GM Abandons EBay

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

GM’s grand experiment with Ebay will be over by the end of the month, reports Automotive News [sub]. GM had extended the program once, and was considering continuing it into October. So why didn’t they? Paging GM spokesfolks… we have a cleanup on aisle nine…

The need to roll eBay out nationally isn’t there as it was when we first rolled out the pilot. At the time we had no large, national marketing programs in the system, so that made sense at the time. What we’ve come up with since then are two large, national programs that are already in place.

In other words, failure was not an option… but only because there were no parameters for failure. Gosh that sounds exactly like what Mark LaNeve said when he was asked why the program was being extended despite generating what can only be described as weak sales. Come to think of it, how was the California-only Ebay experiment a substitute for a “large, national marketing program?” More importantly, did GM sell a single vehicle on Ebay?

GM’s spokesman calls the program “very successful,” but the company is still refusing to reveal how many sales it attributes to the online auction site. What they will say is that the 16,000 vehicles listed by GM’s California dealers generated more than 15,000 leads, a statistic that implies the Ebay pilot could have been worth developing further. Well, might have implied, if the term “leads” weren’t so damningly nebulous. Even less helpful is GM’s claim that 1.5 million visitors looked at GM’s section of the site, performing 1.9 million eBay searches. The only conclusion left to draw is that GM has plenty of statistics but it doesn’t want to share for reasons that are inexplicable now that the program has been canceled.

Anyone who bought a GM vehicle through the official GM-Ebay program is encouraged to contact me at publisher@ttac.com with evidence.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Jonas_cord Jonas_cord on Sep 30, 2009

    Is it just me, or are there tons of ads for GM on Ebay Motors right now, and when you select the "Make" dropdown menu, you only get GM brands!?

  • GhentForever GhentForever on Jul 22, 2011

    These are not a bunch of adults discussing here. Just a bunch of GM bashers. GM never said the eBay program was going to replace the national marketing programs. It was just a trial run to get leads and marketing data in California.

  • 1995 SC At least you can still get one. There isn't much for Ford folks to be happy about nowadays, but the existence of the Mustang and the fact that the lessons from back in the 90s when Ford tried to kill it and replace it with the then flavor of the day seem to have been learned (the only lessons they seem to remember) are a win not only for Ford folks but for car people in general. One day my Super Coupe will pop its headgaskets (I know it will...I read it on the Internet). I hope I will still be physically up to dropping the supercharged Terminator Cobra motor into it. in all seriousness, The Mustang is a.win for car guys.
  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
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