Bob Lutz has been an outspoke predictor of future technology and where the automotive industry is heading. He recently doubled down on his visions in an interview with Automotive News, and he also spoke about trade with China, President Trump and Tesla.
In the wide-ranging interview, Lutz again saw the day where car dealerships cease to exist. Again, he thinks this is decades away, but he said we may first see them disappear from large cities. Then suburban areas and finally rural areas will no longer house car dealerships as fleets of self-driving cars take over.
Again, he also predicted tough times for branded cars ahead, too. When technology becomes more standardized, there won’t be much of a difference between German luxury makes and bread-and-butter brands. He doesn’t see the internal-combustion engine going away anytime soon, though.
In fact, he still thinks the market isn’t right for electric cars as gas remains cheap.
Sprinkled throughout the conversation, Lutz also talks about the potential for a trade war with China, but backed up President Trump’s moves to impose tariffs on China. Lutz is an outspoken Trump supporter and he declared it was refreshing to finally see a U.S. President tackle China’s unfair trade practices.
Catch the entire interview in the video below.
Comments
I don’t think it will be a spacial thing that eliminates car dealerships. I think it will be brand cohesiveness. Eventually the OEMs will realize the dealerships have no interest in selling a brand; just in selling a car— which certainly isn’t sustainable in the long run.
The smart dealers will let the manufacturers buy them out and then become good franchise partners. The less-smart dealers will fight tooth and nail, thinking they know more than these MNCs and will wither away as they become noncompetitive.
“Eventually the OEMs will realize the dealerships have no interest in selling a brand; just in selling a car”
DING DING DING!!!!
This is, at the sales level, how Cadillac struggles to make a unified public brand message. If GM can’t get that message out to the public, how possibly could a loose and disconnected group of dealers, each with their own self-interests, scattered across a country convey the message to the public that Cadillac is a luxury brand?
What you get is an ad in your local edition of a free newspaper telling you how you can have an XTS for $10K off.
I have said a long time ago that dealership’s need to go. They are not in there too sale a brand, just a car. They need to go like now.
We still need dealerships for the laypersons who don’t know how to buy any vehicle. Many just buy what they like or what a friend/family/neighbor tells them to buy.
But the dedicated dealerships are going out. I see many here offering many different brands, domestics or imports, all on the same lot. And we still need their service shops since less than one percent of vehicle owners do their own servicing, and independent shops can only do common tasks, not specialized as real dealers have the tools and training to do.
Here is the problem.
MFG would love to be rid of most of the dealers. But the cost of buying them out is prohibitive. Then as with GM they have nearly twice the number of dealers than most MFGs.
Right now the MFG and GM love having the the large dealer networks like the Penske, Hendricks, Spitzer, Classic and Autonation buying up the many dealers and closing many and consolidating them. It makes things much more manageable.
The real feat is if Chinese cars come here with no dealers required and really under cut their prices selling direct cheaper cars. This is the only reason the support the dealers till they find a way out without having to buy the dealerships out.
GM is not going to take billions to buy out dealers. Ford right now does not have the money to do it. Same at FCA. The high cost of development is taking all the funds they have now.
I don’t think so, Former “Father” of the Chevy Volt.
And about those repairs. So cars will be perfected to the point of not needing repairs. Maybe with electric cars we will see greatly reduced servicing and repairs
The concept is for the consumer to purchase a car directly through the manufacturer instead of going through the stealership. Stealerships would still have to exist to perform maintenance and warranty work.
Millennials would much rather buy a car from an Amazon like experience than deal with shady car salesmen.
But “Millennials” don’t have the money to buy the high level sportscars or luxury models that previous generations can. So they buy the cheaper low -options models or imports that are manufactured at lower rates than the domestics.
So where can you do a test drive then ? I somehow doubt dealerships will offer them for free.
You’re confusing dealers (sales) with service. You don’t need a salesman to repair your car.
Getting rid of the dealer affects only the sales floor, not parts and service.
Good to hear an ex-auto exec support fair trade as opposed to the mainstream media’s view that we are being the aggressor and destabilizing the world economy by threatening tariffs. If China taxes our cars 25%, why should we take it on the chin?