Commercial vehicle volumes soar as overall auction sales rise 6%

Through three quarters of 2025, wholesale auction sales are beating year-ago figures by nearly 6%, with commercial consignor volumes especially strong as of late.

That’s according to AuctionNet data from the National Auto Auction Association, which said auction sales climbed 5.5% year-over-year in September and were up 6% for the third quarter. Year-to-date sales are up close to 6%, as well.

One hiccup: auction sales for September were off 1.6% from August, the first month-over-month dip since June, NAAA said.

Breaking it down by seller type, commercial sales were up close to 16% year-over-year and rose 5% month-over-month in September, while dealer sales fell 3% from September 2024 and dropped 5% from August.

This marked the second straight month of both year-over-year and month-over-month declines in dealer sales, NAAA said.

Among the age groups, it was a case of terrific twos and terrible threes.

There was close to a 30% year-over-year spike and nearly a 9% rise in sales of vehicles up to 2 years old in September, according to NAAA. Meantime, the off-lease-heavy 3-year-old vehicle group showed a 21% year-over-year drop and a 5% sequential decline.

However, there could be some brighter days ahead for that segment.

“The industry should see more 3-year-old volume next year given the improvement in new vehicle lease activity that occurred in 2023 (new vehicle leases grew by approximately 14% year-over-year in 2023, and most new vehicle leases are for a 36-month term),” said Larry Dixon, vice president of Auction Data Solutions/AuctionNet at NAAA, in the analysis.

There was a 8.5% year-over-year decline in sales of 4- to 5-year-old vehicles, which were off about 4% month-over-month.

Older vehicle classes are faring much better.

For instance, there was a 6% spike in sales of vehicles 7 to 10 years old in September and a 7% rise in sales of vehicles 11 years or older, NAAA said. All told, there has been a 9% year-to-date rise in sales of vehicles 7 years and older.

“The rise in older vehicle sales continues to be driven by repossessions, with commercial volume for the group up nearly 24% year-over-year in September and 17% year-to-date,” Dixon said.

Looking at the vehicle segments, NAAA noticed that “few material changes occurred in longer-running trends last month,” Dixon said. “Auction sales of more affordable mainstream cars continued to move lower, while sales of utility vehicles moved higher on a prior-year basis.”

One segment that has had a banner year is electric vehicles. Through three quarters, there have been more than 119,000 EV auction sales, NAAA said.

That already beats the full-year 2024 tally of 109,300 sales. Adjusted for selling days, EVs are 48% stronger, according to the report.

Along those lines, hybrids have also been a bright spot.

“Hybrid sales are up 18% year-to-date and used price retention is superior to comparable ICE and EV models, on average (for context, 3-year-old retention for EV models averaged 37.2% in September, while hybrid retention averaged 66.6%),” Dixon said.

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.