Yes, I guess the UK and USA are very different.
In the UK, people select their new car and expect to wait. No one (ever) drives off in it the same day. To drive off the same week would be rare. To have a brand new car the same month, is fortunate. Many cars I am selling at the moment (eg: Golf R, £32,000, I have about 20 or so on order, are due for delivery next March-ish... and that date may slip) take a long time to arrive. That's the factory-build schedule. It's not exactly like a 20-year waiting list for a Trabant in the DDR, but there are some definite similarities. Some cars are available immediately, but immediately in the UK translates to "about 3 weeks".
There are upsides: there is no glut of cars (except in certain cases), cars are factory-fresh, dealers in general don't have to have fire-sales.
I think it is more to do with the mentality of people... Brits are just more patient and happy to queue and to take their place in the queue.
The author Andrew Davis has noted that LINGsCARS is a good example of hedonic decline, where getting the thing we want actually makes us less happy than we were wanting it. For example, he cites: "A Dutch psychologist found that survey subjects were 8 times happier planning their vacation than actually on vacation." So, my website gives people leasing a car an interesting journey as well as a happy purchasing experience. "Hedonic decline" is a bit of mumbo-jumbo to me, but... there is definitely something in it.
Note: If in the USA people can get the new car the same day, that takes away a massive joy of anticipation and longing for something (eg looking at Xmas gifts for weeks, waiting to open them) that is surely a great experience. People log into my LINGO system hundreds and hundreds of times before a car delivery, because they are excited. That excitement is a magical thing.
Drop Shipping
But my model is far more than drop-shipping. I am the only customer contact for the whole process. Customers need managing and maintaining for the whole period (in the Golf R case, 6-months) and I do this on my transcribed on-line LINGO system - the best in the World. Customers get personal chats with real humour and sometimes it gets hairy. We laugh, joke, rip the piss and get angry. It's not benign. But at the end of it, we know each other, and they love my service, because I tell the truth, warts and all. Very few car dealers in the UK do that, they take the "never say anything bad" route, which means customers often get lied to, and get frustrated.
I organise everything, the first contact my customers have with the car dealer is often the delivery guy on the day. They often don't know who the dealer is, until the delivery day.
Dealers get a ready stream of qualified orders, confident they are real. They have no showroom overhead and the deals from me don't need salesmen, just an administrator. The cars often don't touch the dealership, they can be delivered from logistic compounds by the logistic companies direct to my customers if the dealer prefers.
As I say, I have £millions of new cars on order. No money changes hands on the orders, it's all done 100% on trust. My customers don't pay deposits. The upside of that (for me) is that I can have zero borrowings, no credit lines, no bank manager telling me what to do, no money worries, a large positive bank balance, cash coming out of my ears, and I spend my day with customers...not worrying about cash-flow and gearing and leverage.
USA
To run my business in the *whole* USA would be hard, it's just too big. The UK is a perfect size, for that.
I think I would have to compete on service (which wouldn't be too difficult) but I think the emotional slapping into shape that every customer goes through (in my system) would be wearing on me in the USA. People are so much more unreasonably demanding and expressive.
In the UK (to generalise), people are self-deprecating, and do everything with humour, and know they are usually wrong, old chap. They were bombed by the Germans and said "bad luck, old bean". They step back and have a cup of tea and consider stuff. Cricket and cucumber sandwiches. British Top Gear, is real life. They hate the Europeans, know they will lose the Eurovision Song Contest, and it's how people are. No one has a Union Jack in their garden, they have The Queen and they mumble the national anthem. 15 years ago when I couldn't swim, and capsized a sailing dinghy in a big lake in Norfolk (Alan Partridge, not Virginia), people sailed past shouting "nice day for a swim".
In the USA it seems (to me) there are far more people who think they are right and can be set in their views and it's "ME" "NOW" or you will be shot, etc. It's definites... gays, abortion, Trump, NRA, tea-party, everyone has a flag, Fred and his Westboro Baptist Church etc. Cops have guns and V8s, people call people "sir". Napalm. US Top Gear isn't funny. Footballers wear helmets and there are commercial breaks after each kick. Crack and crystal meth. Pick-ups are trucks and they are BIG... hence your system. People don't travel, they don't need to. Texas. Awful fizzy beer. Fliippng the finger. California girls. But, in the end: you're PROUD.
(I understand that's a massive generalisation)
Ling
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My grandfather (a retailer and dealer over 70 years) likes to tell stories about the products that were sold on an order basis. One in particular was quite genius where he successfully mimicked the UK system by building a large fence blocking the view of the excess of VWs in the back lot. The sales people were trained to act as if the only cars in stock were ones for test driving. He said this system worked for a few years when VW wasn't going for huge sales numbers, and there weren't that many competing dealers. He said this was the most profitable way to sell a car.... create a low supply/high demand perception. Customers were more grateful of their purchases. Of course, people who pay more are usually more excited and happier.