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MONTANA
Terry Scheetz, general manager, Auto Auction of Montana, Billings, Mont.:
“We’ve been doing
really well, though
December is a slow month, which is typical. But we’ve had a good year.
“We have four lanes, but lately we’ve been running three. We run between 500 and 600 units.
“The government vehicles have increased by quite a bit, which has helped out. Where we used to run 35 to 40 a sale, it’s now over 100.
“We run those at least once a month, though we’ve been running them every two weeks lately.
“Our sales percentages have been 50 and 60
before the (post-Thanksgiving) slowdown.
“We generally have 250 dealers in the lanes, give or take. Attendance
doesn’t fluctuate too much for us.
“Dealers generally come from a five-state area. North and South Dakota are real good for us, in addition to Montana. Wyoming has always been strong. People are coming from as far away as Cheyenne, Colo., which is farther away than we’d normally get.
“The Internet has also been working for us. We’re selling more on the Internet than we ever have before. I think it’s people trying to find cars, looking across all avenues.
“The mood of dealers changes all the time. But it’s off for them right now..
“There are still dealers dropping out of business.
“We’re selling some units from Midwest Car Corp., which has a large amount of fleet-lease.
“Repos have kind of
tapered off.
“There’s not the big influx there was earlier this year.
“We’ve got a good truck market and that’s real strong all year long. But it’s got to be four-by-fours. Two wheels do not sell out here.
“Late model lease cars are struggling, unless it’s loaded with equipment.
“Overall we’re averaging between $13,000 and $14,000 overall per unit.”
OHIO
Jason Zervos, general manager, Montpelier Auto Auction, Montpelier, Ohio:
“We’ve been running about 300 units through two lanes. Sometimes we run three. We’re selling, on average, about 65 percent.
“The sales percentage is up from 55 percent, but the volume is down.
“We draw our dealers from Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. They’ll come from as far south as Indianapolis or LaPorte, Ind. They’ll also come from as far away as Flint, Mich., and Cleveland.
“This year, we’ve had
almost 200 new dealers register. Our average attendance is about 195, a little higher than last year.
“There are a lot of dealers that have gone out of business around here,
especially after they closed a lot of the Chrysler dealerships.
“We work with a couple of fleet-lease accounts. PHH is one of our largest clients.
“We also work with some banks and credit unions selling repos.
“We’ve sold a few more lease cars this year.
“Our sales percentages there are 59 percent, which is higher than last year.
“Our online sales have probably doubled from last year to this year.
“We’re also selling a lot more RV/powersport/marine toys here.
“We’ve attracted a
number of dealers from Canada and we get some buyers from Wisconsin and surrounding states.
“We also get a lot of business from our sister auction, Bay Auto Auction in Michigan, which is the largest powersports/marine sale in the Midwest.
“We’re able to piggyback off of them.
“Trucks are definitely picking up..
“The price on those have gone up anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500 more than six months ago.
“Our biggest struggle is with the late-model units. Those prices have dipped.
“Our average price here is $5,200, same as last year.”
PENNSYLVANIA
L.ToddBriggs,
co-owner/general manager. Greater Erie Auto
Auction, Fairview, Pa.:
“Sales are great. We’re having an absolutely
awesome year.
“We’re a newer auction - coming up on six years old – and this year our bottom line has gone up about two-and-a-half times.
“At present, we’ve been running between 350 and 400 units.
“We run four lanes, though we have five lanes.
“We’ve been selling 50 percent to the low 60s, which is up from this time last year when we were having some 42- to 48-percent sales.
“Our highest percentage for the year is about 71 or 72, though we’re averaging about 54 to 57 percent for the year.
“We get between 250 to 300 dealers in the lanes. Our dealer count is up about 75 to 80 dealers per week.
“Our sale’s just been growing.
“Our biggest percentage of our consignment is new-car dealer trades. We’re getting a great run on consignment.
“The only thing we haven’t really gotten growing are fleet-lease sales. They don’t know what they’re missing.
“PHH runs a few cars here, but we’d like to
increase that a little bit. It’s a tough nut to crack.
“We don’t have any problem selling cars for $12,000, $15,000 or $20,000.
“But most of our cars are under $7,500. We just have a good rapport with our customer base.
“During our sales, dealers are shoulder-to-shoulder. Consequently, we’re selling even though we’re surrounded by good quality auctions.
“Our consignment is ahead of last year.
“We’re just starting to scratch the surface of
income tax units - buy-here, pay-here units.
I just can’t get enough of that ‘in-betweener’ car, the one’s that between $4,000 and $7,500.
“Our average price overall is $3,500, which is up from this time last year.”
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