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eBay and GM team up to ‘click and buy’

By Matt Brogan |

In a move to help simplify the car-shopping process, eBay Motors and GM have today announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind promotion that enables consumers to ‘click and buy’ new cars online.

The US-only new car shopping website – gm.ebay.com – will be available to consumers from August 11 through September 8, 2009 as part of a trial on the scheme and will allow consumers to browse hundreds of California dealer online showrooms, ask questions, negotiate prices, and arrange financing and payment to purchase a new GM car, crossover or truck online.

With more than 225 GM dealers in California participating in the trial, shoppers can at any given time expect to see a wide selection of up to 20,000 new GM vehicles at very competitive prices. 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 innovative “Best Offer” option (where buyers indicate the price they are willing to pay and can negotiate online with the dealer for the vehicle).

The site also incorporates features that will allow consumers to compare pricing across models or participating dealerships, get tips and advice with a Buyer Checklist, and determine the value of their trade-in or whether their current vehicle may also qualify for government funded ‘Cash For Clunkers’ incentives.

“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. “Through this program, we are helping GM dealers to extend their physical showroom while at the same time delivering to our buyers the great deals and broad selection they expect from eBay.”

“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 US 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.”

Do you think a similar scheme would work here in Australia? Leave a comment now.

Source: GM


 
  • swampdawg

    Desperate times for GM, maybe their shut down factories will be sold off on ebay as well.
    I bet the californian dealers can’t wait for buyers in Maine or Alaska haggling for postage paid.

  • bruster

    no i dont think it work, because we Aussies like to negotiate. I also feel we get ripped off here in Australia for the same car sold over seas markets….
    So would probably stay away from that if it was offered.

    We already have a similar system with discountnewcars.com.au and i was able to match and sometimes get cheaper price by going straight to the local dealer.

    I bought my Rav4 at a significant discount from what the websites were telling me.

  • JEKYL & HYDE

    would it work in aus?(more like “does it work allready”).i don’t know anybody who would “buy it now” on a car UNLESS they knew it was a fair dinkum bargain(and it was brand new).there is blood in stones you know…

  • http://Caradvice.com.au Baddass

    Does the first bidder on eBay get GMC as a bonus?

  • Andrew M

    To me this seems to degrade the business.

    GM should be presenting themselves as an empire, not a small business.

  • JooberGTi

    I am with Bruster on this one, I am not sure how the dealer would be happy to have their cars listed against another dealers (Im assuming the US dealers will get some sort of *benefit* for participating in this scheme. As I would see that they will have to be more competitive in their pricing all the time lowering the average margin on sales overall (because the cheapest dealer will get the sales). No longer you will get the impulse buyer rocking up and buying at RRP, not knowing how much they can get someplace else, because that impulse buyer will automatically get transparancy of that dealer amongst its peers.

  • SteveC

    Seems like a good idea. There is already a site that does something very similar in Oz . I wont display the link because it may be against the code of conduct. Actually, I am not advocating this so I guess I can. http://www.betterdeal.com.au apparently lets you buy a car online. Never tried it so dont know how good it is.

  • Frenchie

    It kinda happens now in the US. Only difference here is the virtual middle man “e-bay”.

  • Gambler88

    i wonder what customer service’s like once you pick up the car at the dealer since they know that they already had your business. and how geniunely these perceived low prices are. i know some of the items on ebay are actually dearer than when you buy the same items in store (i’m comparing the items on ‘buy it now’ by the way as these are brand new items like you get them from the shops and i don’t like auctioning as you never know if you’re going to get the items or at the last minute someone outbid you).

  • jon

    Wow you might get something for 1 cent, even then you would be paying too much. LOL

  • DGS

    “Wow you might get something for 1 cent”

    perhaps, but expect to pay $30,000 postage and handling

  • spoonalious

    @swampdogg, this GM is a vastly different beast to the old GM. No poor performing brands, idle factories or nonselling cars.