GM eBay experiment comes to an end..!??

BY TIM HIGGINS
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER


General Motors’ experiment selling new cars and trucks in California online through eBay comes to an end Wednesday, GM said today.


The termination comes less than a month after GM officials talked about the possibility of taking the program nationwide later this year.
That was before GM launched a major new marketing campaign called “May the Best Car Win” and other incentive programs. 
John McDonald, a GM spokesman, said rolling out the eBay program as another nationwide campaign could detract from the other programs. The eBay program, which launched Aug. 11, was the first sales program launched by the new GM as it came out of bankruptcy July 10. It was extended through the end of September.
The program saw 1.5 million unique Web visitors and generated more than 15,000 customer leads for dealers to follow up on, McDonald said. He didn’t know how many vehicles were sold through the program. 
“We are calling it a success,” he said. 
The program helped raise awareness of GM vehicles in California, generated high quality leads and allowed GM to experiment selling vehicles online in a different way, McDonald said, adding: “We learned a lot.”
About 225 dealers participated in the program, which allowed shoppers to purchase a vehicle at the advertised price — called “Buy it now” — or negotiate through eBay’s “Best Offer” option.