For many years, ServNet has supported higher education for members of the auction industry. That support initially began in the early 2000s, when the group got involved with NAAA’s Warren Young Scholarship Program.
Eventually, ServNet decided to broaden its support for training and education by offering scholarships each year to the sons and daughters of employees of ServNet auctions. The network launched its own program in 2016.
“As the leaders of family-owned businesses ourselves, we ServNet owners take a deep personal interest in our employees,” Ryan Clark, owner of Greater Rockford Auto Auction, said in a press release. Clark is a member of ServNet’s board of directors, overseeing the scholarship program.
“ServNet’s scholarship program is a great way for us to encourage the members of our auction families and to help lay the groundwork for the next generation that follows.” The program, he added, “is both an important way to support the families who work so hard in our industry and to invest in our collective future.”
ServNet on Monday announced the opening of its 2019 Scholarship Program, designed to help ServNet auction employees and their families pursue the dream of higher education. Up to 10 awards totaling $20,000 are available for aspiring undergraduate students in 2019. The program assists full-time ServNet auction employees, their children, stepchildren and grandchildren who plan to pursue education in college or vocational school programs.
The awards will be given in increments of five awards of $2,500 to students attending a four-year college or university, and five awards of $1,500 for students who are attending a two-year college or who are pursuing an auto-related degree at a vocational-technical school.
Clark notes that several students have applied for — and been awarded — the ServNet scholarship in multiple years.
Patrick Ming has joined the ADESA national sales team as executive sales director, and Vince McNeal has rejoined the team as senior director of customer solutions.
Ming joined the business unit of KAR Auction Services through the acquisition of upstream vehicle auction platform OPENLANE in 2011. Ming brings more than 20 years of experience in the automotive industry, and he most recently served as director of online programs at ADESA, where he oversaw development of customer-tailored upstream auction platforms for several large private-label portfolios supported by OPENLANE.
McNeal started with ADESA in 2005 as a dealer sales representative at the company’s ADESA Lexington auction location before promotions to fleet lease manager and assistant general manager. He went on to serve as executive sales director at ADESA for five years. McNeal was most recently executive director of commercial sales for TradeRev, another KAR business unit.
“Both Patrick and Vince have the skillsets and exceptional customer relationships to ensure a seamless transition to our commercial sales group,” John Hammer, ADESA president, said in a press release.
Matt Arias has been named assistant vice president of operations at America’s Auto Auction. The company describes Arias as “one of the industry’s leading experts in vehicle arbitration procedures, inspections, reconditioning, operations management and resource optimization.”
Arias begins his new role with more than 20 years of auction experience. “Matt will establish stronger consistency in our condition report writing process, enabling our consignors to more accurately price their vehicles and our purchasers to buy with more confidence,” Brian Thomas, senior vice president at America’s Auto Auction, said in a news release. “We’re looking forward to Matt’s veteran leadership and operational expertise to better streamline operations across all of America’s 21 locations.”
America’s Auto Auction also describes Arias as an experienced negotiator, mediator and arbitrator, and he spent many years at Manheim and ADT. He most recently served as Manheim’s director of operational excellence and as director of arbitration. He is currently co-chair of the NAAA Auction Standards and IARA Standards committees. He is also the instructor of the NAAA Standards classes, which take place at various auction locations around the country.
“I’ve worked alongside America’s Auto Auction for many years in my efforts with the NAAA and the Standards Committee, and I know that company to be aggressively committed to supporting their customers and their employees,” Arias said in a news release. “I am excited to have the opportunity to work directly with America’s to continue their efforts to optimize the auction experience, both internally and externally, and across all platforms. I’m fond of saying that we either synch or sink in this industry, and my goal is to find the best ways to enhance operations at America’s so that the processes and flow of information are seamless between the auctions and our customers.”
Arias continued, “Deeply ingrained in the culture at America’s Auto Auction is a commitment to quality assurance, and I admire the fact that the general managers at every America’s auction [are] empowered … with decision-making autonomy, which allows them to respond with lightning speed to meet an individual customer’s specifications. My desk is typically the hood of a car at whatever auction I’m working at. I’ll be covering a lot of geography to work directly with the GMs and their teams at each of America’s 21 auctions to find ways to enhance condition report writing processes, streamline procedures and ensure the greatest customer satisfaction.”
ADESA president John Hammer is serious about helping with the fight against type 1 diabetes. He notes that about 40,000 people in the U.S. will be newly diagnosed with the disease, “potentially impacting some of our employees, customers, and their family members," he said.
“That’s why we take our fundraising partnerships with Emkay and the Ford Global Action Team seriously,” he continued in a news release. ADESA and those two partner companies raised $210,546 in support of type 1 diabetes research funding organization JDRF last year. Together, these partnerships have raised more than $1.5 million since 2011 for JDRF, which describes itself as the largest charitable supporter of type 1 diabetes research.
“It’s with their support and the generosity of our customers and employees that we are able to make a significant impact on funding for diabetes awareness and research,” Hammer said.
That’s good news for JDRF, which has a research mission to discover, develop, and deliver advances that cure, better treat, and prevent type 1 diabetes.
Many individual ADESA auction locations have been involved in the project. During a nine-month campaign between March 1 and Nov. 30, 2018, EMKAY and ADESA each made matching donations generated across 21 participating ADESA auction locations. This campaign raised $67,220 for JDRF, taking the seven-year fundraising partnership total to $334,220.
Individual auction locations have also taken the fund-raising efforts to a friendly-rivalry level. A group of the auctions compete each year for the honor of raising the most money for JDRF. The ADESA Buffalo location in Akron, N.Y., led the 2018 results with $35,997 raised overall.
In 2018, the Ford Global Action Team’s involvement helped result in some serious fundraising power in the fight against diabetes. That year, ADESA and the Ford Global Action Team hosted special fundraising events at six ADESA locations in support of JDRF. That campaign collected $143,326, increasing the seven-year fundraising partnership total to $1,173,831.
ADESA is serious about other charitable causes, as well.
For the eighth consecutive year at the NADA Show, ADESA will host a charity auction benefitting the NADA Foundation and Canine Companions for Independence. This year’s auction item is a Yamaha golf cart. The auction will take place at ADESA’s booth (#621 South) at 1 p.m. on Jan. 26, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
NADA noted that to date, ADESA’s auctions at the NADA Show have raised $384,000 for the NADA Foundation, which supports Canine Companions.
Black Book pinpointed the reason why it’s been a brisk start to 2019 in the lanes.
Reinforced by the assessment of an auction general manager in the Southeast, Black Book executive vice president of operations Anil Goyal described the current wholesale market situation in the latest Market Insights report released on Tuesday.
“Lower floors at the start of the new year have kept the inventory moving faster,” Goyal said. “We are seeing higher sales rates, but lower prices at the auctions.”
And Black Book’s sale observer stationed in North Carolina shared this anecdote from the auction GM: “Our business has been really good as our sales percentages are between 60 and 70 percent. We are anticipating a continuance of this solid market through the winter and spring at least.”
Editors then shared the latest data, beginning with cars.
Volume-weighted, Black Book reported overall car segment values decreased by 0.74 percent last week. In comparison, market values for these had decreased by 0.64 percent on average during the prior four-week period.
Among cars, editors pointed out the luxury car and sporty car segments experienced the biggest drops, each sliding by 0.91 percent.
Again volume-weighted, Black Book determined overall truck segment values (including pickups, SUVs and vans) softened by 0.75 percent last week. That’s a notable jump from the average editors noticed during the past four weeks, which was 0.53 percent.
Within trucks, editors found that sub-compact crossovers sustained the greatest price decline, dropping by 1.65 percent.
To wrap up the latest report, Black Book representatives described activity in the lanes from two other places.
From Georgia: “Floors were down regardless of vehicle condition or model year, so the buyers felt they were paying fair prices for vehicles.”
From Pennsylvania: “Volume was up as was the dealer attendance both physically and online. The less expensive vehicles were bringing good money.”
If you’re in the auto industry, you might think of Jim Hallett as a car guy. Or a business guy, if you happened to catch his recent appearance on CNBC’s “Mad Money.”
But know this, too — Jim Hallett is a hockey guy.
In addition to the hat he wears as chief executive of KAR Auction Services, Hallett is the owner and chairman of the Indianapolis Fuel, a member of the East Coast Hockey League.
An Ottawa, Ontario native, Hallett grew up playing the sport. And for him, hockey is a passion — one he has shared with business colleagues, family and friends.
But more than that, owning a hockey team provided a way for Hallett to create a legacy.
Before venturing into ownership of the team, he had pondered, “What can I do to contribute something to the community that could really create a legacy and really have a lasting effect that was beyond what I would call passive philanthropy?”
Hockey, as it turns out, was one answer for Hallett and the community around Indianapolis, a place for which he expresses great fondness and now calls home.
Hallett had read a Wall Street Journal story a few years ago indicating a decline in most youth sports like basketball, football, soccer and baseball. But hockey and lacrosse, however, were on the rise, albeit from smaller figures.
Indiana, where KAR is headquartered, has long been known as a basketball state, with prominence not only on the high school level, but the success of blue-blood and elite-level play across several programs in college hoops, as well.
“Indiana’s had hockey. Hockey’s come and gone. It’s been played at various levels,” Hallett said.
“Nobody’s really been able to provide the level of hockey, sustain the level of hockey, create a professional team as well as create a grassroots program for youth hockey and really create more facilities for youth hockey and offer it as an alternative to what I call the four major sports that I mentioned,” he said, referring to baseball, basketball, football and soccer.
“And, so for me, in many ways, not only was this filling a passion and not only was it filling a need, but this was my contribution to the community,” Hallett said. “This was my gift to the community. That doesn’t mean for a minute that I don’t support other charitable organizations and charitable functions, both professionally from a KAR level, but also from a personal level.
“But this was something that I could give back to the community. And it was something that would create a legacy. Something that I could involve my family in,” Hallett said. “And it was something that could outlive me.”
Hallett said he was approached in 2014 by the Indiana State Fairgrounds, which was completing a $64 million renovation of its coliseum at the time, and asked if he had interest in returning pro hockey to Indiana’s capital. (KAR’s headquarters are in nearby Carmel, Ind.)
Long story short and eight months later, Hallett had the Indianapolis Fuel on the ice for the 2014-2015 season.
The Fuel are a minor-league affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks, one of the NHL’s Original Six franchises and certainly in recent years, one of its more successful, with three Stanley Cups in the past decade.
Hallett is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the Fuel, but has a president who runs the team. He’ll chat with the president and coach and help in decision-making if needed, but the for most part, Hallett said he leaves the operations/management to them.
Hallett is the majority owner of the Fuel, owning 88 percent of the team. One minority owner has owned the other 12 percent since Day 1.
Benefits to Indy area, KAR
Beyond the hockey-related benefits that the Fuel can bring to the area, Hallett has enjoyed being able to use hockey to drive charitable endeavors.
“For the city, I think it’s really been an introduction of what I would call an alternative sport that actually has a long history here, but it’s come and gone several times,” Hallett said. “But now they see stability and a lot of support.
“And not only do we have a great game, but I can also tell you that owning the franchise gives me the opportunity to support a lot of charities,” Hallett said. “It’s not necessarily me writing checks to those charities. We have events during the games where we sponsor charities.”
For instance, the team has a Susan B. Komen night where it honors those who have battled breast cancer and raises money for that foundation through the sale of jerseys after the game.
In the first five years of operation, Hallett estimates the team has raised between $1.3 million and $1.4 million for charities in the area.
The Fuel also purchased youth hockey arenas in the nearby town of Fishers, Ind., and started a youth hockey program.
“It’s a nonprofit, but we run the program. We built the infrastructure to put management in place to manage that nonprofit,” Hallett said. “And then we created coaches and created managers and volunteers to support a youth program much like you would in baseball or soccer or anything else.”
There are many kids who need an “escape” and want to get into hockey, Hallett said, “but there was never really a real focus on organizing it for the kids. And so, we’ve organized all that in a very meaningful way, and that’s had a major impact.
“Not only have we given them great facilities, but now we’re giving them access to good coaching and good development,” he said, adding that “my day will be made … when one of these kids plays for the Fuel.”
But it’s not just the community that benefits. The are some pluses for KAR Auction Services having a connection to the team, as “the community links the two together,” even the operations and companies are separate, with KAR being a publicly traded company.
“I would say from a community standpoint, I think it really helps with recognition for KAR,” Hallett said. “I think it helps people relate to me in a different way. I think it helps with our recruiting effort, and I think it helps with just bringing an awareness to KAR and maybe people who weren’t familiar with KAR are familiar with KAR because of my relationship with the Fuel.”
Tobin Richer, who is KAR’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, also touched on the benefits from the employee side of things. KAR folks are often able to use the tickets themselves or to take customers to games.
Richer, who said that “Jim’s got a pretty loyal fan base here in the building,” also said that KAR employees can get pretty pumped about the Fuel.
“When there’s big game days, the buildings full of people wearing Fuel gear,” Richer said.
What drives sports, auto business ownership
Less than eight miles from the home office of Auto Remarketing and its parent company is the arena of another professional hockey organization whose owner is also known in automotive circles.
That would be the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes and owner Thomas Dundon.
Dundon, who built the subprime financing institution that eventually became Santander Consumer USA, officially became majority owner of the Carolina Hurricanes in January 2018 through the formal closing of his purchase transaction with Peter Karmanos. Karmanos retained a minority ownership interest in the club. The NHL Board of Governors had previously approved the transaction in December 2017.
Hallett and Dundon are some of many with current and/or former ties to both the sports and automotive businesses, including folks like John Elway and Rick Hendrick.
Hallett, who counts Dundon as a friend, said he’s not sure if there’s something specific that binds together businesspeople who have ties in both the sports and automotive arenas, but it might be a hunger to win.
“I don’t know if there’s something across the board. Obviously, we’re very competitive,” Hallett said. “We come from a very competitive background. We want to win with our business. We want to win with our families.
“We want to win with our friends,” he said. “We want to win in our communities.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of Auto Remarketing's “DRIVING FORCE: The Business Intersection of Sports & Automotive” series, which will discuss the car industry's involvement in sports business — be it through marketing partnerships, ownership stakes, working as sister companies under the same corporate umbrella or other business ventures. Stay tuned for the print edition of this series in the Feb. 1 edition of the Auto Remarketing magazine.
Nick Zulovich contributed to this story.
The National Auto Auction Association said Friday it has promoted Tricia Heon to the new position of chief operating officer. She has served as legislative director and operations manager for eight years. The transition was effective as of Jan. 1.
The association also elected Julie Picard vice president for the 2018-2019 term, and she will serve on the executive board with president Chad Bailey and president-elect Laura Taylor.
NAAA noted that in addition to its expanding role of the 70-year-old trade organization as a voice for the vehicle remarketing industry, the promotion of Heon to chief operating officer reflects the increasing responsibilities of its administration to serve its growing membership. NAAA now represents more than 340 auction members and 130 associate members.
“One of the many reasons we felt the need for the new position is our greater management requirements for daily operations,” NAAA chief executive officer Frank Hackett said in a news release. “We only have a handful of full-time staff yet perform like an association several times that size, which demands effective day-to-day direction.”
Hackett noted that the title was appropriate for Heon because her job of operations manager had already evolved to encompass much of the chief operating officer’s functions. He added that establishing the new position would prepare the association to handle additional work efficiently without increasing staff as it looks to the future. Also, it will allow him more time to focus on strategic planning as chief executive officer.
During her eight years with NAAA, Heon has been responsible for the creation of its political action committee, the annual Day On The Hill advocacy event in Washington, D.C., and the monitoring of federal and state regulations. The association notes that she has been instrumental in the development of projects and initiatives, such as the study to address the technician shortage and reports on the future of the industry, as well as planning meetings and programs.
Heon, who graduated from The University at Albany, N.Y., with a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science and earned a master’s in public administration from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, worked in local government as a budget analyst and as a consultant projecting the impact of the federal budget on various entities before coming to NAAA.
She will continue to serve as NAAA’s legislative director in addition to her new duties of overseeing the staff and the daily operations of the association as chief operating officer.
Meanwhile, NAAA elected Picard, who is Manheim’s national west regional vice president, at its 70th annual convention in December.
At Manheim, Picard is responsible for developing and implementing strategies for 14 auctions to increase growth, market share, and profitability.
Throughout her 26-year Manheim career, Picard served in numerous executive positions, including vice president and general manager of Manheim Pennsylvania, overseeing the auto auction with 1,600 employees and revenues of $226 million.
“Julie’s experience in the industry, business skills and leadership abilities made her an excellent choice to serve on our board,” said Hackett. “She values team engagement, collaboration, talent development and strategic planning, all of which are important for the advancement of our association and the vehicle remarketing industry.”
A graduate from the University of Montana with a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1989, Picard worked for Rhodes and Fullaway, CPA, becoming a senior accountant before leaving three years later to join Manheim Seattle as controller and manager of finance and administration.
After completing the Cox Executive Leadership Program, she was named the Seattle auto auction's assistant general manager in 2000, then general manager in 2007 and market vice president in 2011. Picard served as vice president and general manager of Manheim Pennsylvania from January 2014 until being named to her current position in December 2015. She was honored as one of Auto Remarketing’s 2013 Women in Remarketing.
She also received the 2013 Laurie Dobberphul Top Achiever Award, presented by GE Remarketing.
It’s already been an eventful 2019 for the XLerate Group.
The auction company announced a pair of acquisitions on Friday, adding Morton Auto Auction (MAA) located in Morton, Ill., and Southeastern Auto Auction (SEAA) based in Savannah, Ga.
With these acquisitions in the portfolio, XLerate Group now operates 12 auctions with sales in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin. XLerate also operates robust digital and mobile sales platforms nationally.
MAA has been owned and operated by the Krupa family since 2006, serving both dealers and fleet/lease consignors. In existence since 1978, MAA is XLerate’s fifth Midwestern location and has served a broad swath of dealers in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri and Indiana as well as key commercial consignors.
XLerate chief executive officer Cam Hitchcock said, “Adding MAA to the XLerate family helps solidify our Midwest footprint and adds another highly respected independent operator to our management team. We have stayed the course with XLerate ’s long-term strategy to grow our business, footprint and service offerings by acquiring high-quality independent sales with strong operating management and building upon this foundation.
“Steve and Ted Krupa have owned and grown the sale since purchasing it in 2006 from the Weihmeir family, MAA’s co-founders,” Hitchcock continued. “Steve is quite active in key industry groups and associations, promoting and protecting the interest of his independent auction constituents.”
The company indicated that Steve Krupa and general manager Shawn Glatz will continue to oversee MAA and will work closely with the XLerate sales teams to drive additional volume through MAA.
“We are honored that Steve’s family trusts XLerate with their legacy and employees at MAA,” Hitchcock said. “We intend to aggressively grow the sale and enhance key product offerings like digital and our mobile sale platform.”
Steve Krupa added that “we are thrilled to join the XLerate Group. My team and I feel that XLerate’ s resources, expertise and management structure are a perfect fit for Morton and its employees and will help us to better serve our dealers and commercial consignors.
“While it is never an easy decision to sell your family auction, it was clear that XLerate was the best fit,” Krupa went on to say.
MAA has dealer consignment, fleet/lease and financial institution sales each Wednesday at its 22-acre facility.
Details about SEAA acquisition
In a separate transaction, XLerate Group also boosted its footprint in the Southeast.
SEAA has dealer consignment, fleet/lease and financial institution sales each Wednesday at its Savannah, Ga., facility as well as a weekly public sale on Thursdays. The auction operates a four-lane arena and reconditioning facility on approximately 15 acres.
“SEAA is the latest step in XLerate’s strategy to grow our business, footprint and service offerings by acquiring high-quality independent sales with strong operating management,” Hitchcock said. “Tommy Childs, Danny Williams and Wayne DeLoach started SEAA in 1987 and have expanded it several times since.”
XLerate alum and current SEAA operator Bill McCready will run SEAA, according to the company. McCready previously served as the assistant general manager of Charleston Auto Auction, another XLerate Group location about 100 miles away from SEAA.
XLerate executive vice president Chuck Tapp said, “We are pleased to officially welcome Bill back to the XLerate family.
“He is a proven operator with a laser focus on customer service. He has an intimate knowledge of the regional customer base as well as a great track record with commercial consignors," Tapp added about McCready, who was among Auto Remarketing’s annual Remarketing & Used-Car Industry’s 40 Under 40 honorees in 2016.
SEAA celebrated 22 years in business back in August.
“SEAA’s customers and employees will be well served by the resources and depth of product offerings that come with being part of the XLerate Group. I look forward to expanding SEAA’s base of business and continuing to drive its strategic growth,” McCready said.
DeLoach, added, “Danny, Tommy and I are excited for our dealers, institutional clients and our auction family. Joining the XLerate Group gives Southeastern Auto Auction capabilities it did not have as a single auction.
“During our thirty-plus years in business, we have had the pleasure of working with so many great people. We all say thank you to everyone who has worked for, or done business with, Southeastern Auto Auction,” DeLoach went on to say.
Nick had the chance to share another conversation with Anil Goyal and Jared Kalfus from Black Book during Used Car Week 2018 for a discussion about how the company partners with a variety of other players in the automotive space for the benefit of auctions, dealers and finance companies.
Goyal and Kalfus described the collaborative spirit that brings fruitful results.
The podcast discussion can be found below.
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Black Book’s latest wholesale observations — both its Used Vehicle Retention Index for December as well as its Market Insights report recapping the opening week of 2019 — highlighted softening prices, reinforcing what one auction told editors that tax season might be “more of a myth than a reality.”
Beginning first with the December Used Vehicle Retention Index, Black Book reported the reading came in at 116.3, dipping slightly from the previous month’s mark of 116.5. December showed the first decline in the index dating back to May.
Editors noted that the Used Vehicle Retention Index finished the year up by 1.9 percent compared with 2017. It was the largest year-over-year increase for the Index dating back to 2012, when the index climbed 3.5 percent compared with 2011.
Black Book peeled out notable gains and losses in retention from its latest index analysis, including:
Gains
• Midsize car: up 0.55 percent
• Midsize luxury CUV/SUV: up 0.31 percent
• Compact luxury CUV/SUV: up 0.29 percent
Losses
• Minivan: down 1.6 percent
• Full-size luxury CUV/SUV: down 1.54 percent
• Full-size van: down 1.3 percent
• Midsize crossover/SUV: down 1.14 percent
• Premium sporty car: down 1.02 percent
“The segments showing the greatest gains and declines in the Index this month were a mix of car and truck segments,” said Anil Goyal, Black Book’s executive vice president of operations. “This is certainly the time of year when we see declines ahead of the spring selling season.
“However, the decline in December was higher than typical seasonality, thus a slight decline in the index,” Goyal continued. “Given the current economic conditions, demand for used and new vehicles remains strong but there is a cloud of uncertainty as we start 2019.”
The Black Book Used Vehicle Retention Index is calculated using Black Book’s published wholesale average value on 2- to 6-year-old used vehicles, as percent of original typically-equipped MSRP. It is weighted based on registration volume and adjusted for seasonality, vehicle age, mileage and condition.
The index dates to January 2005 when Black Book published a benchmark index value of 100.0. During 2008, the index dropped by 14.1 percent while during 2016, the index fell by just 6.4 percent.
During 2011, the index rose strongly from 113.3 to 123.0 by the end of the year as the economy picked up steam and used vehicle values rose higher. It continued to remain relatively stable, rising slightly until May of 2014 when it hit a peak of 128.1.
To obtain a copy of the latest Black Book Wholesale Value Index, go to this website.
Activity during first week of 2019
Black Book’s Market Insights report showed the prices of cars declining more than trucks to begin 2019.
“In the first week of the new year, values of used vehicles continued to decline on pace with the trend seen in December. The previous year ended with the lowest depreciation rate in three years,” Goyal said.
Volume-weighted, editors noticed that overall car segment values decreased by 0.69 percent last week. In comparison, the market values softened by 0.64 percent on average during the prior four-week period.
Among the car segments, Black Book mentioned the full-size car (down 1.10 percent), sub-compact car (down 1.12 percent), and luxury car (down 0.95 percent) segments experienced the biggest price drops.
Again volume-weighted, editors determined overall truck segment values (including pickups, SUVs, and vans) dipped by 0.54 percent last week. That’s nearly on par with the previous four week as the market values for these units dipped by 0.55 percent on average.
And in the truck segment, Black Book reported that the sub-compact luxury crossover (down 1.10 percent) and full-size luxury crossover/SUV (down 0.80 percent) segments performed the worst.
Black Book's report also included anecdotes editors collected from the lanes. The first one came from an auction owner in Pacific Northwest.
“Cautious optimism is the theme for me. I believe things will ramp up a bit right away, while slowly gaining momentum. 2019 will be better than last year for used vehicles. The ‘tax season’ feeding frenzy is now more of a myth than a reality,” the owner told Black Book.
Editors shared the views from a wholesale buyer in Texas, as well.
“Bought several vehicles online and the floors have definitely been adjusted,” the buyer told Black Book. “On some $40,000 vehicles they were down close to $1,000 from the mid-December floors. I buy for several new-car stores and I can tell you that retail is flat here in the Southwest. I am buying mostly trucks and SUVs as the low fuel prices have kept them hot.”
Update on the specialty markets
And as they do at the top of each month, Black Book editors describe conditions within the specialty spaces. Here is their rundown:
— Collectibles: Although most enthusiasts are anxiously awaiting the collectible car “super week” that happens in Scottsdale, Ariz., this month, Black Book insisted that observers shouldn’t forget that Mecum is hosting a major auction in Kissimmee, Fla., through Jan. 13.
— Recreational Vehicles: As we move further into winter, Black Book indicated RVs are continuing to exhibit typical seasonal behavior. “Both towables and motorized units are down slightly this month, but their rate of decline has slowed,” editors added.
— Powersports: Black Book noted that the Powersports market is down as we enter 2019. “Nearly all segments see declines in value, with the off-road bikes taking the biggest hit this month,” editors said.
— Heavy duty: Editors indicated: “Trucks are moving in and out of service faster and we will be watching to see how much wholesale values are affected.”
— Medium duty: Black Book closed discussion in this space by stating wholesale prices continue to stabilize as demand grows for units in these segments to satisfy regional delivery and construction needs.
