REPORT: GM may try selling Chevy Volt on eBay
2011 Chevy Volt - Click above for high-res image gallery
Earlier this month, General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson announced that the automaker would begin working with eBay to sell new vehicles. That revelation apparently got people wondering about the Chevy Volt and if the eBay partnership apply to the upcoming eco-friendly flagship? If so, could The General use eBay to sell the first few Volts at much higher transaction prices than what will be offered at your local Chevy dealership?
Apparently, the answer to all of those questions is yes. In an interview with GM-Volt.com, Chevrolet Brand Manager Ed Peper suggested the automaker may indeed try selling new Volts on eBay, possibly at a profit. Speaking specifically of the electric vehicle, Peper said, "We actually have been thinking about that same application to be able to do that, it's something that's definitely crossed our mind," he said. "You could even have an auction on the vehicles. We use this already with certified used vehicles and its actually worked out very well. Dealers use it a lot."
There you have it. Now, who wants to take bets on how much GM could get for the very first Chevy Volt down the assembly line?
Gallery: 2011 Chevy Volt
[Source: GM-Volt.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matt 3:01PM (7/23/2009)
Barrett-Jackson is gonna be maaaaaaaaaaad....
I'm goin' with a cool quarter mil.
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paulwesterberg 3:19PM (7/23/2009)
I wouldn't touch volt #00000000001 with a ten foot pole.
But it is promising that GM is thinking about selling the vehicles online. The whole dealership sales process and overhead is archaic in this day and age. Vehicles of the future will still need some maintenance, but having huge parking lots full of rusting vehicles is totally unnecessary.
If you want a new car you should be able to spec it out online, if you want a test drive then you should try out one of a handful of local test vehicles which could even be part of a rental fleet ala zipcar. Cut out the fat in the sales process by reducing inventory and retail overhead.
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Matt 3:50PM (7/23/2009)
I agree to a point, but we will always need car dealerships. A car is the second largest purchase most people ever make. Ever. That being the case, many people need financing, and dealers typically provide financial services that require in-person transactions. Beyond that, plenty of purchases are made as a reaction to an event. Lets say your old car breaks down and you find out it's going to cost more than the car is worth to fix it. You have to be at work tomorrow and every day after that. Do you A) go to a dealer and buy the car you want, or B) order a car online, rent a car for a month while they sequence and build your vehicle, rent it for another month while they ship your car from Japan to your local delivery/service center, finally go pick up your car only to realize the color looked better on your monitor and is really more of a pink. I'm sticking with the good ole' dealership.
guyledouche 3:55PM (7/23/2009)
I completely disagree. Do we really need to lose another untold thousands of jobs to the mighty interweb??!! If people keep thinking the way you do the only people making any money will be plumbers and electricians. There is a lot of value for a person to be able to drive to their nearest dealer, pick out a car they want and drive it home that same day. Most people dont want to wait months for their car and would rather support a local business in the process instead of just channeling every cent towards the big corporate cheese. People by and large want to deal with people when making a decision like this and dont want the experience to be so depersonalized. Also, dealerships will never be extict because of used cars. The dealers done make sh*t on new cars anyway, they do it just to get people in the door and keep their franchises happy. the real money is in used vehicle, which there will ALWAYS be a demand for. While I am not in the auto sales industry, my father is and has been for 42 years and would surely love to giv you a swift kick in the nuts in exchange for your remarks. There are a lot of good and fairly honest car salesmen and women out their who truly love what they do and work very hard at it, despite common misconceptions about them.
I for one, would never want to order a new car online in lieu of going to a local dealer.
paulwesterberg 6:10PM (7/23/2009)
Dealer financing is a scam, you will always get a better deal by shopping around for your own financing, which would be easier to do via the internet it the transaction was completed online.
The retail experience for consumers sucks, no ability to compare prices or competing vehicle models - unless you drive all over & waste time, pushy salesmen, fluffy limited information product brochures created by marketing bozos, no access to independent reviews.
I'm not saying that there is zero reason to have local dealerships, just that the traditional model of having hundreds of new cars depreciating on the lot is wasteful and outdated. If the domestic automakers continue to run their businesses the way they always have, with over-reliance on inefficient dealerships, tax payers will end up bailing them out year after year.
I think that Tesla will come out ahead because they own their own dealerships which will cut down on the overhead and allow them to streamline production & distribution.
nrb 6:43PM (7/23/2009)
"part of a rental fleet ala zipcar."
Because Zipcar invented the car rental business?
Because Zipcar refuses to stock GM vehciles?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/02/zipcar-ceo-tells-cnbc-no_n_210230.html
Because Zipcar requires a subscription?
Because Zipcar is more expensive than normal car rental?
Sorry for jumping on you, as I know it wasn't the main point of your comment, but Zipcar is a bad choice. A traditional car rental firm is much more appropriate. Maybe GM service centers could rent out vehicles for test drives? Anything but Zipcar.
guyledouche 4:17PM (7/23/2009)
Just to clarify, I am not disagreeing with you Matt, for once, lol.
My comment was directed towards Mr. Westerberg remark.
I am glad to see another supporter of dealerships.
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Nick P. 5:08PM (7/23/2009)
I prefer the Apple/Tesla model of having a network of company-owned stores. This way, you can test drive the product before you buy and talk to a real person face to face for questions, repairs etc. When you're ready to buy, you choose your custom options such as paint, finish & tech packages. New jobs are produced, so it's not a way for automakers to "go cheap".
The only down side is the wait period when production is hand-made - like for the Tesla Roadster.
Let's also remember that traditional auto dealers generally don't like EVs. There's less parts to sell and/or to repair (a big chunk of their revenue), so they will have to change their business model to make this work.
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Paul 5:11PM (7/23/2009)
I tend to agree with the above comments. Yes, there will be dealerships, but there will also be those who don't mind ordering online in exchange for a lower price. What has put GM into bankruptcy court is clearly an aggregation of issues, but certainly too many dealers and too many unsold vehicles (which must be cleared out at a large discount) were a problem. Heck, I still see the odd 2008 model on dealer lots which are still new. I suppose they would make a good buy, but that's not good for GM, who won't be able to make a profit if it takes 2 years to sell their inventory. Of course the downturn has been a large contributor to this.
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Rick 5:11PM (7/23/2009)
I've wondered how this will go. Will this mean that red Chevy Cruze with the highest bid of $14,000 will be sold at that price? Or are they all going to be 'buy it now' prices with no bidding?
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Ghen 4:23PM (7/27/2009)
Almost certainly a bid with reserve for high demand / low supply models and buy it now for low demand / high supply models.
Kyle 6:16PM (7/23/2009)
That's all fine and dandy, but I wonder about the ironclad dealer franchise laws that make shutting down a brand or dealer so hard. Basically, as I understand, you have to buy a new vehicle through a dealer due to these laws.
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jpm100 12:23AM (7/25/2009)
Its a clever way for GM to get a piece of that markup action dealers get for a new sought after vehicles.
And they don't even have to look bad for setting the asking price above sticker because willing bidders will drive up the markup for them.
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pickles 11:23AM (7/25/2009)
GM needs to just start selling this car. It's old before it's even released. The buildup for the Volt is worse than that of a Sasha Baron Cohen movie. I'm already curious what the mid-cycle update's going to look like, cuz I've SURE seen the car enough already. GM needs a lesson from Honda about keeping new car releases a little more hush-hush. Sell it at Carmax or Lane Bryant for all I care.. I just wish them the best whenever they finally push one out the birth canal.
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Ghen 4:25PM (7/27/2009)
GM needed the overall publicity more than they needed the hype driven sales of a single model.