General Motors to sell used cars on eBay

[IDemo]

Source: MSNBC News Services


General Motors said Friday that 3,900 auto dealers who sell GM’s Certified Used Cars will list their entire inventories on eBay Motors, according to industry publication Automotive News. The move could radically alter the used-car business, the report said.

Mark Matthews, GM’s director of used-vehicle activities, told Automotive News that the certified used-vehicle inventory of dealers who sell GM Certified-brand vehicles will be listed on the third-party classified site starting in the second quarter.

GM’s brands include used Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, Pontiac and Oldsmobile vehicles. Cadillac, Hummer, Saab and Saturn have separate certified used-vehicle programs, but their certified-used inventories will be listed on the site, too, Matthews told the publication.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23071740/

[Blue_Tires]

1. remember in the late 90s?

when we all thought by this time we would be able to order and buy our cars from the company directly online, and simply pick it up/have it serviced at the local dealer?

I was so looking forward to that day, but NADA had other plans...

[Xithras]

4. It was tried and failed miserably.

It turns out that most people still want to kick the tires and take the car for a test drive before purchasing it. You can only do that at the dealership. Since the customers were already at the dealership for a test drive, and since they had to pick it up at a dealership anyway, few people had any interest in driving home to order their car.

Still a few companies tried anyway. I believe all of the independents went out of business during the dotcom implosion...they didn't have enough buyers to survive and nobody wanted to fund them anymore. Most of the manufacturers have only discontinued the service over the past few years...I know that GM was still offering it when I bought my last car two years ago, though you had to dig to find it. It seems to be gone now.

[madrchsod]

2. selling on ebay?

they will put a reserve price then go from there...kind`a dumb. just about every dealer has their own website and will "deal" by email. that`s how my daughter bought her car.

[Javaman]

3. ebay jumped the shark a long time ago. It's less an auction site than it is

a small business site that offers no deals.

[dysfunctional press]

6. you can still find plenty of great deals...

it just depends on what you're looking for, i suppose.

[flashl]

5. I suspect that when that happens. States will file eBay auctioneer cases like the one below ...

Pa. drops case against Internet retailer

A Pennsylvania agency dropped its prosecution of Internet retailer and former-stay-at-home-mom Mary Jo Pletz for selling on eBay without an auctioneer's license, according to a letter mailed to her home.

But the state is not retreating from a crackdown on eBay sellers who accept commissions for selling items online for others, state officials said. Those sellers need an auctioneer's license, they say.

Department of State spokeswoman Leslie Amoros said the agency that licenses professionals recently learned that Pletz had closed her business a year ago, leading to the decision to cease prosecution. "We are dropping this case," she said, "because the facts of this case changed."

Pletz and another Internet auction retailer, Barry Fallon of the Harrisburg area, are considered test cases of whether Pennsylvania's 1980s-era auctioneers law extends to cyberspace.

Fallon said the state was still prosecuting him for operating an Internet drop-off store without an auctioneer's license.

The states, hungry for money, will be like the RIAA, tracking online sales.

[Historic NY]

7. Wish I could find one of them 0% deals on a 07 suv............

I got until 3/3/08 to find one I like. Most of those left are high dollar ones. It works for me since I plan on having this one for for at least 6 yrs. My present one is 8yrs old. I think maybe I will have to wait until the end of the year.

[tomreedtoon]

8. Like Nixon...would you buy a used car from these men?

There's already a lot of used car sales on the Internet. Who needs GM to do it en masse? Especially since their cars are generally so crappy, compared to Toyotas for instance, and since we can't have a mechanic we trust check the car out in advance if it's out of state?

This is another attempt for GM to avoid the bankruptcy it so well deserves, for making lousy cars and for not helping to push for universal health care from the government, which would have saved it from bankruptcy.