(That was sarcasm, btw. A tiny car maker like Tesla will never get anything like a fair deal from dealers, especially if state law gives dealers a monopoly. It's a disfunctional marketplace.)
Instead I used an online broker firm. As a result I got about £5,000 off the list price of a £20,000 car. The joke is two years later someone offered me £14,000 for it last month, this is due to the lack of cars which qualify for exemption from Londons Congestion Charging Zone.
Now whilst I would hands down recommend the sales service I recieved from the broker, I still value the fact I was able to try so many differen't cars.
I think that we could potentially see a new system for doing test drives, either as Tesla has, the manufacturer pays for booths, which will often lack local knowledge (dealers know what sells in their patch better than some top down management).
Or, and this could be the interesting one, some form of part time demonstraiters. People who get a heavily discounted lease or similar (who would want a stranger to ruin their own gearbox, lease would be the only option) with the agreement to be available for 10 hours a week of test drives or similar. Given a £30k car leases normally for about £400 pcm, 40 hours a month of demotime would be a fair trade, for what is ultimately a fairly un-skilled job.
Whether that warrants the dealer protection laws, or whether they are effective at combating this problem by essentially creating another monopoly, is very debatable.
So? They are not a monopoly in cars in general - if Ford was not competitive people would switch.
And people don't go to dealers all that much for service, except when the car is new and you have no choice. They don't call them stealerships for nothing.
What evidence do you have to support this contention? Every car dealer I've ever been to has had a very busy service center, often to the point of requiring a week's notice to obtain an appointment. And in CA, at least, state law forbids manufacturers from requiring cars be serviced at a dealership as a condition of honoring the warranty.
People assume it's better there, and since it's free (i.e. warranty), they go.
My evidence is reading car forums. It's not evidence to you since I can't share it, but it is for me. On top of that, to the best of my memory, I do not personally know of a single person (in my entire life) who has ever gone to a dealer for service except when they had no choice (i.e. warranty or dealer only part purchase). (And yes, I know that's not evidence either - especially since you know nothing about me.)
Someone I know once mentioned that someone they know went to a dealer for service and we thought that was the most bizarre thing ever. (i.e. We wondered why are they wasting their money.)
You clearly have been to car dealer service centers - is that for warranty work, or by choice?
With respect to dealerships' monopoly on repair knowledge, at least one state (Massachusetts) has passed a "Right to Repair" act, and car makers have largely made it easier for independent mechanics to obtain service and diagnostic information, so this issue is basically moot now. See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Vehicle_Owners'_Right_to_...
How is that different from price fixing?
Plus, in this specific case the manufacturer (Apple) is also a retailer.
They aren't fixing the price to the consumer. They are agreeing not to advertise a price below a certain value.
That aside, your notion of competition implies all dealers have like models, which is incorrect. Sure, they all have sedans, but I've yet to find a Honda I feel comfortable driving in. There's plenty of other factors, too. Locations, maintenance schedules, manufacturing origin. It's not all that dissimilar from there being different laptop manufacturers.
So, if I really want a Ford (which was the example here), it's nice to have competition between Ford dealers. Otherwise, Ford could just become complacent. Likewise, I'd hate to see fiefdoms form where you really only can realistically buy one or two manufacturers because the third one determines moving in wouldn't be profitable enough.
Why?
Right now dealers aren't that great, they're the Mom & Pop bookstores. Having Ford sell directly would give us a Barnes & Noble experience. I personally think that might be worse.
I dislike dealers for sure and prefer to work on my car myself. I have the feeling I would dislike them even more if they were all run by Ford.
Why?
Do you understand why dealers exist historically? It's completely different than what you're letting on.
So? Who cares