Archive for the ‘Ebay Auctions’ Category

Somebody smarter than us once said, "Better to have tried and lost than to have never tried at all". (Or something to that effect.) That "oh well, we gave it a shot" sentiment seems to sum up General Motors' attitude toward its relationship with eBay, which comes to an amicable end today.

As you might recall, Bob Lutz first announced plans to sell GM vehicles through eBay the very day that General Motors emerged from bankruptcy. Subsequently, eBay learned of the arrangement, and the two set off to sell vehicles through GM's subdomain on eBay.com. The plan was for potential car buyers to peruse new GM vehicles and make bids, after which...

When General Motors emerged from bankruptcy on July 10, the company's newly reinstalled PR man, Bob Lutz,  made several important announcements. Among them: GM had begun partnership with eBay, which would offer customers the opportunity to bid on and purchase vehicles through the popular auction website. That intrigued many buyers and many in the industry -- the only problem being that eBay said the arrangement wasn't a done deal.

By August 11, however, the two companies had dotted Is, crossed Ts, and put up 16,000 GM vehicles for sale on eBay -- of which roughly 50 sold. We're not sure how things have gone since then, but Automotive News...

When General Motors reinvented itself (on paper, anyway), the company's press release talked about selling GM vehicles on eBay. Unfortunately, that wasn't a done deal -- at least not from eBay's perspective. However, GM is still hot for the idea, and Chevrolet's Ed Peper has explored selling the Volt that way (likely to avoid tacking on high dealer markups). Sounds like GM is really hoping to piss off dealers even more than they already have. Just an FYI, Ed: joining one fuzzy brand to another fuzzy brand isn't going to make anyone look sharper. [WorldCarFans]