Re:If You’ve Got a New Car, It’s a Data Privacy Nightmare by tschwimmer on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @11:32AM (#37406626)
I’m pretty sure most of the car subreddits are managed by dealership employees who benefit from markups via increased commissions. The fact that they make reference to complaining about price markups as economic illiteracy increases my confidence in this hypothesis.

I’m tempted to go make a post about rent seeking, deadweight loss and price collusion in oligopolistic conditions but somehow I feel my economic literacy will be found wanting.

Re:If You’ve Got a New Car, It’s a Data Privacy Nightmare by OGWhales on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @11:45AM (#37406799)
/r/whatCarShouldIBuy is a pretty decent sub. Comparing answers there to /r/askCarSales is pretty funny, such different advice.
Re:If You’ve Got a New Car, It’s a Data Privacy Nightmare by seattle_spring on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @09:52PM (#37413772)
I posted a very bad dealership experience I had to both /r/Kia and /r/askcarsales. The Kia thread had more than a hundred comments, 99% supporting me and my decision to shop elsewhere. The /r/askcarsales commenters immediately started making up scenarios in favor of the dealerships, assuming I was mean, condescending, arrogant; basically all of the characteristics the salesman actually demonstrated, they tried to pin on me.
Re:If You’ve Got a New Car, It’s a Data Privacy Nightmare by gottorf on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @12:05PM (#37407102)
> complaining about price markups as economic illiteracy

I mean, I hate dealer markups as much as the next person, but it is true. It's just supply and demand. Dealers wouldn't charge crazy markups if enough car buyers weren't out there paying them; and like another commenter said, in these supply-limited conditions, if price wasn't able to rise to a market-clearing level, you'd have shortages instead, and people would complain about that.

> rent seeking, deadweight loss and price collusion in oligopolistic conditions

Can the car market, both at the manufacturer level and the dealer level, really be described as an oligopolistic one, outside of isolated examples (e.g. you live in Elko, NV and there's only one Ford dealer within 100 miles)?

Re:If You’ve Got a New Car, It’s a Data Privacy Nightmare by spacemadness on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @01:10PM (#37407953)
I don’t know if it’s a complaint, more being awe struck by others irrational behavior and how far they’ll go by overpaying. Censoring that observation is a little weird and does seem to favor the dealers grip on a subreddit.