Selling Cars On-line Went Off-line

December 27, 2001

Sacramento - Definitely one of the victims of the slowdown in vehicle sales are the dot com businesses organized to sell cars on the Internet. And now the automakers are shedding companies they either setup themselves or partnered in.

General Motors, for instance, recently announced that it has decided not to go forward with plans to create an e-commerce portal with its dealers. G.M. planned to call the portal AutoCentric and it would have permitted dealers to sell both G.M. and non-G.M. vehicles on the Internet. G.M. did say that it will continue to support its BuyPower web site, through which it claims to have sold nearly one million vehicles since March 1999.

At Ford the back pedaling from selling vehicles on-line is moving at an even faster pace. Ford announced late last week that it was moving its corporate web site in-house, out of the hands of Digex, Inc. This is despite a claim made by Ford officials that the site draws more unique visitors than any other car manufacturers' web site. Ford said it will now operate the site in-house.

Ford announced that it was selling what was left of its investment in Internet Capital Group. The company claims to have lost nearly all of the $50 million it invested in the e-commerce holding company less than two years ago. Internet Capital is headquartered in Wayne, Pa. Ford paid $108 a share for its stock and according to The Detroit News, its value has sunk to $1.22 a share.

Ford said it would write off the losses.

Ain't it a shame that they didn't want to participate with The Auto Channel!