I know that many european car makers offer “Factory Direct”. The attraction is that you get to drive your car in Europe, and you save a little bit (in that you are importing a “used” car). The savings are not huge, but it is still done.
Now, in the USA, I don’t see how you would save much (or anything) by buying a car from the factory-maybe just the transport cost?
It was done in the 1950’s and 60’s-I knew of a family who would take the train to Detroit, pick up their new car, and drive it home-but I haven’t heard of anyone doing this recently. I also imagine that buying from the factory might cause you difficulty with the warranty, etc.
So is this something that has died out?
When you do a tourist delivery program on a European car, you still have to go through a local dealership and they still get their cut. I believe back in the day, the domestic factory pickup programs were similar, where you still had to go through a dealer but you saved however much it cost to put the car on a train or whatever. These days getting a dealer to even order you a car (instead of selling you one off the lot) is getting harder and harder to do-- I doubt they’d want to encourage you by giving you a discount for doing it, even if you do save shipping costs. (Also of note, Checker only used to sell cars to “civilians” factory-direct, so you’d basically order your car out of a catalog and they’d include bus fare to Kalamazoo in the purchase price.)
I do know that Chevy has a program with the Corvette where you can go pick it up in the factory, but you actually have to pay for the privilege instead of getting a discount (although I guess you get a tour and a bunch of other hoopla). If you pay even more, you can hang out with the guy while he assembles your engine, which I’m sure they love. Also, BMW will deliver any car to their factory in South Carolina, including the X-series SUV’s that are built there, but you still have to go through a dealer and I doubt there’s a discount.
Delivery costs used to be dependent on how far you were from the factory. That changed to a standard charge nationwide in the late 50s/early 60s.
Although there were manufacturing plants all around the country, some were still stuck paying more, and they resented it. It may be that the nearest Dodge plant was closer to your area than the nearest Ford plant. This disturbed the marketers at Ford who wanted to sell more cars in your region because many bought the cheapest alternative.
It also was once true that a manufacturer made one, maybe two cars, with different trim levels. It was easy to have plants around the country. When they reached the point where they had to have plants for Mustangs, Thunderbirds, Falcons, Fairlanes and Galaxies (and trucks) it became too difficult to maintain that business plan. Most factories at that time produced only one model.
About the closest thing I’ve seen to factory pickup for a car is at the Dave Smith dealership in Idaho. They charge a flat fee of about $500 and you get the car at factory invoice. For actual pickup at a manufacturer, the only vehicles that I know of where you can do this is for certain RVs and campers.
In several states (mine included), car makers are not allowed to sell directly to the public. You have to buy new from a licensed dealer.
Guess who thought that was a good law to push thru.