(06-20-2023, 10:02 AM)The Real Marty Wrote:

(06-19-2023, 11:22 AM)mikesez Wrote: As I understood it, Ford was only hoping to sell electric cars direct to consumers, they would still continue to sell conventional and hybrid cars and trucks through dealerships only.
In theory an electric car should have much less maintenance needs, and much less potential recalls, It might be a totally different type of mechanic executing the recall repair anyways.
There are many car dealers that do not want to handle electric or hybrid cars at all.  Many car dealers try to minimize the options they will stock to best sellers only, and if you base your buying decisions on what sold last year, the product mix can't change. Manufacturers have been frustrated by this for years.

Also, to p_rushing's point, the franchise contract itself should handle most of this.  If a car dealer needs some security that they will have a sales territory and not get undercut by direct sales before they would be willing to provide a service department dedicated to recalls, that's a textbook example of something that a good contract can handle, no legislature needed.  Just judges. 

Personally I think, electric or not, dealerships are total leaches in all but the largest and most competitive geographic areas, and only for the brands with the biggest sales volume.   When Ford wants to move 10,000 F-150s per quarter into Florida, I can see how dealers could add value buying in bulk and taking on risks like "customers like this paint color more than we thought they would" or "customers liked this upgrade package in Jacksonville but not Tampa." But once you get into smaller sales volumes and more choices of packages and paint colors in less densely populated areas, I just don't see the value at all. Customers in these situations are usually fine if they have to wait a few weeks for the exact car they want to roll off the line.
If Progressive insurance can find a body shop they'll contract with in every market they operate in, I don't see why Hyundai and Kia couldn't do the same thing for recalls.

Dealers are good if you want to test drive before you buy.  And of course, repairs if your car is under warranty.  But that's about it.  They never have the car you want on the lot.  The last time I bought a car, it took 6 months to get it.  You go online, you configure your car, select the color and the options, see the price, go to the dealer and make an offer, and then it takes 6 months to get it.

My wife did a lot of that online configuration stuff on her last vehicle purchase, and she ended up being pretty rigid once she narrowed it down.  Had to be a specific accessory package, and had to be a dark blue exterior. 
We went to multiple dealers and expected them to say things like, "we don't have that now, but you can put money down and reserve it, and it will be here in X weeks."
They didn't say that.  We dealt with a very rude and condescending dealer and a very courteous and straightforward dealer, but at the end of the day, neither of them wanted to do a deal like that, and they were both very cagey about it.  They both spent a lot of time trying convince us to get the "wrong car" we test drove, then they made vague promises about "the car you want might be here in 4 or 6 weeks, but no we won't hold it for you. You'd have to check with us weekly."
Finally we figured it out.
The dealers could see that the car we wanted was already in stock at a dealership 2 hours away.  They wouldn't tell us that, and they wouldnt offer to trade with that dealer, but it was there.
The place 2 hours away, unfortunately, was one of the rude places.  They made us sit through multiple songs and dances about dealer fees and warranty extensions and it literally took all day.  I would rather have done business with either of the first two even ignoring the fact that they were 2 hours away.

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