Kristian Stout and Subi Ramakrishnan Cited on PressReader on Auto Dealership Costs and Direct Sales Debate

Kristian Stout & Subi Ramakrishnan May 25, 2026

A PressReader article examines growing criticism of the traditional automobile dealership model as consumers increasingly question high vehicle prices, dealership markups, and restrictions on direct-to-consumer sales. The piece references research from ICLE’s Kristian Stout and Subi Ramakrishnan on how franchise laws can increase vehicle costs through added inventory, financing, and dealership overhead. Read the full piece here.

A re­cent sur­vey released in the U.S. by the Inter­na­tional Cen­ter for Law and Eco­nom­ics (ICLE) raised a few hackles by claim­ing, “State laws requir­ing auto­mobile man­u­fac­tur­ers to sell through fran­chised deal­ers add an estim­ated $3,934 to $4,992 to the price of a new vehicle, func­tion­ing as a `middle­man tax’ that raises costs and lim­its innov­a­tion.” These are Amer­ican num­bers high­light­ing an Amer­ican sys­tem, but Canada’s deal­er­ship model func­tions in much the same way.