George S. May Business Blog

General Motors starts their eBay launch tomorrow

If you remember correctly, back when GM revealed their post-bankruptcy plan, we found that a large, and remarkably odd, part of their strategy was to sell their vehicles through eBay Motors. Well, it begins tomorrow as 225 of the 250 General Motors California dealerships will begin driving the program. From Autoblog.com:

“Under the program, GM will sell Chevrolet, Pontiac, GMC and Buick models on the popular auction site, with the transaction being handled by a nearby dealership. Some of the auctions will be held with a bottom line “buy it now” price, while others will be bid-style sales. Car buyers will also be able to ask dealers questions through the site and work out financing online, without having to deal with anyone in person. The pact with eBay includes two new URLs to access the GM portal of eBay Motors, as customers can enter through gm.ebay.com and chevy.ebay.com (both inactive until tomorrow). Customers can also access deals through the main eBay site.”

What I found to be a bit odd, was that Cadillac has been left out of the equation. Why, you ask? I haven’t been able to find a definitive answer, but I have heard speculations that Cadillac was not included online as GM wanted to preserve a more “premium” car buying experience for those who decided to purchase from General Motors’ luxury arm. Also, by not putting Cadillac cars on eBay it will definitely protect their brand equity.

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