GM Japan Stops On LIne Sales

TOKYO October 9, 2003; The AP reported that General Motors Corp. has stopped selling cars through the Internet in Japan after the two-year effort failed to woo many buyers, the U.S. automaker said Thursday.

The Detroit-based automaker began selling cars on the Internet after taking a 60 percent stake in a Net auto sales company in September 2001. Japanese automakers in which GM holds stakes -- Suzuki Motor Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries, which makes Subaru cars -- each took a 20 percent stake.

But Net auto sales failed to catch on, and the company, which handled 60 GM, Suzuki and Subaru models, was dissolved at the end of September, according to a GM spokesman in Tokyo.

General Motors has not disclosed how many cars it sold through the Internet in Japan, but Fuji Heavy sold about 4,000 cars and Suzuki 1,900. One reason the project was not popular is that certain papers are required for car sales in Japan, which can't be obtained on the Net, making it less convenient.