REPORT: Selling cars on eBay starts off slow for GM
General Motors is hoping to get a sales boost by selling its vehicles on eBay, but so far the General's newest tactic to move metal hasn't generated much in the way of sales. The pilot program, which is currently only running at 225 California dealerships, has reportedly generated just 45 sales through nine days. Dealers have so far posted over 16,000 vehicles on the site.
While sales have been slow thus far, interest has been healthy. eBay says there have been 630,000 visits to the GM site and 960,000 searches of listed vehicles. One dealer told Automotive News that while he had only sold one vehicle on eBay, others have seen the vehicles on the auction site and gone to the dealership to purchase in person. That makes sense, considering the fact that not everybody is comfortable spending $20-30K on a new car sight unseen.
GM must at least happy with amount of
[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req'd]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Anthony Gentavoe 10:37AM (8/21/2009)
Am I the only one that thinks that initiating a program like this at the same time Cash For Clunkers program is going on would likely negatively skew the results. With a $3500-$4500 incentive in place at the physical dealership, why would anyone shop on eBay?
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Aznauto 10:38AM (8/21/2009)
Most people who can shop around for their cars online would not buy a car from GM.
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nrb 12:18PM (8/21/2009)
Care to share the logic behind your nonsensical statement?
Aznauto 1:31PM (8/21/2009)
GM cars are well behind of its rivals such Hyundai,Honda, Nissan or Toyota, most of GM car buyers are typically from Mid west and buy them because of their connection to the company or there are no other dealerships around.
jay tee 7:56AM (8/23/2009)
Aznauto,
The idea is to sell cars a different way, to a different audience, is it not? Many people have bad experiences with dealers (GM, Toyota, Honda, heck, don't get me started on BMW), so maybe this could be a way of getting a person to purchase their product without having to deal with the dealer during the transaction. If they followed much of your advice 20 years ago, they would have been bankrupt earlier than 2009. This is a new idea, an experiment, one that I think will eventually pay off.
Likewise, GM isn't 'far behind rivals' as you say. Do some research, don't lose yourself in the herd of sheep.
Muscle Dude 10:41AM (8/21/2009)
GM is doing it all wrong. This eBay thing is focusing too much on the GM brand and not the products themselves. People buy cars, not GM. J.D. Power sums up exactly why this eBay--and others similar--will fail here: http://www.cardealerreviews.org/?p=116479
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Danimal 11:10AM (8/21/2009)
Are you aware your link makes no mention of GM's eBay strategy??
David 10:46AM (8/21/2009)
The smart people at GM thought they would target the more web-savvy people in California with this eBay setup. Since they had little market share in Cali, it was lower risk to conflict with a stronger dealer, say in Michigan. Unfortunately, little market share in California also means people aren't driving, considering or even looking at GM cars. Which makes the entire experiment flawed from day one.
I guess eBay forgot to tell them that if they sell commodities on eBay, like cell phone charger, or GM cars for that matter, it will never get a good price. You have to sell something people really want and willing to bid it up to get a better price.
Is this what GMReinvention means? Desperation leading to more stupid decisions?
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alex 10:59AM (8/21/2009)
it's a great way for people to find what dealers have the car they want even if they don't end up buying off ebay. and you can't tell me that listing on ebay is SOOOO expensive that it isn't worth it. the reward might not be huge, but the cost is so small that they're better off doing it than not.
Tagg 12:02PM (8/21/2009)
alex,
You can already see what cars dealers have if you use the any of the GM brand sites. Just go to the locate dealer tab, put in your zip code and model and you can see what they have in stock. Some websites like Ford's let you build the car to your spec then you can search the nearby dealers and it shows you exact matches and cars similarly equippped.
So while it doesn't cost much to post on eBay it's somewhat pointless because GM already does it.
Farmboy 10:47AM (8/21/2009)
A smart idea + minimal advertising = FAIL.
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jpm100 12:33PM (8/21/2009)
Their ebay presence is Advertising. Probably more to do with the idea than actual sales.
Tagg 10:53AM (8/21/2009)
I'm not sure about this. Given our nations current economic situation and the fact that a car is the second biggest purchase we make I don't think people will be very comfortable buying a car on Ebay. I also think when people hear the word 'Ebay' they think of used iPods, video games, and collectibles. It might be hard to get people think associate Ebay with Cadillac CTS or Malibu. Maybe if GM set up their own site for it that didn't have the eBAY stigma but I still have a lot of doubts.
In then end it looks like it will be just another research tool, not a point of transaction.
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psullama81 11:00AM (8/21/2009)
i live in new york, and i've visited the site several times even though i can't buy there to check out how steep the deals are, i'm looking to buy a tahoe in november/december and i just want to do some homework and then take back the best deal i can find on eBay to my local dealer and make him match it, what's interesting is that different dealers are giving different levels of discounts on their pricing, if you search for a certain vehicle, even a certain trim, and then sort by price you get results sorted by the buy-it-now price which doesn't necessarily match up with a sorted list of MSRP, also specifically annoying in my search is the inability to filter by drivetrain (2WD or 4WD) or specifically by 1LT and 2LT trims
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bassplayer02 11:13AM (8/21/2009)
What makes it more difficult is that there is thousands of listings. Pull up Silverados and it is a bit overwhelming. Makes it a lot harder to find something.
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katatonics 11:13AM (8/21/2009)
Next GM will be listing new vehicles on Craigslist.
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why not the LS2LS7? 11:55AM (8/21/2009)
I just did some searching. Indeed, the prices are awful.
I think GM kind of missed the point here. If I'm going to buy unseen, I'm going to have to save a good chunk of change.
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Dude 12:09PM (8/21/2009)
"If I'm going to buy unseen"
You can see the car. Just go to a dealer. Try it out, drive it, kick it, sit in it, etc. Then buy the same car online. Yeah, it's not THE exact same instance of the car but it is THE same car.
GM is actually doing something very smart here. There is no longer need for a dealer and they're trying something out. They've already given notice to their dealer network that the end is coming. Maybe not for a while, but it is coming.
There will be a day when you can go to a "test drive center", spend as much time as you like examining, testing and driving the car you're interested in and then buy it online when you're ready. No dealer. No middle man. (Of course, there will need to be "service centers" to go along with this model.)
Saves everybody money and it's a much better experience.
Ligor 12:52PM (8/21/2009)
@ dude,
take it up a notch and if all there needs to be is a test center, then why not just put an order in directly form to the assembly line and there pops your car and ships to the test site for you to pick it up. this why there is no need to have inventory and you build the car to order.
Infra 2:34PM (8/21/2009)
@dude & Ligor,
Dealership franchise laws prohibit manufacturers from selling cars directly. You are still buying it through the dealership with the ebay store.