Used Car News

The inventory shortage has dealers looking beyond their local sources of vehicles and remarketing companies are responding to this new reality.

Manheim, the largest U.S. auction chain, now views itself as serving its buyers and sellers anywhere, even in cyber space.
“Our view of the world is we’re a marketplace and it doesn’t really matter where the car is sold,” said Manheim CEO Dean Eisner.
The company recently struck a deal with The Hertz Corp. to sell its rental cars right off the rental lots.
Rental companies and other fleet consignors have sold online for years. Now, dealers are offering more of their vehicles through the Internet.
“Because the market has become liquid, we’re selling all kinds of cars,” said Andrew Iorgulescu, vice president and co-founder of Openlane.
“They want to turn those cars into cash.”
This means dealers can use the Internet for just-in-time inventory. They can spend less to stock their lots and still make sales.
The format may be different, but selling online requires the same skills as the traditional auction. It’s all about representation and pricing, Iorgulescu said.
This makes inspection companies more important than ever. Both Manheim and Openlane have extensive relationships with all the major third-party inspection services for both pre-sale and post-sale inspections.
Physical auctions remain crucial for the wholesale process despite these changes.
Iorgulescu said Openlane works with many physical auction partners and plans to start marketing at these sites.
Attendance at Manheim’s physical auctions remain stable even while the online sales participation has grown.
Eisner said the future of auction sales is in the hands of its customers.
“We’ll go to 100 percent if that’s where it goes,” he said. “But we don’t think it’ll go there.”