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florida
Butch Herdegen, general manager, Manheim CentralFlorida,
Orlando, Fla.:
“Sales started off strong this year and have continued through the traditional spring market.
“As new car sales continue to struggle, we’ve seen a continued demand for quality used vehicles in the lanes.
“Between our three on-site sales each week, we run approximately 3,500 units. Our main auction sale is held on Wednesday at 9 a.m., where we run the large majority of our units.
“Our Total Resource Auctions sale is held at 8:30 a.m. the same day and features inoperable and lightly damaged, drivable units. We also have a weekly sale on Thursday nights.
“Attendance has been very strong, both closing out 2009 and for the start of 2010. Online attendance is surging as well.
“Our core buyers are mostlyFlorida-based dealers, but dealers operating throughout the
UnitedStatesalso
frequent our sale.
“The convenience and ease of using online channels has really expanded the geography of our buyer base.
“Having survived a tough 2009, most of our dealers are both excited and concerned about what is to come. They know we are not operating in a perfect economy.
“Anticipation is growing for the coming tax season, and many of our franchised dealers reported a slight increase in business over the past few months.
“It is times like now that having the complete trust of your buyers is important. Our team has worked diligently to focus on partnering with our dealers to help them through the tough market we have all been faced with.
“Volume was slightly off in 2009 from where we had hoped. However, we are looking for a slight increase in volume in 2010.
“As we all know, new car sales were down considerably last year, and that limits the trade-in volume at the auction. Our sales team has worked hard to replace some of the lost volume with that of new sellers.
“Our fleet-lease business is strong and I expect this trend to continue.
“While institutional volumes are still down, we are selling them very efficiently.
“The rental inventory is strong,withslightly higher vehicle miles being more prevalent. That reflects the philosophy change that many of the rental car companies have had of late.
“Our factory account lineup includes Volkswagen, Audi, Kia and Mitsubishi; the demand for these cars is as strong as ever.
“We are now gearing up for our annual VW/Audi super sale that will be held during the second week in March.
“It is difficult to find a segment that is not selling really well right now.
“Our conversion rates for our dealer consignment and fleet lease business have been great. Our Total Resource Auctions sale has been very strong as well.
“Because volumes have been down across the marketplace, the value of used vehicles has remained high. I don’t
expect that to change in the near future.
“Last year, Manheim Central Florida received an award for being GE’s national auction of the year.
“We were also honored to be named the country’s topauctionbyKia
Motors.”
new york
Scott Prankie, owner and general manager, Rochester-Syracuse Auto Auction LP,
Waterloo, N.Y.:
“Business has been good.
“We have four lanes and we’ve been running
approximately 300 units each week.
“Compared to this time last year, we’re running closetothesame
numbers.
“However, sales have been slowly picking up, so that’s good. The reason is that it’s tax time. Typically, business picks up around this time. It’s still early to tell, but it doesn’t seem too bad.
“It also seems like the fleet volume has increased a little bit from this time last year.
“We’ve got a good dealer base and they’re comfortable to come here every week because we give good service. We’re getting the support that we need from the dealers.
“Most of our dealers in the lanes are coming from the Rochester and Syracuse areas, along with the area south of the area.
“We’re getting about 300 dealers in the lanes. We’re actually up from this time last year. We’re up about 30 or 40 dealers a week from this time last year.
“I think a lot of dealers are still (nervous) about the economy.
“Our fleet-lease makes up about 10 percent of our units in the lanes. It’s working out well. We’re keeping pretty much even with that segment. We have a pretty large new-and used-car dealer base.
“Many of our fleet-lease units come from local banks. We also handle units for Wheels, Inc., and ARI.
“Repossessions have started to pick up, actually. Oddly enough, it was picking up more in January than it did in November or December.
“Those repossessions run at the same time as our fleet-lease units.
“We don’t have any factory sales or other special sales.
“We are starting to run a truck lane. That’s working out pretty well. That’s fairly new. We’re running pick-ups and SUVs in that lane.
“While we’ve had truck lanes in the past, this is something that’s a little more consistent. It’s something we’re running each week.
“I don’t know if there are any types of vehicles that are doing better than others at this time.
“Some vehicles are on the rebound from the past, such as the Chevrolet
Impalas.
“They were down a little bit and they have picked back up again.”
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