

GM hopes to sell its cars through eBay - quizbiz
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/10/autos/gm_ebay/index.htm?postversion=2009071016

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profquail
I really, really don't understand why car makers don't sell cars online like
Dell (for example) sells computers. Have some small dealerships with a few
pre-made cars for people to test drive (or for impulsive folks to buy), and
then let people custom-order their cars online.

This would solve the over-supply problem and also keep people from having to
'settle' on a particular car because it's the only one the dealer has in
stock.

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old-gregg
Because car dealerships have successfully lobbied for state laws that make it
illegal for car manufacturers to sell directly to consumers.

Back in 2000, Ford (IIRC) have tried to fight the cartel and sell directly
through ford.com but lost in courts.

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netsp
Is it actually illegal or just a violation of their contact with dealerships?

I understand that legacy agreements with dealerships are a contributor to The
Failure as are (we keep hearing) legacy agreements with unions. But overall I
think that people are very quick to believe a "they lobbied dumb politicians"
story over "they signed dumb agreements stories."

If you had bought a _license_ to sell Ford cars, you might want an agreement
not to go around you at a later date.

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costan
Why do they need the dealers again? It seems to me that the dealerships are an
even worse ripoff than real-estate agents.

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falsestprophet
They don't. But, dealers are an unstoppable state-level lobbying force.

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sachinag
They got a majority in the House to vote for a bill that reverses a federal
court allowing GM to shed dealerships in bankruptcy. Can't say I blame them -
dealerships are the biggest source of sales tax revenue in every single rural
area that they're in.

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anamax
> Can't say I blame them - dealerships are the biggest source of sales tax
> revenue in every single rural area that they're in.

I don't know about other states, but California sends the sales tax money to
the city/county of the registered address, no matter where you buy the car. In
short, if every car was sold from the same dealership, each city/county would
get the same sales tax as it would with a dealer in every city/county.

One side effect of this is that you can't get a discount on car sales tax by
buying in a low-tax area if you live in a high-tax area like you can with most
other purchases, such as car parts, books, computers. (Sales tax varies by
city and county in CA.)

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patrickg-zill
Prediction: "Reserve not met"

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jusob
I actually don't understand how people can buy cars from eBay, or any other
online outlet. I could not imagine buying a new car online, and even less for
a user car.

When I put $20K in an item, I want to try it, make sure I can actually talk to
the seller if anything goes wrong, and be able to exercise the warranty
easily.

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vaksel
most people find the car on eBay, then go in person or pay someone else to try
it out before buying.

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sokoloff
Exactly. I bought both my classic Mustangs on Ebay. In both cases, I got the
online description and photos, asked the sellers for additional information
before bidding. I probably went through some part of this process on over 2
dozen cars, and bid on 5-6 of them

Then in each case, at the close of the auction I basically said "So long as
the car basically meets the description as you laid out, you're getting paid,
but before you get paid, I'm verifying the basics." In one case I flew down to
get it and paid actual cash. In the other case (much farther away), I had a
car club buddy go check it out for basic conformance (title/VIN match,
runs/drives, rust no worse than described, etc) at which point I wired the
money, my buddy took the title, and I arranged the car transport pickup. One
of my cars is as-good/better than was described all around. One of them had a
moderate issue which I chalk up to "well, I still got a smoking deal on it,
it's fixed now, and knowing everything, I'd still have done the deal, so..."

If you know what you're doing, and want a (relatively) rare particular car,
and don't have Barrett-Jackson type money, Ebay's a great place to buy cars.

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ramchip
"The power of the eBay brand mated up with the four core brands from GM could
be a really good thing," Docherty said. "It takes the shopping process online
up about 4 notches because you've got a lot more information at your
fingertips."

PR language is getting _seriously_ out of hand.

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vaksel
doing this through ebay is stupid as hell. GM should have built a brand new
website for this.

