Direct Selling?

[steve_biegler]

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...IL03/101129986

Being a dealer just got harder, AGAIN!

[s-works]

GM tried this......it lasted a month?

[Txflyer]

Originally Posted by s-works

GM tried this......it lasted a month?

If that long.

[steve_biegler]

The point is these pinheads are going to try to pit dealer against dealer in any way possible. From quasi factory direct pricing to two or three or four tier pricing. They have no conscience.

[Txflyer]

Agree 100% on the tier pricing. It has all but killed us.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by steve_biegler

The point is these pinheads are going to try to pit dealer against dealer in any way possible. From quasi factory direct pricing to two or three or four tier pricing. They have no conscience.

I just had a chance to read the story in Automotive News.

While I think KIA's Ebay experiment will be a failure just like GM's was, I think your comment correctly predicts the future. Ultimately the OEMs will favor any system that increases their retail share at the expense of dealer gross profit.

As an additional benefit to the OEMs, as new car gross continues to drop programs like Chrysler's Dealer Standards will become an increasingly important source of revenue for the dealers.

[crowe]

It’s a lead program & 100% Co-Op reimbursable.
There is no cost to KIA dealers to have their new car inventory listed or maintained.
We signed up. If more than 10% close we’ll stay, if not we can opt out.

"eBay Motors shoppers will be able to search Kia inventory by entering their zipcode and find inventory at local dealers. Leads are developed from offers greater than 80% of MSRP, traditional contact leads, and phone calls to the dealership. Offers below 80% of MSRP will be automatically rejected by eBay and will not be passed to Kia dealers. In addition, Kia dealers are not obligated to accept any offer or bid from eBay customers. The offer or bid will be treated as an eLead by Kia dealers."... "Inventory will not be listed unless you opt-in for the program.”

KIA objectives for extra $s is as fair & level a playing field as I’ve seen.
Objectives are set 1 Qtr at time by individual month, no wrap.
65% of your future objectives are based on your past sales & 35% on your market & their marketshare.

I’m not sure where our other OEM gets our objective from but currently we would have to do 125% marketshare in their brands to hit it. I’m not sure if that’s 2 tier or no tier pricing for us. I think we being punished for hitting it 6 months in a row.

[steve_biegler]

ANY time ANY dealer can buy or sell at a price that will give them an advantage over another dealer...that would be my definition of 2 tier. Regardless how the factory cuts it.

[XDCX]

crowe - Thanks for the update. The program sounds better than what was described in the Automotive News report.

It will be interesting to see if it works. I'm getting the impression that there really are not too many vehicles that actually get sold on Ebay.

[XDCX]

I read the comments following the KIA story in Automotive News and I thought it was interesting one person commented that Ebay's top seller only retails about 40 vehicles per month via Ebay. I did some checking and it appears that he's correct.

I always thought Texas-Direct was a huge volume dealer but it doesn't appear they're selling many cars via Ebay.