The exercise seemed simple enough. Or so I thought.

Fill out a condition report on one of the vehicles sitting in the auction arena just outside the classroom at ADESA Charlotte.

While the actual attendees of NAAA's Auction Standards Training class went right to work, knowing exactly where to go as they furiously filled in boxes on the condition report checklist, I had no clue where to start.

And I certainly didn't get very far. Point is, the condition report was far more in-depth than I imagined (a good thing, by the way).

As I came to realize, it was also far more important.

The same goes for entire two-day experience covering the various intricacies of damage analysis and automotive structures

I was there as an observer (and as a very amateurish photographer). The two-day event — led by Matt Arias, the co-chair of NAAA's Auction Standards Committee — went into great detail covering such topics as condition reports, flood/hail damage, disclosures, safety, the material making up a vehicle, restraint systems, types of vehicle structures, how to spot prior repair, collision dynamics and so much more.

Day 1 of the class focused on non-structural elements, and Day 2 dealt with structural damage. 

And while the following nugget comes from the structural damage overview for Day 2 specifically, it's a great reminder as to why the information Arias shared is so important: “Early detection will mitigate costly buying and selling misrepresentation, lost customer confidence, time, arbitration-related issues and overall vehicle value loss.”

More information about the next training opportunity can be found on the NAAA website.