If you ever bought a car in the last 30 years, it was often a mix of Fargo-inspired madness. Trying to figure out how to get the salesperson at the dealership to take that "TruCoat" off the sticker would just about drive you mad.

In the world of e-commerce - similar to grocery - online penetration has in new car sales has been relatively small - hovering around 1% of all retail sales. COVID has the potential to shake a few more points of growth loose and make consumers wonder:

"Why do we put up with this?"

The savviest consumers do a lot of price shopping and research online before heading to the dealership. But still, it's difficult to resist the salesperson’s song and dance when you're in the room.

Perhaps there will always be a need for dealerships. Seeing many cars at once and taking a test drive is helpful and convenient. But once the test drive ends, there is no reason for so much friction. It reminds of of when everyone thought auctions would take over all eCommerce.

 eBay fed the narrative too.

Turns out, waiting for an auction to end only to be outbid isn't that convenient. What's also not convenient is haggling with a dealership and wondering if you are getting screwed over legal agreements, and being pushed into loans from the dealership.