Despite low take-rate, GM reportedly extending eBay experiment

General Motors' experiment in selling new cars and trucks on eBay hasn't exactly been a raging success story. Despite this, America's largest automaker has extended the program, which will now run through the end of the month instead of halting on its originally scheduled ending date of September 8th.

According to estimates from Automotive News, GM has listed some 16,000 new vehicles on the auction site but has sold only 50 of those machines. That's not the entire story, though, says Mark LaNeve, GM vice president of U.S. sales:

We are very pleased with the progress of the initial promotion and its ability to raise awareness and consideration for our outstanding new-vehicle inventory... The numbers on eBay itself aren't significant, but we didn't think it would be. The dealers want to continue it, and so we are working on making some tweaks to it and continue.

The General says that 4,000 or so eBay shoppers have negotiated with the automaker to purchase a vehicle, but the vast majority of those transactions have not taken place online. Instead, a large portion of those buyers contacted the dealership directly to finalize a sale or haggle on a price after viewing the auction. And so the experiment continues...

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]