Whether it's the auto industry or anything else, the middle man is often an important part of the process. Sometimes they add value, sometimes they don't. Those who do add value are pretty safe in my opinion.
That depends.
Those that add value aren't "safe" they have probably just bought themselves time.
And just because you add value doesn't mean that your "value adding" service can't integrated into another party's production process.
Innovation and increasing productivity is always required to stay ahead of the pack, what is considered a "value add" today, is just standard tomorrow.
A friend of mine runs a car brokerage business with a few offices around Australia. They sit in the middle between the buyers and the dealers, and you could say they are more at risk than anyone in your middle man theory.
So you don't think they are at risk?
I wouldn't be so sure, because just a couple of months ago I made the recommendation to my own father, who sells capital equipment, that he does enough volume of sales on outsourced finance products to bring his financing inhouse rather than outsourcing because it will increase his margins/profitability.
And whilst he might not do it tomorrow, he will be forced to do it over the longer term in order to remain competitive.
But their business is growing, simply because they add a lot of value for their clients that cannot be replicated by the dealers or manufacturers, or dare I say it, even a website.
Why can't it be replicated. Capital is freely available to everyone. If anything it is SUPER easy to replicate for larger dealers because of the low overheads.
That's why more car manufacturers are developing their own finance companies and offering their own finance products.
The Subaru example you gave is a special case really. It's only the BRZ you can buy online, and that only works because there was so much hype about the car. They'd struggle to sell more than a handful of Imprezas or Libertys each month even if they tried.
Yes only BRZ was offered, but I fail to see what difference it makes what cars are sold.
If cars are sold direct online rather than via physical dealerships it will potentially mean manufacturers can reduce overheads by shutting down dealerships and staffing costs which translates into lower car prices.
I know you like to quote a lot of capitalism theory, and yes there are plenty of examples where middle men have or will disappear, but the reality is that humans are humans and if they see value in a particular service they will use it.
I don't know what your point is here...
Humans will always look to maximise value, the reason people sell their car on CarSales rather than via the Trading Post is because it offers the same or more value but is more efficient and lower cost.
People list their properties for sale on RealEstate.com.au because it offers more value and is more efficient and lower cost.
Most people buy shares via online brokers these days than via real world brokers, because it offers the same "value" but is more efficient and lower cost.
People choose to use Google over the Yellow Pages because it offers more value and is more efficient and lower cost.
This is how capitalism works.
And unfortuantely Google is VERY good at entering markets and creating products or services that are more efficient and lower/no cost because they are able to generate more revenues that other party's are unable to due to their advertising network.
I'm not saying that anything will change overnight, all I'm saying is that inevitably customers/money will flow to those entities that offer the most value in the most efficient and low cost way.