Perhaps spending more than 30 minutes talking about how potential losses in new-vehicle lease business were going to hurt the company’s performance provided the kindling that was lit when an investment analyst asked Ally Financial chief executive officer Michael Carpenter if he would sell off SmartAuction to General Motors or another potential buyer of the wholesale service provider.

Carpenter fervently brushed off the inkling that SmartAuction would be owned by anyone other than Ally when the company conducted its quarterly conference call to report fourth-quarter and full-year results.

At the beginning of the session, Ally explained how the company managed to generate a total originations figure ($41 billion) that came in as the highest level since 2007. And Ally leaders mentioned how the company achieved that figure even as General Motors enhanced its relationship with GM Financial and Fiat-Chrysler shifted its captive finance company allegiance to Chrysler Capital.

Still, Eric Beardsley of Goldman Sachs asked Carpenter near the end of the conference call that could softening lease originations prompt Ally to liquidate SmartAuction to GM or another company.

“Absolutely not. It is a huge competitive advantage,” Carpenter said according to the transcript of the call posted by SeekingAlpha.com.

“We have probably a $500 per car advantage for us as a non-physical auction. And so on even-up basis in the leasing business, we are a substantially cost advantage,” he continued. “We have the superior information advantage because we really know what the hell is going on in used market. We don't just use ALG data like everybody else does.

“We have a very good system for tracking supply demand of the level of individual vehicles that enables us to manage risks in times better. It's a huge strategic asset in the leasing business,” Carpenter went on to say.

Carpenter closed his response to Beardsley’s question by touching on off-lease volume sent down the lanes by U.S. Bancorp.

“What did U.S. Bancorp used to do with their off-lease vehicles? Answer, they came to our auction,” Carpenter said. “So that’s a huge competitive advantage in the business, and I would never dream of selling it to GM or anybody else for that matter.”

According to the latest information from the National Auto Auction Association, online-only sales — which SmartAuction operates — has grown steadily between 2009 and 2013, climbing from a market-share level of 2.7 percent to 4.7 percent during that span.