Chapter 173: The Horror of Overturning the Traditional Car Selling Model – Eliminating Middlemen and Their Profits

In the semi-suspended VIP room on the second floor of the Xinghai Technology Holographic Projection showroom, Chu Xuan was leaning so far over the glass railing that half his body was hanging out.

His red leopard-print shirt was soaked through with sweat, and the tissue in his hand had long since been crushed into a pulp.

"Mr. Lu, this move of yours is absolutely brilliant."

Chu Xuan stared at the desolate BMW 4S dealership across the street, his mouth stretching wide enough to reach his ears.

"The salespeople over there must be staring at each other blankly, left with nothing to do but drink the northwest wind right now."

Lu Jingming sat on the leather sofa, one hand tucked into the pocket of his faded jeans.

He held a green plastic lighter between his fingertips, flicking open the metal lid with a "click."

A deep blue flame flared up, reflecting the unreasonable arrogance in his eyes.

"It's just an appetizer; the real show is downstairs."

He casually snapped the lid shut with a crisp sound, his voice sounding very laid-back.

Downstairs, the five-thousand-square-meter showroom was bustling with noise.

A middle-aged man in an old jacket with a slightly balding forehead was shoved to the very front row by the surging crowd.

Old Wei clutched a faded canvas bag tightly, sweat from his forehead streaming down the corners of his eyes.

In the past, when buying a car, he had been swindled out of tens of thousands of yuan in unjust expenses by those silver-tongued salespeople at 4S dealerships.

This time, he had learned his lesson and tucked a voice recorder into his pocket beforehand.

Old Wei swallowed dryly, looking tremulously at the Holographic Projection AI guide in front of him, which was emitting a deep blue glow.

"Um... Miss, I'd like to ask."

As he asked, Old Wei kept a tight grip on the voice recorder in his pocket, terrified of being scammed.

"If I buy this car with a loan, how much is the financial service fee?"

The Holographic Projection AI flickered, and a cold, ethereal mechanical female voice instantly echoed throughout the showroom.

"Respected customer, Xinghai Technology has no financial service fees."

"Whether paying in full or by loan, there are no additional processing fees."

Old Wei froze, his mouth slightly agape, thinking something was wrong with his ears.

"Then... what about the license plate registration fee? Surely there's an outbound delivery fee?"

He asked insistently, his face full of wariness.

"And I have to buy a ten-thousand-yuan comprehensive insurance policy at your store to pick up the car, right?"

He rattled off all the tricks used by traditional 4S dealerships in one breath.

This conversation was livestreamed to the entire internet by the lenses of hundreds of automotive bloggers on the scene.

Tens of millions of netizens watching through their screens broke into a cold sweat.

Everyone was waiting for Xinghai Technology to show its blood-sucking capitalist fox tail.

Without even half a second of hesitation, the Holographic Projection AI projected a clean, clear digital bill into mid-air.

"The national unified retail price for the xinghai su1 is 209,900 yuan, with no license plate registration fees, no outbound delivery fees, and no mandatory interior packages."

The AI's voice rang out with resounding clarity in the showroom, which had fallen silent for a moment.

"For vehicle insurance, please choose a third-party agency to purchase it yourself; Xinghai Technology will never bundle sales."

"You only need to scan the code to pay for the car, and the Mecha Factory will deliver the new vehicle directly to your specified address within seven working days."

Silence.

The onlookers, who had been packed together like a pot of porridge, all stopped moving.

Old Wei stared at the huge payment QR code in mid-air, his hands shaking so much that he couldn't even unzip his bag.

No middlemen? No layers of blood-sucking tricks?

He tremblingly took out his phone and aimed it at the Holographic Projection in mid-air.

"Beep—"

"Alipay received: 209,900 yuan."

A crisp notification sound rang out.

The Holographic Projection AI bowed slightly: "Congratulations on becoming our first car owner; the system has automatically upgraded you to lifetime free maintenance service."

The entire showroom instantly erupted in cheers that nearly blew the roof off.

At the same time, the barrage in the livestream across the internet broke the servers, like a flood breaching a dam.

"Holy sh*t! They really don't charge a single extra cent? They won't even force-sell floor mats?"

"I'm devastated! I just picked up an Audi last month, and they charged me a 5,000 yuan license plate fee and a 20,000 yuan interior package!"

"Brother above, I'm worse off than you. That financial fee cost me 18,000, which was actually just the commission kickback the salesperson took!"

In an instant, countless netizens were burning with rage.

They scrambled to dig out the exorbitant purchase details from when they bought joint-venture cars in the past and posted them directly in the comment sections of major platforms.

Various receipts for charges under all sorts of pretexts covered the screens densely.

The undergarments of traditional 4S dealerships, which relied on hidden consumption to suck blood, were stripped away completely by this move from Xinghai Technology, leaving nothing behind.

In the second-floor VIP room.

Xia Weiliang was barefoot, squatting on the edge of her gaming chair.

She crunched the strawberry-flavored candy in her mouth with a "snap" and typed on the keyboard with a disdainful expression.

"A bunch of country bumpkins who have never seen the world."

Xia Weiliang rolled her eyes dramatically, the plastic candy stick bobbing in her mouth.

"Getting skinned alive just to buy a car, they're truly incredibly stupid."

Chu Xuan leaned toward the screen, watching the trending topics list filled with entries cursing traditional car companies.

"Mr. Lu, this dimensionality-reduction strike of yours is too ruthless!"

He wiped the oily sweat from his face, his leopard-print short-sleeved shirt swaying along with his movements.

"You've smashed the rice bowls of the distributors into powder; who's going to go to a 4S dealership to get fleeced in the future!"

Lu Jingming rubbed the casing of the lighter with his fingers, his eyes cold and sharp.

"Doing business is simply about exchanging money for goods; why mess around with so many flashy tricks?"

He snorted coldly, "Do they really think the common people are ATMs?"

Lu Jingming stood up, looking down at the crowd downstairs who were frantically scanning codes to make purchases.

"Since they want to play the game of joint boycotts, let's see who ends up starving to death."

This storm of no middlemen profiting from price differences was far more powerful than anyone had imagined.

Within a mere twenty-four hours.

Traditional 4S dealerships across the country erupted in an unprecedented wave of order cancellations.

Car owners who had paid deposits would rather forfeit their two or three thousand yuan in deposits than keep their orders for joint-venture cars.

They turned right around and went to the official Xinghai Technology website to queue up for available cars.

What was even more fatal was that those dealers, who were already struggling to survive, completely broke down.

They couldn't sell cars, yet they had to pay high rents and support a large number of salespeople who couldn't earn commissions.

Once the capital chain broke, the whole game was lost.

Three days later, outside the BBA China headquarters building in the capital.

Dark clouds pressed down, and the muggy air carried the scent of an impending storm.

Hundreds of major dealers from all over the country, dressed in suits, sat on the steps outside the main entrance with no dignity left.

In their hands, they held ten-meter-long banners with black characters on a white background.

"BBA, terminate the network and settle accounts! Dealers refuse to be leeks!"

"Blood-sucking car companies, give us back our hard-earned money!"

The roars, amplified by loudspeakers, shook the glass curtain wall of the headquarters building, making it hum.

On the top floor of the building, in the president's conference room.

Thomas, the president of BBA China, was supporting himself with both hands pressed hard against the mahogany conference table.

His expensive handmade tie had long since been pulled crooked, and his blonde hair was stuck to his forehead by sweat.

Through the gap in the blinds, he watched the group of dealers downstairs who were forcing his hand, his back teeth grinding audibly.

The foreign executives in the conference room looked ashen, not daring to even breathe loudly.

The foundation had collapsed.

If they couldn't appease this group of dealers today, the distribution channels they had spent twenty years laying out in the Chinese market would instantly fall apart.

"Mr. Thomas, we must make a decision immediately."

The vice president beside him wiped the cold sweat from his temples, his voice shaking uncontrollably.

"Xinghai Technology's direct sales model has made the bottom-line prices completely transparent; nobody even looks at the cars in our stores anymore!"

Thomas turned around abruptly and slammed his hand hard onto the table.

The solid wood table let out a dull, loud thud.

"That madman surnamed Lu, does he think he can overturn the foundation of a century of automotive industry with these kinds of tactics?"

His eyes were bloodshot, like a gambler pushed into a dead end.

"Tell the PR department to release a poster immediately; tomorrow, we launch a synchronized nationwide counterattack!"

The vice president was stunned, his legs shaking.

"What are we launching? Our brand premium has been completely shattered; what cards do we have left to play?"

Thomas stared fixedly at the Xinghai Technology investigation report on the table, the corner of his eye twitching violently twice.

"Go tell that bunch of trash downstairs."

He gasped for air, his voice as hoarse as if it had been sanded down with sandpaper.

"Starting tomorrow, give me a 100,000 yuan official price cut on all BBA fuel and electric vehicle series!"