Observation 1 - When you go to a car dealership, they’ve got dozens of the same model car, just in different colors or trim packages.
Observation 2 - I’ve never seen a truck transporting cars with even two of the same model loaded onto it.
What gives? Do they deliver these things when I’m not looking? I would assume you would see a truck carrying nothing but one model of car. Especially since automotive manufacturing plants usually only run one or two models (don’t they?). So it would make logistical sense to load up a bunch of cars off the end of the assembly line and drop them off at the dealerships.
This strikes me as very odd. I’m sure I’m overlooking something incredibly simple.
Cars leave the factory with the dealer name and address already on the label. They’re typically ordered by the dealer in anticipation of demand. There are all kinds of formulas for anticipating demand based on every attribute of just about anything retail. So, part 1: cars don’t randomly appear on dealer lots.
Part 2: most cars are shipped the significant portions of their journeys via rail, or where appropriate, via ship. Many, many final assembly plants have rail yards on-site, or at the very least a reasonable distance away. Near these locations, you’ll see car transporters with nothing but the same car, moving the stock to the raid yard. Moving super long distances via truck isn’t very efficient – these things don’t hold a heck of a lot of cars!
Part 3: at the receiving rail yard, there is often an agregating company (may be the OEM) that specializes in receiving all of the rail shipments, and sorting them out by where they’re supposed to go, i.e., to specific dealers. Because a single dealer doesn’t order a batch of 10 red Mustangs at a time, you’re not going to see a truck with 10 red Mustangs on it at one time. You will see, though, a mixture of what that particular dealer has due to him that hour/day/week/whatever - a red Mustang from Flat Rock, a titanium Fusion from Hermosillo, a white F150 from Dearborn, a gray Expedition from Wayne, a Blue Five Hundred from Chicago, a green Taurus from Atlanta, a bronze Ranger from Twin Cities, and a black Town Car from Wixom, a green Crown Vic from St. Thomas, and say a red Freestar from Oakville.
I’ve seen trucks carrying the same model lots of times. I don’t think there’s any mystery herel. There are a huge number of car dealerships around here, so I’d say you just haven’t chanced to see a delivery on the way.
I think you on the right track. Sometimes the internet isn’t the best place to find answers. Call a local dealer and tell them you want to purchase specific model but you want them to send the “Camry” truck to your house for samples. When they tell you tell you there is no such thing as a Camry truck, demand to know why not.
Observation 1 = True
Observation 2 = False
Trust me we often would get many of the same model on the same shipment, and sometimes an entire truck would be the same model and maybe just two colors between the entire truck load.
You are not watching close enough
Yeah figured that must be the case. Like someone said, car carriers don’t carry very many vehicles, so I’d assume that a dealership has to have a car carrier arrive pretty often. Multiply that by the number of dealerships on the GA I-75 corridor (where I do most of my long distance driving) and I would have just thought by chance I would’ve seen a carrier with all one model. Particularily since I would assume when a new model rolls out, a dealer would like to have at least half a dozen or so (a full car carrier load) on the lot for people to browse through and test drive. Oh well, just one of those pointless observations I’m famous for.