What is a "Stealership"?

Today I read an interesting article about a guy who went undercover as a car salesman to learn the ins and outs of how everything works in that business. I was originally guided to that article by one of my favorite car forums, where people were discussing what it's like to be a car salesman. People commonly refer to dealerships as "stealerships" and I can see where they are coming from in some aspects, but I think that usually the terminology is BS.

First, examples where "stealership" actually applies: 1. You agree on a price and the transaction is seemingly finished, then you find out the dealership wants to charge you $800 in "document fees." Some dealers charge $50, some charge $100, others charge more. Those that have outrageous document fees they they are "helpless" to decrease are probably just trying to fleece you after you've spend hours arranging a deal. 2. They steal your time. My wife and I went to a dealer once for a transaction that was very cut and dry; I qualified for what is know as a "Supplier Discount" at a Chevy dealer and went in to find out what the price would be on a particular car. The salesman left us waiting for more than 15 minutes before returning and requesting that I sign something saying that if I was satisfied with the "mystery price" which could only be accessed via one "special computer" that I'd commit to buying the car. And note that this dealer didn't even have a car I wanted.

Clearly such practices are bad the dealers lose a lot of goodwill when they screw around with people with hidden fees and time-wasting. However, I always chuckle to myself regarding price. Is there really such a thing as "overpaying" for a car? If a car's MSRP is $25K, but deals can be found for $21K on the internet for out-of-town dealerships, if someone actually pays $25K, did they get fleeced? In my opinion the answer is no. Lack of knowledge of market conditions might have led to a transaction where a buyer gave a seller more money than was necessary to close a deal, but at the end of the day the buyer was the one willing to pay $25K for the car, because they valued the car at that amount. As a different example, there are plenty of limited edition cars out there which sell for vast markups. Of course, people complain about said markups but then when they want a car that's incredibly common they want to pay less than invoice. A dealer must make a profit of some sort to make a profit.

Make no mistake, though, I pretty much hate going to dealerships for reasons 1. and 2. I listed above. In a couple years, I'll be looking into a Toyota Sequoia for the family (if we can afford it, if gas isn't $10/gallon), and hopefully by that time, for a car that seems relatively common, it'll be straightforward to arrange a deal with a dealership over e-mail so that the transaction is as smooth as possible. One of my friends recently purchased a car, and after initially hearing "we can't go lower than $500 off MSRP" from a dealer his family had bought many cars from, when he knew that such cars were commonly going for $4K under all over the country, he simply took his business online, where he found another dealer a few miles away that happily arranged a deal with no hassle. Ah, the wonders of technology.