[1] http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/12/171814201/episode-...
* Saturn tried the "no-haggle" new car buying experience. People generally liked this, though Saturn doesn't exist anymore.
* "closing a dealer is hard". Dealers have to pay for the land they own. The cars on their lot tend to be bought with money from the bank (a bank really owns the cars). The dealers just have to pay insurance/interest on the cars. The longer a car is on the lot, the more insurance and interest the dealer has to pay. If a dealer isn't selling cars to pay the bills, they will shutdown.
* Dealership "look". My knowledge is only from Texas.... Some brands, like Lexus and Cadillac set some very strict looks for the dealership. Specific signage, layout, etc... A manufacturer can set standards the dealer must live up to. Also, if a dealership ranks below a certain score on their customer surveys, the manufacturer can close them down.
* Pricing... yes, a middle man increases the cost of something. But that middle man can help explain features, is there to help deal with problems, and as they tend to be more locally rooted than an auto-maker, will try (hopefully) try harder to please their customers. Why do we have to pay real-estate agents so much? Good agents really help a buyer, same could (hopefully) be said for a car sales person.
* (edit addition) Why are sales people jerks? This will heavily depend on the dealership you are dealing with. Management of a dealership does a lot to shape the experience for their customers. A few things: sales people are paid a % of the money they hold over the cost of the car, so they are financially incentivized to keep the car price high. A car that has been on a lot for a long time has incentives added to it for a sales person. Sales people get bonuses based on number of cars sold. Sales people sometimes get bonuses based on their customer surveys (or are required to keep a certain average or be fired). Dealers are allocated new shipments of cars based on past sales, so a lot of dealers want to sell as many cars as possible (if they are trying to grow); dealers that don't care about growing will be less flexible about pricing.
Though, I agree that the car buying experience should adapt as information about cars is more easily accessible, it would require all of the states redoing the state auto franchise laws.
The auto makers of back then dug their own grave with their business practices.
Another argument I've heard is about sales tax. If an auto-maker could sell direct to customers, it could (possibly) be treated as interstate commerce and avoid directly collecting the sales tax. So it's in the state interest to keep dealerships around.
I'm generally sympathetic to the notion that auto manufacturers should be able to sell direct subject to whatever contractual promises they may have made to existing franchisees. That said I'm unconvinced that, from the consumer perspective, there's going to be a huge difference between a luxury brand car dealership network such as those that exist for BMW and Mercedes and Tesla-owned and operated locations that do things like: service, helping to arrange financing, take trade-ins, showroom, offer test drives, etc. Sounds a lot like a dealer to me. As you note, it's really a false dichotomy between manufacturer-operated network on the one hand and an uncontrolled Wild West of franchises on the other.
EDIT: Spelling.
That's mostly due to internal politics at GM when they were going bankrupt. Even though Saturn was one of the divisions making a profit, they got the axe.
Once again, internal company politics being a terrible proxy for rational decision making.
