GM seeing mixed results with eBay program

GM´s eBay experiment - which includes 225 California dealers - launched August 11th and will run through September 8th. GM dealers have listed 16,228 vehicles on eBay since August 11th, but have only recorded 45 sales. However, the program has actually generate quite a few more sales than that as many shoppers are viewing the vehicles online before buying them in person.

"I´ve sold some vehicles to people that saw the vehicles on eBay, but they didn´t buy them on eBay. They called, came in and bought them," Mark Borjan, a Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealer.

GM´s 'Buy It Now´ option has also proven to be an early flop. So far no customers have opted for the Buy It Now feature, with high prices a likely culprit. According to Edmunds, GM´s Buy It Now prices average about 2 percent above the average market price.

However, GM´s eBay site is drawing interest, with 630,000 visits in the first week. The results were particularly good for GM´s California efforts, with eBay price searches up 10 percent there.

GM´s market share in California is 13 percent, compared to its national share of 19.6 percent. Unfortunately for GM, the Pontiac G8 was the most searched nameplate in California, a model that is set to ride off into the sunset after the 2009 model year.