- Connect
- Login
- Print Subscription
|
Welcome,
| |
| |
- Most Commented
- Most Commented
- Most Emailed
- Most Emailed
- Popular
- Popular
« News Home
EBay, GM to start car-selling trial Tuesday 
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hundreds of General Motors' California dealers will let consumers haggle over the prices of new cars and trucks through the eBay online marketplace under a trial that begins Tuesday.
About 225 of California's 250 GM dealers are set to take part in the program. They will be selling Buick, Chevrolet, GMC and Pontiac vehicles on cobranded Web sites through eBay Inc.'s online auto marketplace, eBay Motors, until Sept. 8. The cars will also be searchable through eBay Motors and eBay's main site.
Although the companies previously said such a trial was in the works, details weren't released until Monday.
The trial is part of Detroit-based General Motor Co.'s turnaround plan, making more official a practice some of its dealers had already participated in on their own. It expands an existing partnership covering GM certified used vehicles sold through eBay.
It also marks a shift for San Jose, Calif.-based eBay, since most of the vehicles sold on eBay Motors - a site that sells various types of vehicles and auto parts - have traditionally been used.
Starting Tuesday, eBay visitors will be able to visit Web pages like gm.ebay.com and chevy.ebay.com, where they can browse new 2008 and 2009 vehicles, ask dealers questions and figure out financing. Select 2010 models also will be available.
The cobranded sites will also include a Web tool currently on eBay Motors that helps shoppers determine if they're qualified to trade in their old car for money toward a new one under the government's just-refilled "cash-for-clunkers" stimulus program.
Car buyers will be able to choose between the two standard options currently offered on eBay Motors: Negotiating a price with a dealer through the site or purchasing right then at a fixed price. Cars will be picked up at the dealerships.
EBay Motors Vice President Rob Chesney said the companies decided to run the trial in California because there are many tech-savvy consumers there. EBay users who live outside California can contact dealers to see if they're willing to sell and ship vehicles to them, he said.
- Requires free registration.
Comments
The liquidated assets of both the old and new GM are soon to follow!
GREAT HOPE IT WORKS WELL GO GM
Really? That's the answer to GM's troubles... eBay? Really? I'm speechless.
Yeah... because I know I for one would much rather buy a car on eBay than go a half a mile to my nearest dealership and test drive one.
A few years ago I sat in the plant manager's meeting at the assembly plant in Lordstown and saw the cost per car figures. They were less than $1,300 for a Cavalier at the time. That included TOTAL cost to manufacture the car... everything from parts to plant payroll to paying the electric bill.
They turn around and sell them at "a loss" for $15,000. So they sell for roughly $12,000 per car more than it costs to manufacture and they cannot make a profit on them.
Maybe they should look more into reducing their astronomical, non-manufacturing spending so they can reduce what they sell cars for, make a profit and start to turn around instead of looking to eBay.
But then again common sense is what keeps me from getting a million dollar salary as a car czar.
I cannot fathom the market for internet vehicle purchases is very large because, as ytown alluded to, you really need to test drive a car and see it in front of you because it is such a major purchase.
If GM cars really cost that little to manufacture no wonder they have virtually no resale value relative to competitors. What an absolute bassackwards way to run a company. Spend less manufacturing the product and thereby lowering its quality so you can cover the costs asscoiated with things that have no direct effect on the product itself anymore. Brilliant.
A trial is when 10-15 of your 250 dealerships roll it out, not when 225 roll it out. The notion that they chose CA because consumers there are more tech-savvy consumers is BS, though; CA is probably the most highly-regulated and expensive state to do business from an employment perspective. It is a cost-cutting move from an overhead perspective, if deemed successful in CA it will be rolled out wide.