all good stuff but......

going back to '06 I bought a mitsu evo9. the dealer in boise had it priced at msrp(29k) plus 7.5k markup totaling 36.5k and taxes/fees on top. south coast mitsu in cali was the largest evo dealer in the nation and offered same car for(and don't ask me why I remember this) 27,988 otd only tax extra. those cars only had a couple options so it was apples. gave dealer in boise a chance and they told me to have a nice flight so I did and came home with a new one a month later.

as russell points out supply and demand is likely working the way it should as dealer in boise sold the car 5 months later just after I was in for first oil change. I was with 2 others picking up same car in cali that day. so economics 101 was good.


except in that case I was free to fly to cali to buy the car. had it been a supra boat, I would have been screwed to drive to cali to buy a new build boat as dealer wouldn't be able to sell it.

last I checked economy 101 wasn't predicated on dealer "territories".

neighbor behind me just took delivery on a new 2021 corvette. he flew to bowling green and took delivery at the vette museum and then had it shipped out. all of that was still cheaper than the local dealer that is offering 8k over msrp on any new vette.

my take is IF you are going to mandate dealer territories then you should also mandate MAP pricing like bose. to let dealers make up their own pricing based on profit margins needed but then tell customers you can ONLY shop from that dealer can set a sour taste in some mouths.

and rc, our ford dealer I pass by every day has 5 gt500's and 1 gt350 sitting in the front of the building all with markups. interestingly the blue one is only marked up a few grand but the lime green one has the same markup above. it's just over 130k.