Well, although I don't disagree that true transparency is the 100% divestment of any and all information, I don't necessarily alter my stance on how it "should" be re-defined in our industry.
Before the marketing push, transparency was defined as literally as you wrote it. The problem was reality was so far off in the distance it didn't help or hurt anyone if it was never tried. So along come improvements in technology and companies, ironically that dealers pay a ton of money, that decided they could turn "Transparency" into reality, or at least something they could make feel like reality. The cat's out of the bag (The definition) and getting it back in can't happen by reminding everyone the bag is where it belongs, which is what I think a more literal definition does. What you could say we suggest, which is me really pushing this analogy too far, is that we re-train the cat so that it's not clawing the hell out of us. This is tricky because it takes convincing the benefactor of modern transparency that they can actually benefit more by loosening their grip on it. You could say that's us getting the owner of the cat to let us train it (I know, I know, I'm done with the cat analogy I promise).
The point, which may have been lost in that darn analogy, is that if it's between being accurate and realistic we should choose to be realistic. We know that a buyer paying a lower price isn't the end all be all determining factor for a good vs. a bad deal in their minds. Margins continue to fall while consumer surveys remain as negative as ever. It was a similar pain threshold that lead to the willingness of the consumer in the first place to accept anyone's promise of something better and run with it. The consumer again appears to have arrived at a point, likely due to societal changes from tech advancements and the aging of millennials, that they are ready to try something new again. If we are going to do our own defining it will need to be a group effort, "United we stand divided we fall" right? A company like Gurus can make such a change without any of us having a say and if we ignore it eventually it becomes a "get on or get left behind" decision for dealers. I say we get out in front of it this time so it's not about dealers going to where the consumers are, it's both sides coming together on a neutral field like the Florida Gators and Georgia do when they play in Jacksonville. I know, I love my analogies.
