CARS’ Newest Partnerships Open Online Bidding on Repossessed Vehicles Sooner

Regulations force remarketing of repossessed vehicles to take a certain amount of time, but Consolidated Asset Recovery Systems believes its two newest partnerships can allow lenders to use that time as efficiently as possible.

Geared to leverage potential both on the wholesale and retail fronts, CARS recently forged relationships with Copart and Asset Nation to set up virtual bidding processes aimed at exposing the units to potential buyers as they’re working their way over legal and remarketing hurdles.

“There’s always been a lot of pressure from the lenders once (the repossessed vehicle is) picked up to get it to auction and get it sold as quickly as possible so they can get their money,” CARS president and chief executive officer Steve Norwood explained to Auto Remarketing.

“Just from the sheer process side of it, there’s only but so fast you can move. It can’t leave the agent location a lot of times for five to 10 days. There’s transport time. Condition reports have to be done. But they were looking for ways to shorten the process,” Norwood continued.

“This became the opportunities to be able to do that,” he added.

CARS’ Relationship with Copart

To enhance the wholesale process where repo units typically are remarketed, CARS spent 18 months in dialogue with Copart to create an upstream model that’s all completed online. Dealers now can participate in a Right to Cure Auction.

Norwood explained once pictures are taken and a condition report is compiled, dealers can scour the listings and make their highest, sealed bid during an auction that can last anywhere from three to seven days.

If the lender thinks the highest bid meets their price goal for the unit, the vehicle is awarded to the dealer with the winning bid. The dealer can pick up the vehicle at the nearest Copart location as the company has about 130 sites nationwide.

“The neat thing about it is if it doesn’t sell, there’s no cost. So there’s really no barrier for allowing a lender to go out and market these things during the process,” Norwood emphasized.

“The cars can’t be sold until after the clear-to-sell date. But lenders can actually start taking bids,” he continued.

“Everyone we’ve talked to has said, ‘This is great,’” Norwood shared. “It’s given them an alternative to the traditional auction process that really wasn’t available before.”

The CARS boss also stressed how important it is to have Copart as a part of the process rather than dealers having to go to the repo agent’s site to finalize the purchase.

“Copart has been a great partner,” Norwood told Auto Remarketing.”Their whole infrastructure is designed for doing online transactions. And they’ve got facilities where they have people to clean up cars, take pictures and handle the title work. That’s where the buyers can pick up the cars.

“We knew we wanted to have a neutral ground to complete the transactions and with someone who knew how to deal with title issues and working with buyers. Copart is a great partner for that,” he added.

CARS’ Agreement with Asset Nation