Buying a car used to be an experience so soul-scorching, so confidence-splattering, so existentially rattling that an entire car company was based on the promise that you wouldn’t have to come in contact with it.

Orlean uses comic hyperbole—“soul-scorching,” “confidence-splattering,” “existentially rattling”—to capture the dread many consumers associate with traditional car buying: opaque pricing, high-pressure negotiation, and fear of being manipulated. The punchline is cultural and economic: the experience became so notoriously unpleasant that it created a market opportunity for a brand built on avoiding the dealership encounter altogether. The line points to a broader theme in consumer culture: when a transaction becomes emotionally punishing, companies can differentiate not by the product itself but by redesigning (or removing) the stressful human interaction at the center of the purchase.