Just thought it might make sense to post a bit about posting dealership stock for sale, since there seems to be some confusion on the issue, especially with new members signing on.
Alot of members want to 'help' by posting cars that they see available for sale. I'll first clarify the guidelines, and then explain why:
The 'Cars For Sale' Guidelines:
Vehicles are allowed to be posted available for sale subject to two constraints:
1) You actually OWN the vehicle you are posting as available,
or
2) You are a supporting dealer and are therefore allowed to advertise on the site.
Outside of these constraints, posting "XX vehicle available" is simply not allowed.
The 'WHY' behind this:
The short answer is that outside of these constraints, the potential for abuse and misinformation far outweighs the benefits.
Claimed benefit:
"Helps" people get their vehicle if they list "XX vehicle I saw available at MSRP at YYY dealership.
However, after researching this, it turns out that the majority of people looking for a vehicle don't use forums as a way to find vehicles. That's what sites like
www.gmbuypower.com and
www.autotrader.com are for. Everyone appreciates the thinking that this is 'helping', but it isn't really helping at all. The poster may not know that the vehicle is sold, dealers change their minds and charge MSRP+, etc. A large portion of people who actively look for vehicles have already found them.
People on the forum are quite smart and savvy, and can locate vehicles on their own. I can't count the number of times someone went to a dealer on a tip, only to find out that the tip was wrong.
Downside to allowing it:
First, to reiterate, the site relies on income from supporting vendors who pay for the right to use the site for promotion of products to pay for operation costs. This includes the ability of dealerships to do so for vehicles. Vendors who attempt to advertise products outside of this system are attempting to advertise for free - in essence abusing the community built here just to increase exposure of their product (or vehicle stock).
Posting a vehicle available is just a form of advertisement. In fact, it is unsolicited advertisement. In the internet world, we consider unsolicited or unwanted promotion of products...
...SPAM.
Multiple posts of "Saw this color vehicle for sale" clutters up the forum for no real benefit.
Experience has also shown us that the potential for abuse is high. If it is allowed, then we get dealers who sign on to use the forum as "free advertisement". Sometimes, they are even 'sneaky' about it, all to post a vehicle available and widen the exposure so they can sell it for maximum dollar. This happened with the First 1000 Solstices several times.
Using PM to get around this also carries a high potential for abuse. We had several cases of people (here and other of Troy's forums) attempting to 'hook up' buyers and sellers through PM - and make a birddog fee of a few bucks to $1000... and in the process use the bandwidth and server space that the other supporting vendors are paying for. Clearly, this is not fair to the community, nor is it fair to the supporting vendors on the forum.
Bottom line - this is a forum, not autotrader. So, please don't be upset if you post something available for sale that you don't own - and find it deleted.
I hope this helps clarify a few things.
Thanks.
Linear Mode
