Interesting idea. I'm curious as to what the results of this experiment might be

If only GM made a single car I was even remotely interested in buying. These tax payer gifts working well for Government Motors.

I hope this doesn't succeed because dealerships will take an even bigger blow. I'm all for the small-town dealerships and if the ebay strategy works my good friends at Four Seasons Auto Plaza may be out of a job. Woo.

Not true. They'll need salespeople doing the negotiating with the ebayers. It'll probably be like buying a car through the local dealer's website. I bought my Jetta that way. Found it new online, dealt with the dealer online, then on the phone, and finally in person. Plus people may be better negotiators online rather than in person. Could provide more sales, ultimately. I gotta say I'm curious myself. Now if only GM had better designers...

To restate what the article already says: dealerships, not General Motors, are conducting the sales. As a matter of fact, most states have franchise laws preventing automakers from selling directly to the public, forcing automakers to sell through a franchised dealers. GM is partnering with eBay in effort to provide their dealers with another avenue to sell cars. Why not? GM and their dealers need to move metal and eBay is looking for new opportunities given their recent decline.

I can almost see this as an evolution of the Saturn "no-haggle pricing" model. If you've already decided what you'd like to buy, why not turn to eBay and shop dealers for the best price? While this may not serve the dealer's best interest, competing against a multitude of others online, it's certainly a plus for prospective buyers. It simply provides a more convenient way of doing what customers already do: price shop.

@ krazynutz

My point was that dealerships would have to split profits with ebay, but I understand what you are saying.

Personally I think GM designers are doing a very good job considering what their vehicles looked like 7 years ago. 2004 marked a new era in terms of looks and quality of GM vehicles in my opinion.

cool does the cars come in packages like they do if it's from newegg?I hope it doesn't come in a UPS truck or i'll be pissed to see a car in a ups truck and gets damaged

@ aoster87:

I'll give you that. Their designs have definitely improved but they're still sub-par to most imports. What really plagues a lot of American cars are their interiors. A lot of them, even on pricier models, still feel cheap. They've gotten better though.

@ Krazynutz

The interiors are still in need for improvement.

I am a proud owner of a 2004 Malibu and I couldn't be happier with it. I will however be honest and say that imports, particularly BMW, Nissan, and of course Mercedes-Benz are usually better than their domestic competitor, if it exists.

Lots of people say that my 98 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP's interior is cheap, but I couldn't be happier with it. I don't like how hard and simple today's cars interiors are. The Grand Prix just has everything where I expect it to be, and it's wired and put together just how I would expect it to. Makes upgrading and working on it a breeze.

@ aoster87:

My brother has an 08 (09?) Malibu. I will say that it indeed has a slick interior. Very nice.

@ Krazynutz

I am sure you are thinking of the '09, it is the new model year for the Malibu. I wish I had one, they are slick cars indeed.

But back to the article. Mr. Horsepower said that the dealerships themselves will be the ones conducting sales. I understand that the dealership salesmen will be the ones negotiating sales like krazynutz said, but profits must be shared between the dealership and ebay. This could be a good thing IF car sales increase to the point that the split income between dealership and ebay will exceed what the dealership would typically make monthly or quarterly. I don't really care about ebay and am taking the side of the dealership here. Per sale the dealership will see less profit. The dealership will have to sell more cars (I doubt that will happen any time soon) to make the same profits that it would selling a few less vehicles. The point in this is that in the long run, assuming car sales stay relatively the same, dealerships will take a hit and more employees will lose jobs, as if dealerships haven't been hit hard enough.

LOL everyone here is out to lunch.


car dealers don't make much, if ANYTHING on the sale of one car .

They make their money by hitting sales quota's set out by the car manufacture.

Also , don't you think GM would have already negotiated with Ebay on what their cut would be. Cause i would place my years salary that its a set amount per model of car.

Whatever happened to the days you could buy a car directly off the production line and pay a hell of a lot less?

Both a sister in law and a neighbor payed twice as much as their vehicles were worth from slimy dealers...

Buy it Now w/free Shipping??

Actually dealer makes anywhere from nothing...to 5-6 thousand on a car, depending how bad they need it gone. For example, the price you see on the sticker is MSRP, the dealer gets the car at invoice. I have bought all my new cars at invoice, or just under when a dealer has excess inventory that is a model year behind and needs to get rid of it fast.

On average though a dealer probably makes between 7-8% on a new car sale.

Let me know when cars are sold on Newegg.

Car salesmen don't make much on the sale of a new car. It can go from as little as $200 to $600-700 depending on the options he manages to sell. However, when he sells a used car, the commission can easily rise around $3000.

I don't know this trial will turns out for GM but I hope they get back on track. It's good to see they're finally catching up with the rest of the world and trying out new alternatives. If it works, it will take some time to balance and distribute the sales and profits between the virtual and physical sales, but it could work. I don't like their cars much, but it's always good to have competition and to keep our money here.

you cannot compare the interior of a Chevy to a BMW or Mercedes....they are whole different classes of vehicles, if you need a GM offering to compare, compare a Cadillac to a BMW or Mercedes, in America those are luxury brands exclusively

I also noticed that Cadillac gets no ebay loving?

I just don't keep that kind of money in my Paypal account. Sorry GM.

Sorry ZaK i wasn't talking about the car salesman, I was talking the dealer itself. & yes you are 100% correct on used cars = higher commissions for the Salesmen.

I bought my current car off of eBay sight unseen, and it all turned out well. Too bad I would never buy a GM vehicle. It's a good idea, though.

How much is Ebay charging for the transaction? Unless GM is getting one helluva deal, it doesn't seem cost effective.

NOPE! screw GM and other companies that got government money. I'm supporting ford all the way.

Its a desparate move on their part, but its a very smart one. This could raise their sales for new cars...

What ever happened to quality? I've had two GM trucks and they both fell apart. I had a '97 S-10 and a '03 S-10. Never again. I used to only be a Chevy guy, but after seeing my friend's with Ford's reaching the 200k mileage mark I think I'm switching sides. On my first one, the Dexcool literally ate up everything that the coolant was running through. On the second one, the whole front suspension needed to be replaced. I got rid of that one and bought a Lexus. I never had a problem with the engine or transmission, they both were still running strong. GM needs to stop putting sub-par quality parts in their trucks. Maybe they have now, but to me it's a little too late.

GM probably will be charged for all cars to get listed (Listing Fees), no matter if it sells or not. Once sold, GM has to pay heavy Final Value Fee plus paypal fee. This is on top of the dealer commission….”

Actually these over-heads will be passed on to the buyers. buyers will end-up paying unnecessary price hike of minimum $2000 or more.

so final results will be:

1) Buyers has to pay minimum $2000 or more while purchasing from eBay GM instead of getting walk-in cash discount of minimum $1200~$1800.

2) GM is cutting down dealership by 40% who is going to provide services after sales? As of now, 225 of 250 dealers in the state of California participated, and later on it result in vanishing physical identities of Authorized GM Dealers. The whole picture is very gloomy.

3) In critical time for the company like GM, and hit by the recession, GM has tied with company eBay whose market reputation is not really as good as Amazon. eBay and PayPal to gather are involved in tons of insider trading, insider auto bot bidding to get higher final value fees and higher percentage of comission. eBay and PayPal are involved in tons of scams, that reader of this post would like to look at the web-site called paypalsucks (dot) com. You will probably never find a site like this for any other good reputed online marketing or auction companies. Any financial scam by eBay or PayPal definitely damage GM Market Reputation too. I am worried coz I have GM, and I LUV GM.

There were plenty of better choices like Autotrader or Cars available for GM other than eBay where most of the visitors concern is to look for something cheap.

In name of GM, eBay and PayPal will definitely going to prosper themselves by milking the cow and their customers with other products.

Gm has to very sure that GM customer information is not leaked to any other competitive automobile companies for just greed of money.

4) eBay revenue went up during last year due to hike in their fees, plus insider mafia activities of capturing someone’s well-reputed business items by kicking out, or blocking original player, or buying his well developed eBay account. eBay is highly influenced for selling out their members information and data statistics for few hundred of bucks.

5) According to Don Folk, a Chevrolet dealer. “What it always boils down to, is that before making a major purchase like an automobile … a person would want to get in the vehicle [and] drive the vehicle,” he said. “You’re still going to have to touch the metal.”

Adobe and probably Microsoft may have some success with eBay for software. You simply can not compare Automobiles with software. Automobile you always wanna have a ride, touch, see and feel.

6) Getting the parts will be the pain for buyers. Most of the parts available on eBay are not authentic, but fake, imitated like original made in Taiwan, not really made in US. Normally Taiwan parts runs when you replace it, but no one can say when it gonna break.

Most of the parts makers, parts suppliers, dealers and virtually every company in the automotive sector are out of business now in US.

7) Buyer have to be extra cautious coz all information about the car he or she is planning to buy from GM eBay is already available to many people before he or she actually purchase it.

8) eBay and PayPal policy about money refund is also not very clear.

9) In case of refund. Who PayPal is going to support GM (with a greed of commission) or a buyer?

10) Buyer has to work out for competitive insurance quote too!

So, SMART BUYER HAS TO THINK MORE THAN TWICE, OR
JUST STAY AWAY!