General Motors and eBay: Reinventing the Car-Buying Experience
By Mark LaNeve
Vice President, Vehicle Sales and Marketing
So what’s the big deal about gm.ebay.com? Well, it can make your shopping experience much easier and more convenient. Starting tomorrow and running through September 8, GM is Running a test program in California. Buyers in the state will be able to browse hundreds of California dealer online showrooms, ask questions, negotiate prices, arrange financing and payment to buy a new 2008, 2009 or select 2010 car, crossover or truck; they can even determine the value of their trade in through the site! Work with a dealer’s online experts without setting foot in the showroom until it’s time to take delivery. Shoppers can even use the site to compare pricing across models or participating dealerships. And eBay provides expert tips and advice with a buyer checklist.
We hope this program makes sense because it allows a convenient alternative if you’re in the market for a new car but either can’t get to a showroom or want to shop from home. It makes sense for dealers because it allows them to put their showrooms, and available inventory, further into the Internet – from the blacktop to the laptop (sorry, I couldn’t help myself… I am, after all, a marketing guy!). And it makes sense for GM because it allows us to further serve customers where you increasingly are – online. If they want they can buy a car in one click with the “buy it now” option. Or, if you enjoy negotiating financing options and discounts you can make an price offer and go from there. If it works well in California, it could prove to be a whole new model for how we sell our vehicles across the United States.
We don’t want to do things differently just because we are a New GM, we want to because it makes sense for customers. From manufacturing to marketing and everything in between, we’re focused on Customers, Cars and Culture. Programs like this new partnership with eBay, which could change how we and our dealers take our cars and trucks to market, are one example of how we’re focusing on our customers and our cars. So we urge you to give it a click and check it out – and please let us know in the comments what we can do to make it even better.
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Mark LeNeve,
This is only a baby step. What you need to do is find a way to let us order directly from you using the Internet. If necessary, you could require we take delivery at a certified dealer*, and then GM could pay the dealer a set service fee (perhaps $500, perhaps more, you’d have to figure that out) for taking delivery, processing the car, and handing the keys over to the consumer.
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* Much as Federal firearms law requires we take delivery of a gun through a registered dealer, even when ordering directly from a manufacturer.
Mark & Bob,
Do I have to beg you to sell a car to us?
Test drove a 2010 Equinox, wife loved it, sales rep said “we will call you back with the figures”. 2 weeks later no numbers, called back to the sales rep, asked for the price, said they would call right back, 2 weeks later no call, called back asked for a price again, said with a sigh “I guess I’ll have to build one for you since we don’t have any on the lot” like it was a bother to them. (Mcneil Chevy Swanton Ohio)
Went to another dealer and to make a very bad long nightmare short, they acted as if we were lucky to have walked through their doors and then offend us by offering us less than the CARS program on our Yukon when another dealer offered us $6000. Our neighbors said they received the same treatment from that dealer.( Dunn Chevy Oregon Ohio)
You can build the best cars but if your dealers continue to act like they don’t care if they sell your cars then why should I want to buy your cars?
I am ready to order directly from GM. This is a good first step towards that.
I am in favor of getting rid of the dealer system of buying and selling cars that has been in place since the horse and carriage ruled the roads.
This will be interesting to see how this plays out. I too think this is a good first step. The auto industry has been very slow to adopt the transparency that consumers are demanding these days from corporations. This appears to be a step in the right direction.
It should be chevy.ebay.com, not gm.ebay.com.
Anything branded “GM” tells me that you are doing it for the media and not for the customers.
“From manufacturing to marketing and everything in between, we’re focused on Customers, Cars and Culture.”
~ Customers
~ Cars
~ Culture
That’s certainly a nice sentiment, but the proof will be in the execution. I hope you aren’t just echoing some ‘talking points” a high-priced consulting firm told you with work with the public.
As long as you don’t sell them through college students, like the Daewoo attempt.
Don’t stoop so low as to sell your cars on ebay. You deserve better and so do the customers. These are large purchases and require a personal touch. Can you imagine buying a BMW or Mercedes on the internet? Shame on you!
i bought a new 3-series off ebay, sight unseen. very happy with the car and buying experience.
This is just the out of the box thinking that GM need’s to succeed.
I believe that for most people the thought of stepping into a dealer showroom brings visions of a high pressure salesman that won’t let you leave because he/she sees you as a commission check. I know that this is one of the reasons that the Saturn no pressure retail experience as won so many awards.
Please assure that the customer using this tool feels no pressure to buy through Ticketmaster type time clocks that force the customer to make a quick decision or SPAM from the dealers trying to follow-up. Given time to fully research the competition more and more prospective customers will discover the value of a buying from General Motors.
The first step for a car company to centralize their market location and take the aspect of “regional market demand” out of the formula. Now you have one provider of GM products – GM. In the future you will no longer be able to negotiate the price of a car. This works great for Scion. They are set at MSRP and that is what you pay. You get quite a bit of car for the dollar though.
This should be interesting. Dealerships will always be “crooks” in the eyes of the American public.
How will the 500 Consumer Volts be allotted?
Thanks
Tagamet
Be well,
Tagamet
Let’s Just Get The Volts’ Wheels On The Road!!**********NPNS
I’m glad to see that GM is trying to get leaner. I think this is a very promising idea. One thing’s for sure: an online, virtual selling room is cheaper than its brick-and-mortar counterpart.
What are you doing to have the dealers service center show and do more customer care? By this I mean listing to customers and and repairing in timely manner.
I have worked with Tom Stevens in the past at Livonia GMPT. I believe he is the right man to help get us to where we need to be. I am excited about what is going on at GM.
Good luck
UAW retiree
Mark – the Ebay concept is cool and IMHO long over due. Has GM considered other venues like Craigslist which is free?
I think you are doing a great job trying to capture the American public again with out of the box thinking. I would be interested in sharing with you the concepts my company has come up with for automobile industry.
The car buying experience is one of the most painful consumer experiences on the planet. There’s almost no possible way you can come off a dealer lot today without feeling dirty. Here’s a few things that need to change:
- MSRP: Let’s just have The Price. Period. None of this good cop bad cop salesmanship crap. Just The Price.
- Dealer Markup: So you’re telling me that you’re charging me MORE than the suggest retail price?
- Delivery charge: What is this? Why isn’t just worked into The Price? Why should I have to pay a delivery charge on a car I’m staring at right now?
- Refusing to talk The Price. – I literally had to walk out of a dealership once because the guy would not tell me what the final price of the car was, only what the payment would be.
- The high pressure add ons – This is where the finance guy hammers you for awesome add ons like scotch guard, extended warranty, and etching a serial number on your windows. I hate that guy.
Dee,
Great comments. CEO Henderson should fly you to Detroit for lunch and a personal interview to discuss your insights on buying cars. I think you’d represent well how all of us feel about car dealers. (I hate that finance guy too.)
I actually enjoy buying cars. I’ve walked out of dealers dozens of times over add ons, doc fees, insurance, paint protection, and other ridiculous garbage heaped on in the finance department or whatever. I still don’t find it to be “painful”. The buyer is always in control and always has the upper hand if they know what the are getting and how much it’s actually worth. Part of the reason dealers charge over MSRP is because they find schlubs to pay it. If people were more educated and less willing to be the “the first guy on the block” dealers would do a lot less of this. When a dealer wastes my time and I walk out after having them invest 2 hours in putting together a deal only to have it fall through because they tried to be dishonest I usually walk out laughing. They are the ones losing money, not me.
People enjoy all kinds of things for which there is no explanation. I hear some people even enjoy going to the dentist.
I am with Dee on this one. I just got back from a dealership after building my own on the internet before hand. I went into a local dealership willing to order a brand new Camaro and pay the MSRP of the vehicle I built. What I got was a $500 add on for ScotchGuarding and Paint protection + an uneasy feeling that if I gave them my $500 deposit to have a car manufactured that they could not guarantee the MSRP price when the car arrived. If I am forking out $500 I want a guarantee on the price I am paying. Especially if I am willing to pay MSRP on the stupid vehicle. Needless to say GM lost me as a customer of a brand new Camaro. If I could order direct from the manufacturer and get rid of the headache and high blood pressure I would gladly buy online. I even said that. Why can’t I just buy it when I build it without having to go to the local dealer and put up with their BS. I have bought many new vehicles and never felt like I was gaining anything by dealing with salesmen they are not worth it. Lets all buy direct from GM and then maybe their sales would go up. I know I would buy GM all the time if they offered up front pricing.
“Lets all buy direct from GM and then maybe their sales would go up. I know I would buy GM all the time if they offered up front pricing.”
Amen, brother.
I will never, ever purchase another GM vehicle of any kind, partially due to the poor treatment
dealers have received from GM, but mostly from the extremely poor present and past GM management. My experience with GM dealers was superior. Both the buying and service departments of the GM dealers that I bought from were excellent I cannot imagine purchasing a new car on Ebay. GM is diminishing the new car buying experince. I cannot imagine anyone purchasing a new Cadillac on Ebay. The luxury car buyer purchasing on the Internet is rediculous.
Can you imagine BMW, Lexus or Mercedes doing this. Typical GM.
David,
No one said you HAVE to buy your car on the internet. GM is just giving you the option. If you want you can still buy your Cadillac by walking into a showroom.
As for saying you’ll never buy another GM because of “present and past GM” is sad. What about the other 99% of people working at GM that you are hurting?
It’s not at all sad. I plan on buying products from Ford Motor Co.!
What about all the people whose retirement investments were STOLEN?? GM was basically stolen by the government with the assets given to the union instead of the people who invested. And my retirement is GONE. And I’m supposed to care about them??? The heck with GM (Government Motors). Never another GM for me. Never.
As crazy as this may sound send me an invite with my marketing team to visit you from NY for a few minutes and you will not be dissappointed. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I applaude your out-of -the-box marketing program with e-bay but believe this is just the beginning of many great opportunities ahead and the bright future we envision for GM.
The fall of GM is not an option. You have been given a second chance and let us help you.
Why develop another sales channel? Why not fix the existing method first?
This still makes the customer have to utilize a dealership for after sales care and warranty and service work. If the issues with dealerships on warranty work and service are not fixed the same result will occur: you will sell to a customer who will then never buy again because of issues with dealers.
I want to know why GM is ignoring the millions of people who go online and complain about poor quality vehicles, substandard dealer service and painful buying experiences. The internet is inundated by customers (and former customers) posting about these issues. Seriously, why don’t GM executives spend a few weeks surfing various make/model specific forums, Consumer Reports reader reviews, and blogs such as TTAC, Jalopnik and others to see what customers and former customers are saying about GM products and service? It should be an eye opener for every executive in sales and marketing.
Why don’t you listen?
Even here at Fastlane, any hard questions are sidestepped, or not answered at all. This is where the perception gap is best illustrated, because it’s not a perception gap on the part of the car buying public, it’s a perception gap that exists within the iconoclasts occupying the upper levels of management at GM. Fixing that gap would go a long way to improving GM.
“Even here at Fastlane, any hard questions are sidestepped, or not answered at all.”
David,
What you have to realize is that all GM execs get special classes in how to sidestep questions. That’s part of their in-house training program.
All except Bob Lutz. As a hard-charging, former Marine fighter pilot he is used to straight talk and direct answers.
GM either needs more former military people in its ranks, or Bob should give classes to the rest of the execs at the RenCen on how to answer questions without sidestepping.
obvious problems with gm.ebay.com:
1. the prices aren’t bargains and it appears that the online inventory only reflects a portion of actual inventory
2. a detailed search/filter function is non-existent. (check out cars.com or carmax’s website for the bare essentials!!!)
The whole point of placing your inventory online is that it theoretically makes in incredibly easy to find the exact car you want out of your metro area’s total inventory.
sigh, it’s going to fail….GM’s going to say pushing an online distribution channel is not what the market wants.
Another good strategy spoiled by horrible tactics.
Hi – I sold cars for several years as well as managed an internet department. Please check out the article I wrote. It will explain how to get the best deal and have a hassle free buying experience.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5346417_buy-new-car-cheap.html
I would love to see every Assembly plant also have a full dealership attached. Being a GM employee I thnk when an owner has a problem or warrenty repair the feedback to the plant would be immediate with actual operators or suppliers seeing first hand what is wrong, this could be be a bonus for our TIP process.
Ed,
This is a terrific idea. It would be a real factory outlet store.
Are you serious? What about someone who lived in Florida bought a Camaro that’s made in Canada? Are they going to drive it back to Canada to get work done on it? Please.
Unless GM completely implodes, don’t you think there would still be at least a handful of Chevy dealers in Florida?
I think this is a waste of GM’s money and mine. The really good dealers are already using eBay motors to sell cars. Let the ones who aren’t in the digital age weed themselves out. Let the real competitors sell the cars. If you have a problem with eBay who are you going to deal with ? Just like in the housing market, the consumer should take some responsibility for past experiences.
If you think reforming the franchise system is a good idea I have bad news for you. Ain’t gonna happen. Local dealers have immense political power at every level, often providing more than half a communities tax revenue. Even after the US house and senate demanded GM and Chrysler cut dealership numbers as part of their restructuring, they are now threatening to force them to reinstate every one through special legislation. Apparently closing redundant dealerships was a good idea, but only in Republican constituencies.
Local dealers have immense political power at every level…
Too bad that politics too often trumps common sense, isn’t it?
It’s nice to see GM finally getting wise to Web 2.0 as a viable platform for reaching customers. I’m surprised it took this long. Better late than never.
As more and more consumers go online to look and shop for cars I think this can only help GM rise from the ashes of bankruptcy. Still, I suspect that shopping online may be only a starting point for many consumers. I think most people would prefer to see and experience a car in-person.