I have beef.

As of 2021, the top 10 dealership groups in the U.S. had annual revenues around $100 billion, more than any company that actually makes cars.

Going down the list:

1. Publicly-traded company borne of Circuit City, FFS

2. Publicly-traded company borne of Waste Management & Blockbuster

3. Publicly-traded company borne of Waste Management & Blockbuster and no that's not a typo

4. Publicly-traded company borne of Charlotte Motor Speedway

5. Berkshire Hathaway property

6. Publicly-traded holding company

7. Publicly-traded company borne of Subaru

8. First-generation car dealer

9. Publicly-traded company borne of a 2nd-generation dealership

10. First-generation car dealer

Note that by the time we get down to actual "dynasties" we've gone from 400,000 cars a year to 50,000. Characterizing this as a bunch of robber barons clinging to their wealth generation after generation is ridiculous, first and foremost because there have been three whole generations since the dawn of the automobile. It's also because the market cap of Carmax is $11b while all of Rick Hendrick's combined wealth is about a billion. And because the bottom of that list, Dave Smith Automotive, is a goddamn American success story (other than the dying while snorkeling in Belize).

By and large? I hate dealerships. My first real experience with capitalism was being dragged to the Isuzu dealership by a friend's parents to make them explain away the blinker fluid charges. I could usually reduce their bills by 80%. By the time I was 17 I was in direct competition with them, doing out-of-warranty service out of my driveway. When I went to buy my wife's Honda the dealership started at $2500 over sticker and when I yelped the dipshit calmly said "that's a nice watch" like I was the lowest fucking rube he'd seen all day.

But I was able to go up the street and buy from a different dealership. And the thing about dealerships? Aside from the publicly-traded monstrosities above, they actually have to face their customers. If they're assholes, they lose money. Porsche Bellevue was purchased by CarMax some years ago. They suck donkey scrotum. Their Yelp reviews have tanked and nobody goes there. Meanwhile Porsche Bellingham now does sight-seeing tours and is liberal with their loaners (they gave me a brand new Boxster Turbo for six.fucking.weeks) because they know people are driving 150 miles or more just to get their fucking oil changed.

Now car dealers are one of the most important secular forces in American conservatism, having taken a huge swath of the political system hostage.

Taken hostage how, exactly? Car market is worth $200b a year. NADA spent what, $25m on elections? Fuckin' FTX spent $93m. Insurance industry is worth $1.4T a year so you'd expect them to spend, oh, substantially less than 7 x $25m in order to justify the phrase "taken hostage." Naah fuckin' Blue Cross spent $20m alone.

Look - if you don't like the treatment you get from Tesla? You're fucked. Tesla's all you get. But if you don't like your treatment from CarMax you can drive to fucking Bellingham. And yes - electric service is about 75% less lucrative than internal combustion but record stores switched to compact discs even though they never wear out and they did fine... until Apple and Napster. The fact that there are entire seminars about how to sell electric cars ('even in texas!') tells you all you need to know about the slant here - you could make these jabs about pretty much any trade show in any industry.