Just hours out of bankruptcy, the “new” General Motors Company says it will be testing a new car buying initiative with online auction house eBay to allow customers to bid on new cars online rather than visiting dealerships. GM says it hopes the program will make the new car buying process easier.
In a prepared statement, GM’s CEO, Fritz Henderson, talked about the automaker’s efforts to reduce the size of its dealership network.
“We’re also working on new ways to make car buying more convenient for our customers, including an innovative new partnership with eBay in California to revolutionize how people buy vehicles online,” Henderson said in the statement. “Customers will be able to bid on actual vehicles just like they do in an eBay auction, including the option of choosing a predetermined ‘buy it now’ price. We’ll be testing this and other ideas with our dealers over the next few weeks, and hope to expand and build upon them in the coming months. In all cases, our goal is to make the shopping and buying process as easy as possible for GM customers – on their time and their terms. Stay tuned.”
Though the automaker and eBay have released few details, it certainly won’t mark the first time new vehicles have been sold on the auction house’s website. GM has sold numerous vehicles for charitable causes on eBay and countless new car dealerships list their new inventory on the site in an effort to sell cars, as well as gain relatively inexpensive and wide exposure.
How the GM/eBay partnership will affect those dealership listings has yet to be determined.
