GM hopes to sell its cars through eBay | Hacker News Reader

GM hopes to sell its cars through eBay

money.cnn.com

12 pointsquizbiz15 comments

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.

Simple really, the factories pump out the cars whether the people want them or not and they force the dealers to take at least a few of the ones no one wants. If it was on demand the less popular car factories would be idle.

That's how it works in Israel. You go to a dealership to see which car to buy, test drive, etc. After you pay, your car is ordered and shipped via ocean freight. When it arrives, you pick up your car. The problem is, you forfeit the beloved concept of instant gratification.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

> 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.)

Prediction: "Reserve not met"

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.

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

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.

"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.

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

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