FREDERICK, Md. -

Year-to-date auction volume two-thirds of the way through 2013 remains ahead of year-ago levels by more than 5 percent, according to the National Auto Auction Association, which said August numbers, in particular, climbed more than 8 percent.

In the latest Economic Dashboard released this week, auction volume in August was up 8.5 percent over comparable weeks of 2012.  

This helped year-to-date numbers climb 5.5 percent against comparable 2012 weeks, according to the report prepared by NAAA economist Ira Silver.

And as mentioned in a NAAA Twitter post last month citing Silver, the strength in the light-vehicle market gives current dealer auction consignment a boost while bolstering future growth patterns for commercial consignment.

Granted, new-vehicle sales were down 4.2 percent year-over-year in September at 1.14 million sold, according to Autodata Corp. However, year-to-date through nine months, they are still up more than 8 percent at 11.79 million sales.

And while the new-car SAAR fell from 16.09 million in August to 15.28 million in September, it remained ahead of the 14.78 million level from September 2012, according to Autodata.

Auction Prices

As for vehicle values (also against comparable weeks), NAAA found that average auction prices for August were up 1.3 percent from August 2012.

The year-to-date decline, however, increased to 2.5 percent; in July, it was at 1.5 percent.
 

Joe Overby can be reached at joverby@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.