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GM ends eBay sales test

Posted Sep 30 2009, 02:27 PM by Kim Peterson
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General Motors turned to eBay (EBAY) last month in a desperate attempt to sell more cars, hoping for a new sales channel as it shuts down dealerships across the country.

It didn't work. After just seven weeks, GM has decided to end the online program. Dealers say it didn't help them sell more vehicles -- in fact, buyers started lowballing them for better deals, The Wall Street Journal reports.

"We thought the program was successful but that this was not the right time," GM's sales chief told the Journal. GM said it would try again with eBay next year. If GM does revive the effort, it will have learned plenty of lessons.

The program allowed people to submit an offer for a car online, and wait for a dealer to respond. But dealers reported that people were sending in ridiculously low bids, and it became a waste of time to try and sort through silly offers that would probably never amount to anything.

One person offered $2,500 for a $40,000 car, the Journal reported.

Which is not to say that there isn't a future for buying cars online. Many buyers have found success shopping for cars on eBay and other sites. But in this economy, and with GM's well-publicized bankruptcy, the conditions were not right for a GM-eBay alliance. 

Related reading:

GM tests eBay sales

GM's expensive mess

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Can GM stay No. 1?

 

Comments

 

Nothing sold because GM cars suck. Keep trying GM. No matter how much polish you put those turds, they're still turds. Maybe your marketing department will bankrupt the company for good.

Dealers werent dealing anyway. I had a bid $100 below the fleet price that was rejected. I bought a Toyota instead, much happier now. I have had too many GM's over the years, and never realized what I was missing...other than the parts that would fall off or break.

Who would seriously attempt to buy a car online anyway?  Do you take a virtual test drive?  Give me a break.

Hey doc just make sure your floor mats don't come loose.  You could end up wrapped around a tree....or worse!

This sort of blunder happens every single time the factory people try to get involved with a car deal. FUBAR every time one of those dorks get in the middle of it. Also GM, how many times do you have to learn by your mistakes. You idiots.

Let the dealers sell the cars for you. Let the customer cut his own deal on his or her favorite auto and let the business take care of itself. Its how it works.

GM please try to stick to manufacturing and trying to build product that isnt a piece of garbage.

It was a stupid, cost accounting based idea.  If GM want to sell cars over the internet, it should create its own site and use it to create a better positiion in the marketplace.  For a good example, look at the Porsche website.

Just more evidence that the management culture at GM hasn't changed one bit.  In a few years, they'll be looking for taxpayer handouts... again.

Most Americans are really tight for money and credit so they won`t be buying a new car for awhile even with the existence of government rebate or incentive programs like the now old "Cash For Clunkers Program"

Some of these very same Americans can afford to buy a lower priced used car.   There are some sites out there for research and deals like http://www.UsedCarsForSale.TV

General Motors never needed ebay and it's hard to comprehend why they even bothered?....Car's are bought everyday on-line; And anybody that bid's a $100 under fleet price,doesn't really deserve to own a vechicle. BUY A BIKE.

Then the rest of the moron's that b*tch about our tax dollars at work and screw an American company, and they are never going to buy a Big 3 car again; They just don't make any sense at all....How else are we going to get our tax dollars back ?

You just need to keep sending money to the Mother Lands and within a couple more decades nothing of value will be built here, except by low class and under paid labour, that will not  be able to purchase any other products except most of the cheap SH*T that is not made in this country.

Do you really think the fantastic quality that many seem to know so much about, will keep all those standards in place, when there is little competition on the road and they are all from the same piece of cloth or should we say cookie cutter??

Give America a break and those that can't can just kiss my old fat A$$.

GM ought to smarten up and do what Toyota just did.

Issue a voluntary recall on something stupid like floor mats, or tail lights that burn out prematurely, they should just make something up.  That will get GM buyers back to the dealerships and into the showrooms.  

I am fairly young 17 and am trying to understand this.  If Gm made a car for 50,000 and declares bankruptcy, and in the process gets most of there debt wipeout, Wouldn't the car they made for 50,000 cost them less since they dont need to pay debts and investors?  Hypothetically would the car now cost say 3/4 as much, if so why don't they sell it lower to move more vehicles and try to start a new base of future shoppers?  If their new cars are as good as they say they are, take a hit now and you can make up for it with higher revenues in the future as you expand your sales?  Just asking

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