Glenn Mercer

GM: Are eBay and a $4,000 Car Enough to Turn Things Around?

Note that the GM cars on eBay are NOT actually auctioned. One can buy a car at the advertised price or submit an offer to a dealer. The dealer can accept that or not. Does not sound like an auction to me (where, once reserve is cleared, the seller "must" accept the highest offer, and where bidders can typically see what the current bid is). To me this looks more like "GM is now listing inventory on eBay as well as on its own dealers' websites," not actually moving to a new sales process.

Will Tata Motors Deal Show Ford The 'Way Forward'?

If I were Tata... I'd keep Land Rover (profitable and brings AWD technology complementary to Tata's, and is a "rugged" brand more in keeping with Tata's expansion in emerging markets) and sell Jaguar to Middle Eastern funds ASAP. Jaguar is losing money and brings Tata little AND I am sure there is a "package deal discount" in here: Ford's desire to sell the two together I am sure depressed the price. And while I am sure few people want to own ALL of Jaguar, I bet there are many who would like to take a flier on 20%. Jaguar thus sold off might recoup a lot of the cost of buying LR. Of course, all this may be blocked by covenants in the Ford sale agreement, but I look to the Aston Martin story for inspiration here.