DETROIT -

The supply of certified pre-owned inventory for General Motors dealers is not going to be impacted by the automaker’s Factory Pre-Owned Collection program, the manager of that program told Auto Remarketing on Wednesday afternoon.

“A lot of those (CPO units) come from trade-ins, so they still have that channel,” GM’s Tom Kinney said. “And then, this process actually is working in parallel with our current remarketing auction process, so all of these vehicles that we’re listing, the dealers will still have access to via the wholesale auction. So, it will not impact their supply of vehicles at all.”

It was announced Wednesday that with a new online program set to launch next month called the Factory Pre-Owned Collection, General Motors through its dealers will sell low-mileage GM lease, daily rental and company-owned vehicles.

(It should be noted that consumers are actually buying the vehicles from the dealerships themselves, and not directly from the OEM. GM explained that its dealers buy the cars wholesale from GM or GM Financial, and then the retail customer buys the car from the dealer, who sets the final price.)

The Factory Pre-Owned Collection will include low-mileage GM lease, daily rental and company-owned vehicles.

But one thing it will not include is CPO. 

Think of used cars in three buckets, Kinney said: the “normal” used cars you might find on a dealer lot, the Factory Pre-Owned Collection vehicles listed in this portal and CPO.

“The way I look at this, it’s just another avenue that consumers and dealers have to access used vehicles,” Kinney said. “So, the certified piece of it will still be wholly through the dealership.”

He sees the Factory Pre-Owned Collection as having trickle-down benefits for CPO, as well, primarily in the areas of “exposure and awareness.”

With the program working “hand-in-hand” with GM’s CPO department, the more marketing push and traffic GM can get to its inventory, the better, he said. The two can work together in building awareness.

“I think that someone might look at one of these and contact a dealer, and the dealer might have a similar one that’s certified on their lot that they could sell,” Kinney said.

Kinney also explained the reconditioning process for these vehicles.

The vehicles undergo a screening process by the automaker. GM assesses the damages and conditions of the vehicle once it has been turned in from the company vehicle operations, rental company or off-lease from the consumer, he said.

GM photographs the vehicle and uploads those photos to the site. After a consumer selects a car and sets up the purchase at a store, the reconditioning is done at the dealership.

As for transport from the grounding location to the participating dealer, the dealer makes arrangement, same as they would for buying a car at an auction.

With the program being an extension of the Shop-Click-Drive program, Kinney explained how financing fits into the process, as well.

“The process, essentially, is the consumer picks a vehicle, then selects a dealer. And once they select a dealer, it actually goes into the existing Shop-Click Drive process. Part of that process gives them the option to fill out a credit application, which then the dealer will take and work with their financial institutions to provide the approval,” he said.