This is what really struck at me. I was really surprise at how isolated a car sales guy is, even within the same dealership. It truly is every guy for themselves.
Is this situation ripe for a disruption?
I sold new cars for a while. The dealer really should just be a showroom staffed by manufacturer sales people with perhaps some bonus structure. Instead it's filled with middlemen whose children will only eat if they can convince you to pay more for the car than a more efficient market would allow for.
If you watch the movie "Suckers" you'll understand the "asshole" culture of car sales. Unfortunately it's really that way because you have to be an asshole (a taker) to survive.
We negotiate over cars because the price is sufficiently high that it's worth it to pay an employee who's sole job is to wiggle that extra 5% out of you.
Other examples of items we negotiate the purchase of include pianos, heavy industrial equipment, home repair and maintenance, and myriad commercial products and services. Hardly any of these are "protected" in a similar fashion to car dealers.
Further evidence in support of this theory is the trend in poorer countries to increase the number of items with negotiated prices: As the wages of decent negotiators fall, it makes more sense for a business to hire them and thus improve margins.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/19/172402376/why-buyi...
There's also no-haggle dealerships for people who like to get the same deal as everyone else.