“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

That quote from Warren Buffett is one that Bill Westlake, director of national accounts at Metro Auto Auctions, has used as an Auction Academy instructor but also put in practice at Metro Auto Auction of Dallas.

“I think that that’s pretty near and dear to the competitive nature, not just of Metro Dallas, but it probably applies to many independent auctions competing in this space,” Westlake said. “And another way to say it is, that it’s not just one person to conquest a customer, it’s not just one person to retain a customer, but it can literally take one person to lose a customer.

“We believe that you are as strong as your weakest link,” he said. “And when you look at it that way, in a Metro Dallas perspective, you’ve got to take care of the employees who interface with your customer. So it’s all about customer service with the buyers. It’s about customer service with the sellers.”

It seems apt that Metro Auto Auction of Dallas — Auto Remarketing’s 2026 Independent Auto Auction of the Year, an award presented by Kinetic Advantage — would adhere to a Buffett mantra in its approach to business.

Metro Auto Auction of Dallas and its sister auction, Metro Auto Auction of Phoenix, are part of Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, formerly the Van Tuyl Group, which was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which Buffett formerly led, in 2015.

The reputation philosophy isn’t the only lesson learned from Buffett and benefit gleaned from being a part of an organization like Berkshire Hathaway Automotive.

“I would say don’t wait too long before you try something. Don’t sit before you test it,” Westlake said.

Added Rob Gorman, controller at the auction, “It’s better to try something and fail than not try it at all … they empower us to make a decision. It’s better to make that decision. We learn from it, and if we didn’t make a decision, that’s an opportunity lost.”

This has also allowed the auction to be nimble, without the typical office politics that can happen in business.

“You just have decision makers. They understand what’s at stake and the result of the decision. Without politics, you know you’re making every effort on behalf of the customer,” Westlake said. “If it fails, tweak it and try again.”

Another piece of Metro’s approach is to “look at everything through the eyes of a dealer,” Gorman said.

Consider how a dealer might view something and how they would react.

Which, again, seems apt, given Metro’s lineage.

“Our history is unique in that we became the marketplace and the auction exclusive, at first, for the Larry Van Tuyl group, before it became Berkshire Hathaway,” Westlake said of Metro’s origins. “When you have 400, 500 cars the day you open your doors from these dealer groups exchanging, you have a very unique dynamic because you have new-car stores, both sellers and buyers, and that creates a dynamic of high conversions.

“And so I think that’s the perfect stage to set the growth because you can easily expand to independent sellers, independent dealers,” he said.

“Not many auctions get that opportunity to have that built-in new-car store, trade, aged (inventory) that was needed to get the transaction done,” Westlake said. “And I think that that launched us in both markets.”

Gorman added, “And the original concept for Larry (Van Tuyl) was just a dealer auction. And both auctions were able to grow to a fleet lease business just because of what we started with.”

Westlake said that with franchise dealers being among the leading buyers in terms for high conversion, it “really set the stage” for fleet-lease sales at Metro’s auctions.

“And we finally saw that opportunity start several years ago, and we’ve been building on fleet since then,” Westlake said.

The relationship between Metro and the retail side of Berkshire Hathaway Automotive remains strong. Gorman said the top three to four buyers each week at the Dallas auction are Berkshire dealerships.

And while Metro Auto Auction certainly is associated with a “franchise” name like Berkshire Hathaway, it’s still very much an independent auction, working through similar challenges and opportunities as its peers.

Over the last five to six years, Westlake says, “I’ve seen a movement happening among independents, getting the reputation and the service level that is attracting fleet consignors, major fleet brands.”

He added: “And we’ve seen it. We’ve been a part of that. We have grabbed a lot of (vehicles from) Exeter, Holman, Westlake Financial.

“A lot of these nameplates are seeking auctions that want to service their needs in a unique way,” Westlake said. “And we’re hungry. And I think that independents have proven themselves over the years that it’s no longer just technology being the differentiator.

“I think technology has just become a tool that’s universally used, and independents have embraced that,” he said. “And in many perspectives, consignors don’t really realize that an independent auto auction can take a unit and post it on multiple platform channels at the same time, simultaneously. And if they’re with another chain, that auction chain is going to just use their own platform in most cases.”

Gorman added, “Independents are more nimble. We can provide different services to all our different customers versus the big box. That gives us a leg up.”

“And we don’t have to go to committees to get approval to take care of a customer need,” Westlake said. “We have an owner, a leader, and that leader and owner just want the business. They want to make it right.”

Looking forward, Westlake says fleet remains one of the biggest growth opportunities for Metro Auto Auctions. The “roots,” of the business, he said, are in being a “consignment-driven sale.”

But there’s room to expand.

“We are still in the evolution of becoming a larger percentage of fleet in our sales,” Westlake said. “We are taking a hard look at our staffing, our technology to support quicker turn, getting cars sale-ready sooner.

“I think we’re covering a lot of ground and making some big improvements,” he said. “so I think we’re going to see, in the future, Metro have a larger adoption of fleet.  That changes our culture a bit because when it comes to fleet, you work on inventory every single day.

“If you’re just a consignment sale, your entire priority is built upon cars leading up to that sale. So, it’s a different operation and we’re going through that evolution now,” Westlake said.  “And we’ve been fortunate to have some really good fleet customers who believe in our service levels now  to get us to that goal for next year to handle more volume and service them with their needs.”

The Metro Auto Auction of Dallas team will be recognized on Nov. 18 during an awards ceremony at Used Car Week.

For more information, visit www.usedcarweek.biz.