Auction sales ‘muted’ after landmark April, but still improve from 2024

After the strongest month in nearly five years, wholesale auction sales were “substantially more muted” in May, but still up more than 3% from a year ago.

And though down double-digits from pre-COVID level, year-to-date sales are performing favorably compared to 2024.

That’s according to the latest AuctionNet data and commentary from the National Auto Auction Association provided to Auto Remarketing.

NAAA’s data shows that there were 601,300 auction sales last month, which was up 3.5% from May 2024, when adjusted for selling days. However, compared to April — where sales rose 12.6% year-over-year to the highest monthly total since July 2020 — auction sales volumes were off 3.4%, NAAA said.

After jumping close to 17% year-over-year in April, auction sales by dealers were up 4.6% in May. They also fell more than 7% month-over-month, according to NAAA.

In the commentary, NAAA vice president Larry Dixon said that, “dealer auction sales were buoyed by an influx of trade-ins in April stemming from consumer pre-buy activity in anticipation of higher prices due to tariffs. May was likely to experience some correction in dealer volume given April’s pronounced growth and that’s exactly what occurred.”

As for commercial consignors, their sales were up 4.5% year-over-year last month. That was down from a 10.5% spike in April, NAAA said. Commercial sales were off 0.3% month-over-month.

But activity in the commercial segment wildly varied by age group.

One- to 2-year-old vehicles — an off-rental-heavy group — showed more than 22% spike from May 2024 and beat April sales by 18%, NAAA said. The 7-year-old and up crowd were also up substantially (14%) from May 2024.

Meantime, there was a 28% year-over-year decline and a 7% month-over-month decline in sales of 3-year-old vehicles, which is heavy on off-lease units.

By segment, it was a three-horse race in May, with auction volumes for compact luxury crossovers/SUVs, full-size pickups and midsize crossovers/SUVs up 11.8%, 11.1% and 11.3%, respectively.

By powertrain, NAAA said there were 13,498 EV sales at auction last month, which beat May 2024 by 47.5%. However, that was down 9.5% from April.

Still, EV sales are up 53% year-to-date, with close to 63,000 units sold.

Overall year-to-date auction sales are at 3.05 million, which beats year-ago figures by 7.1%. However, it trails pre-pandemic 2019 year-to-date levels by 14%.

Note: This is part of a monthly series in which Auto Remarketing shares AuctionNet data and commentary provided by the National Auto Auction Association.

As noted by the organization, more than 260 NAAA member auctions power AuctionNet, making it the most comprehensive source of wholesale auto auction sales data in the U.S. Unless otherwise noted, auction sales figures are based on total reporting auctions, the number and composition of which may vary over time.  Data below courtesy of AuctionNet/NAAA.