GM to Sell Cars and Trucks on eBay
It’s been a tough 12 months for GM car salesmen and with the latest agreement between eBay, it’s only going to get worse. You can read more about the promotion over at the New York Times but essentially instead of an auction system, which is what eBay is known for, you can place a bid in which the dealerships can choose whether to accept or not.
Going the Online Route
Years ago I would have been more hesitant with selling new cars online but with the success of Zappos, Amazon etc. it’s pretty hard to come up with an argument against the premise. I’m a bit concerned with the quality of company doing this though. Is the New GM capable of delivering bang on customer service which is needed to succeed in the online arena? After all there are many questions sales people answer before a transaction. Who will answer these questions now? What if someone doesn’t like what the colour after purchase, can they send it back? What if there was damage in shipping, how easy is it to a) quickly replace; and b) deal with an individual dealership?
Like P. Diddy says “It’s All About the Benjamins”
I suppose my other issue is that a promotion such as this focuses on one thing - price point consumers. Anyone willing to buy a car online, without test driving it, is likely only placing a bid to get the lowest price possible. Can GM compete with the Hyundai’s of the world on a price perspective? We’ll find out when the program gets under way August 11th.
They’ve already gone into bankruptcy once, so what do they have to lose when Canada/US taxpayers are paying the bills?
