PHOENIX -

Ever wonder why we keep changing our industry arbitration rules?

Every few years, we need to tweak them; some to make the issues less granular and some to make them more granular. I bet we can guess how the winds are blowing and from which direction with this latest round of changes.

The interesting part of any changes in NAAA-recognized industry standard rules is this: the more information a buyer has, the better off he is in making a fair market value choice, taking that unit into the retail market space and quickly turning it and returning to the wholesale auction space to make another purchase.

Knowing that, why do we make the auction purchase more complicated by making the announcement process less granular, thus more all-inclusive and basically eliminate vehicle history reports from the equation?

Auctions should be independent third-party remarketing arms for our consigning partners, but we should also be the venue where vehicle transparency should be at its highest and most ethical level to serve the needs of our buying dealers, as well.

As vehicles are on the road longer and in an environment that 100,000 miles is no longer an exception but a rule, we owe it to all parties in the remarketing chain to insure complete disclosure using every tool to which we have access.

Editor's Note: Jim DesRochers is vice president at Dealers Auto Auction of the Southwest. As with any contributed content, the opinions expressed in this and other editorial columns are solely that of the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Auto Remarketing or its parent company.