There is something very problematic I see with this thread that was touched on very briefly with the "old school Internet " comment, but not explored deeply.
The days of the car salesperson are finished, and have been for several years now. The people being hired in to the retail side are not ideal. For the most part they are in their early 20s, or even younger, with no real formal education and very limited work experience (mainly in fast food or other close to minimum wage job), or they are middle-aged ne'er-do wells who've skated by in life with no real success. Most of the real salespeople have either left the business (retirement, shifting industries, etc.) or become managers. In many places I've been to, the process is for the "salesperson" to show the car and test drive with the customer, and the manager comes out and works the money. They are completely incapable of working a deal, and even the test drive, trade walk, or needs analysis is beyond their capabilities, or they are too lazy to do them. This is also partly managements fault for not providing the proper training, motivation, structure, and process, but for many of the people being hired, no amount of training, structure, and process will make any difference because they have never had to consider those things before and don't know how to handle them.
Objectively look at the people being hired at your store, then try to truthfully tell me I am wrong. With almost no exceptions, you cant' do it.
The BDC was a catch-22 from the very beginning. They were begun because salespeople weren't doing their follow-up properly and weren't handling incoming phones the right way. Once begun, the BDC was an excuse by most salespeople to do even less with customer follow-up and mining. Then the Internet took off with all the leads, and customers, and more, and if salespeople weren't doing their jobs right BEFORE the Internet, it was a guarantee that they wouldn't do it afterwards.
So the question becomes not whether or not a BDC is needed, but what is the structure of the BDC going to be moving forward. How involved will the floor people be? The managers? What will the pricing be? How will it be presented to the customer? Do we suggest alternative choices right away, or not? How deep do we go on trades and financing? Do we try the Carvana method or do we avoid that owing to the number of dealer choices the customer has?
Those are the questions.