"Agency is dead, finished," so said one dealer group executive privately early this year.
His tone suggested that car makers must have been mad to ever think they could take over the business of selling cars directly to customers, with dealers acting as handover ‘agents’.
In one way, he was right. Car makers have proved in the years since the Covid pandemic that they lack the ability to shift metal when markets turn tough. For that, you need a properly incentivised salesperson.
Many including Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz, JLR, Ford and Volkswagen have dialled back or abandoned plans to shake up their distribution by switching to the agency model.
