I guess the new business model being presented is the dealer network owning the company (as opposed to the other way around), and the "company" being centered on design and marketing, as opposed to manufacturing. In some ways - but on a larger and more expensive scale - it reminds me of how the computer industry changed from corporate-owned manufacturing, to everyone using four or five no-name companies in Taiwan for everything. It worked out pretty well for the major players in that industry (Dell, Compaq, Apple, etc.), so I wonder how it will work out for cars.<p>I'm not sure, however, how it will work out with the labour situation for factories (I'm thinking long-term, once their two-year contract with GM expires). In order to make this work, you'll have to have some free-standing auto plants willing to bid for the contracts to build the cars; an industry which doesn't currently exist (almost all auto factories are owned by car manufacturers). Conventional economics says that in order to get prices down with this process, you'd have to have competition in the bidding process for these plants, but I'm not convinced that there would be enough (any) plants who would bid for them. I'm also not sure how the existing supplier network would work out, and how they'd stay in business.<p>All-in, it will be interesting how this shakes out over the next five to ten years - if it works, it's got the potential to change how the industry works.