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GM's Newest California Showroom: eBay

225 GM dealers will sell new cars online in a three-week trial

By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.com

August 10, 2009

The car dealers and eBay will announce today that new Buicks, Chevrolets, GMC trucks and Pontiac cars will be for sale on "cobranded" eBay sites, beginning tomorrow (Tuesday) and lasting for at least three weeks. Besides appearing on the co-branded sites with names like gm.ebay.com, the cars will be displayed through eBay Motors, where tens of thousands of used cars change hands each year.

“With 12 million individual car shoppers visiting our site every month, eBay Motors has unique insight into how people prefer to buy their cars,” said Rob Chesney, vice president, eBay Motors.

“Together with eBay Motors, GM and our dealers are reinventing the car-buying experience for our California customers,” said Mark LaNeve, GM vice president of U.S. sales. “As the dealer showroom expands from the parking lot to the laptop, this makes it easier for a customer to browse available new-car inventory, make an offer, buy it now, or send a message asking for more information from a dealer -- all at the customer’s convenience."

It's not an entirely new idea. Many car dealers already sell used cars through eBay Motors but new, never-before-sold cars tend to be a rarity on the site.

A recent J.D. Power & Associates study cites more than 75 percent of new-vehicle buyers in 2008 used the web during their shopping and research process, compared with 70 percent in 2007. The study also found that 2008 marked the largest year-over-year increase in online automotive shopping since 2001.*

Vehicles will be offered through eBay Motors’ traditional formats such as “Buy It Now” (where shoppers agree to pay the advertised price) and eBay’s “Best Offer” option (where buyers indicate the price they are willing to pay and can negotiate online with the dealer for the vehicle).

The eBay sites will also include a tool that lets consumers determine whether they're eligible for a "Cash for Clunkers" rebate.

The three-week trial is being conducted in California because the state includes a large number of tech-savvy consumers -- and because it's by far the biggest auto market in the United States. Also, GM executives admit that they are hoping to improve their standing in California, where Asian and European brands tend to outsell domestic,

Out-of-state consumers can bid on the online offerings but they'll have to contact the dealer to arrange for shipping or pick-up.

Dealers say they're excited about the program, though many are quick to add it should have happened long ago.

"We've found that serious shoppers want it to be easy and have shifted from the traditional forms of researching and purchasing vehicles to getting it all done on the internet," said Ted Nicholas, president and CEO of Three Way Chevrolet in Bakersfield. "In the not too distant past, a customer had to work too hard to find a vehicle and what might be the best offer to be found."

GM emerged from bankruptcy last month and is trimming its product line-up to four brands: Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC, while jettisoning Saab, Hummer, Pontiac and Saturn.

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