Mercedes Benz is in a better position than high volume sellers such as Toyota to make the transition to online selling because Benz owns most of its high volume sales dealerships In the capital cities while marques like Toyota have hundreds of private franchises nationwide.
Dealer franchises usually have a Franchise Agreement which has to be honoured by both the importer/distributor and the franchise owner.
It will be interesting to see how these Franchise Agreements will fair contractually once the new car dealer role is minimised. Will there be protracted court actions or will the importers/distributors offer compensation to the franchised dealers?
New car franchises have consolidating over the past 20 years. For example Motorama, which was originally a sole Toyota franchise, now has, in addition to Toyota, Mitsubishi, Kia, Ford & Jeep. Should all of these franchises go the Honda way, then there will be lots of surplus real estate along the city motor retail strips, IMO.
