Today GM emerged from bankruptcy with a new announcement that they will be testing a program to have car dealers in California list their cars on eBay.  Consumers could then go to eBay and shop for cars and compare prices. 

This is not a ground-breaking announcement.  For GM’s first day in business, is this their strongest new idea?  We hope not.

I’m note sure what will be different since car dealers can advertise on eBay now.  Will the program be any different from what www.autotrader.com or www.cars.com  is offering consumers? 

GM corporation and local dealers have  utilized car inventory listing and price comparison services from websites that include cars.com, autotrader.com and edmunds.com.  Today’s announcement is not great news for competing car advertising platforms.  I guess the “Buy It Now” feature on eBay seduced GM executives.  However, we predict that the “Buy it Now” feature will NOT be used very often on commodity cars; the bulk of car sales.

If you take the eBay patented “Buy It Now” feature off the table, I’m not sure why GM would single out one platform for their car sales.  Dealers like to have a competitive advantage when selling cars.  Putting all GM dealers on one platform will not sit well with California dealers if they are mandated to participate.

Requesting a New Car Price Quote

The jury will be out until we can see how the GM and eBay plan will be implemented.  In the meantime, if you would like a local dealer to call and compete for your business, complete the form on the left.  We’ll have a local dealer contact you with a personalized price quote based on your choice and trade-in.

Tags: cars on eBay, GM cars on Ebay, GM eBay