manufacturer / dealer business model is RIPE for creative destruction.
Frankly, I think that's the best thing Tesla is doing: disrupting the model.
Banking should be next.
The crazy part of disrupting the model is how stunningly powerful individual state car dealer's associations are, and have been for at nearly a century. There have been many attempts to wrestle control from dealers over the last few decades, from Porsche to Chrysler to GM and now Tesla. Every single time it has either been a total failure, or a partial win, that was a huge battle. VW is an excellent example. They spent the last fifty years being one of, an often the, biggest manufacturer on the planet, yet never had a significant market share in the biggest market. One huge factor has been that they have a stunningly horrible dealer network, and an awful rep. for screwing customers. Due to the massive power held be individual dealers, there has literally been little that VW can do about the problem.
