Commentary on the economy, the markets, and business

GM wants to be an eBay Power Seller

General Motors, after prematurely announcing the news back in July (before it actually had a deal with eBay), is really truly going to start selling cars via eBay on Tuesday. You can tell it's for real this time because the press release announcing the program is available on the eBay website (pdf!) as well as the GM one. And there's even a gm.ebay.com site with a "Coming Soon!" banner (and the catchy if somewhat desperate slogan, "Our best cars, your best offer").

Anyway, it's only happening in California to start with. But I'm in California right now, and I'm feeling that Chevy Cobalt itch ...

What's most striking about this deal with eBay is how inordinately important GM's executives seem to think it is. They kept yapping and yapping about it back on their Day of Many Press Briefings July 10 when GM emerged from bankruptcy—even though, as already noted, eBay hadn't agreed to it yet. Clearly, they see it as an attempt to appear nimble and forward-looking and all those other things that GM so clearly hasn't been for the past half century or so. Of course, to most of the rest of the nation, selling on eBay stopped seeming forward-looking about a decade ago, but hey, this is GM we're talking about.

Or maybe I'm being unfair. The only way the new GM will succeed is by becoming a company less focused on keeping its bankers and shareholders and employees and retirees and dealers happy and more focused on keeping its customers happy. If nothing else, the eBay deal is a way to meet the needs and desires of at least a few more customers. Hooray for that.

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  • 1

    I don't think you're being unfair, in fact I think you're being too kind. Isn't the point of ebay to get rid of the middleman and bid what you want? This will look through the invetory of dealerships in CA to find that car you want, so really you still have to deal with the dealer. Yes, ideally you'd probably want to test drive any car before you bought it, but I still would want to buy direct from GM, cutting out any dealer that's gonna try to have me buy the premium mud-flap package. Seems like a whole lot of nothing.

  • 2

    I think that's a great idea for GM. I do agree with the comment that eBay isn't as forward-looking as maybe some of the other "web 2.0" sites, but it's a good effort. And that should say something about the "new" GM (I hope).

  • 3

    [...] be “how inordinately important GM’s executives seem to think it is,” Justin Fox writes at Time’s Curious Capitalist [...]

  • 4

    I should be able to order a car the way I order a Dell and have it dropped off at my house. Heck they don't pay those poor sales men at the dealerships anything anyway. The value the deliver is limited. And it sure better not break in the first 3 years. Just like my Nissan.

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