NPR.

RIP

Car dealers don't have the best reputation.

One Gallup poll ranked them as the second least honest profession after lobbyists.

But here in the US, if you want a new car, you have to go through a car dealer as I recently learned.

A lot of sandmules, senior economics correspondent at Time. Welcome back to the show.

And yes, please tell us about your recent car buying experience.

So I thought it was a good negotiator. And then I bought a new Subaru Forester in August.

August, by the way, was not a good time to buy a car because there's just been extremely low inventory all year.

Right, right. And that was caused in part by supply chain issues with the semi conductor and other parts shortages.

And as recently as September, Kelly Bluebook says people are paying on average $48,000 for a new car.

Okay, I did not pay that much, but I did pay $3,000 over the sticker price.

Woo, a lot. I thought you were never supposed to pay over a sticker price.

Yeah, you're not. But because of the low supply and the current market, my choices were paying over sticker price or not getting the car.

And Adrian, that's not all. When I sat down to sign the final papers, the dealership added on $800 and extra fees, including $199 for this security feature called Vin etching that I didn't even want in the first place.

Vin etching woof.

Woof is right. But Adrian, you know what? I blame the government because unless you're buying an electric car more on this later, state laws require consumers like me to buy a new car from a dealer.

This is the indicator for plenty of money. I'm Adrian Ma. Today on the show, why Americans still have to go through car dealerships to buy almost all new cars?

And why many economists argue that car dealers have too much market power?

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Adrian, as you probably know, car dealerships weren't actually a very fun place even before the pandemic.

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