Not a company or sector that gets much airtime here on SM, but thought it would be a useful datapoint.

Link (behind paywall).

The gist is this: Mercedes are going to a fixed price sales model, paying dealers a commission to deliver a vehicle instead of selling stock to them, and essentially writing down the value of investments that dealers have made in the respective brands to being essentially worthless.

Honda have tried the fixed price model and failed dismally, Tesla have only ever done fixed price and are doing a roaring trade. So it is more than just business model.

This is arguably the first test of a sales leader in its segment (premium vehicles), and if Daimler AG are successful in getting this model up, you can bet the other manufacturers wont be far behind in trying to cut out the middle-man.

Also affects the ASX listed competitor Autosports Group, although arguably to a lesser degree given new car sales form a smaller portion of its revenue.