Dell Computers Contemplates Cars
Dell Computers wants to sell you a car. According to Automotive News [sub], we're talking expensive cars. Even though high gas prices and a crippled economy have put the brakes on the high end car market, Michael Dell re-thinks different. He sees "opportunity all up and down the spectrum." Dell CEO and former Sonic Automotive President Jeffrey Rachor might just be planning to spend $500m on premium and import car dealerships. Why? "When people are panicking and don't really know what to do, that's probably the period of greatest opportunity from an investor's standpoint to make changes and do good things." OK, but why cars? The elephant in the room: Dell's straight to the customer sales paradigm. Is the long-awaited era of B2C mass customization upon us?
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"Is the long-awaited era of B2C mass customization upon us?" One can only hope so! I hate the way the current system is designed around getting you to take something already on the lot. Why not let me order EXACTLY the configuration I want? I keep a new car for five to ten years and am completely willing to wait a few weeks to get it just how I want it.
Holy crap Jonny, maybe you should READ these very short articles before commenting on them. This does not at all involve "Dell Computers" -- which has been called Dell Inc. for some years BTW. As the article makes clear, this is Michael Dell diversifying his own money outside of his day job. Jeffrey Rachor is NOT the CEO of Dell. Micheal Dell is the CEO of Dell. Rachor has nothing to do with Dell Inc, and is merely with the the automotive joint venture being formed with Michael Dell's money. Kind of early in the day for drinking isn't it?
This is an idea that is WAY PAST OVERDUE. From my own research, the only reason it hasn't already been done is because of the communistic laws that enable\empower\protect the car dealers from the manufacturers. Imagine if you had a company making widgets and politicians made laws that you HAD TO SELL your widgets through (independent of your company) middle men... and you couldn't fire them... and you couldn't refuse to sell to them... and you couldn't force them to provide the buyers of your widgets decent service... and...
There is already a premium/import business doing mass customization... BMW.