General Motors hasn’t yet started production of its highly-anticipated Chevy Volt electric car.  It hasn’t put a price on the vehicle.  It hasn’t announced when the Volt will be available, or what dealers will get the first models. It hasn’t told dealers what colors will be available, or whether the car will come with a sunroof or a navigation system or an options package including fog lamps and heated mirrors for cold-weather states.  It hasn’t done anything, in fact, but build a few prototypes and talk with the press a great deal about what the experimental car might be capable of.

But you can buy one on eBay.

One enterprising Columbus, Ohio Chevrolet dealer has started taking deposits.  In its listing for the Volt, Jack Maxton Chevrolet explains, “We are now accepting deposits.....reserve yours today BEFORE THEY ARE BUILT because these will go fast!”

The listing includes such reassuring specifics as “This vehicle is being offered with the Full Factory Warranty,” and “Although we haven't said exactly when the Chevy Volt will come to market, we've set our internal targets to complete the vehicle by the end of 2010.”

Autoblog notes, “It's not clear from the listing just what the winning bidder will get. It could be the first position in line, if and when Maxton gets some Volts, but we can't say for sure.” 

It isn’t even clear, in fact, that the dealership will ever have a single Volt to sell.  Autoblog reports, “We checked with Volt spokesman David Darovitz at General Motors who told us that it's not certain that every Chevy dealer will get the Volt: ‘They must first go through a rigorous certification process,’” he explains -- and that certification process hasn’t even begun yet.

Whatever Maxton is selling, it can be yours for…well, we don’t know how much, actually.  At press time, the top bidder was offering $1,525, but the reserve had not yet been met.  Four people had bid.

We recommend caution here.  We may see more of this behavior from struggling dealerships...but as the market recovers, we hope we won't. There is no Chevy Volt yet, and no Chevy dealership has been authorized to sell one.  The amount of publicity given to every step of the development of this car ensures that, whenever GM does have the vehicle ready for sale, you’ll know. 

If you're in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year's best cars as well as this month's best car deals.