As of June 9 he cannot sell the inventory at market price due to franchise rules. Value has been forcibly removed. That's theft.

Come on. Having agreed to a set of rules, you can't call it theft when they are applied.

I feel very sorry for these people, but the market has changed a lot since the old days when people went into what was essentially a service facility to buy their new car. These days people want an "experience" including a visit to a really cool showroom with lots of cars to choose including demo vehicles they can borrow. That's a big dealer scenario.

Toyota is making a big thing about service now as well, encouraging new car buyers to check out their pristine service departments with multiple bays and identical sets of high-quality gear laid out neatly by enthusiastic uniformed staff. People like that sort of thing, especially if service is built into the deal. To compete you really don't want Mr 20-Sales-per-Year in his dated showroom that he has to be forced to upgrade and his old-school service department where you don't want to brush against anything if you're wearing good clothes. ;-) To survive, the manufacturers have to be able to compete. They're already in catchup mode and can't afford to focus on the stragglers. Shame, but true.