The only reason to have a lot of cars sitting on a lot is to encourage high-pressure sales tactics: "What sort of monthly payment are you hoping for?" "What would keep you from driving away with a new car today?"
Unfortunately for sales people, this makes the car-buying decision a much less emotional, impulse decision.
It may not be the death of dealerships, per se. Having a place where you can go to sit in a car and test drive it is handy, just like most people like to go see their $3000 fridge on the showroom floor before ordering it for the house. But it probably does mean a lot fewer car salespeople.
I suppose it means fewer dealers too, because the main purposes dealers serve in metro areas now where there are multiple dealers within, say, a 1-hr drive, is
- to exist so customers can pit them against each other
- to exist so they can differentiate themselves based on inventory
- to exist for people who want to take their car in for dealer servicing and can't imagine driving 40 minutes to do that.
The last set are a disappearing breed... of course if the manufacturers win the Right to Repair fight, that might change. If the only thing the independent garage can do is change the tires and the wiper fluid, we'll need a lot more dealer service centers.
