As its parent company, KAR Auction Services, received another accolade, business unit Insurance Auto Auctions announced on Tuesday that its newest salvage auction location in Shady Spring, W.Va., is now open.
The newest branch that company leadership says can service three different states is located at 4163 Pluto Road in Shady Spring.
Insurance Auto Auctions chief executive officer and president John Kett said, “IAA continues to strategically locate branches to better service our customers.
“We are committed to providing buyers and sellers with access to greater inventory and more convenience at auctions, and the Shady Spring location is in a prime location to support our customers across three states — West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky,” Kett went on to say.
Preview and auction times vary for each of IAA's facilities. For more information, call the IAA Shady Spring branch at (304) 253-4970 or go to IAA's branch information page at www.iaai.com.
KAR Recognized by Winning Companies
In other news, KAR chief executive officer Jim Hallett shared that the company has been selected by Winning Companies as a 2020 Women on Boards Winning ‘W’ Company for 2014.
KAR highlighted that Winning Companies recognizes the importance of board diversity, and highlights companies that have 20 percent or more women on their board of directors. KAR currently has two women serving on its board — Donna Ecton and Lynn Jolliffe.
2020 Women on Boards is a non-profit grassroots campaign committed to increasing the percentage of women who serve on company boards to 20 percent or greater by the year 2020. The group is dedicated to educating corporate stakeholders on the importance of board diversity and promoting companies as examples of good corporate governance.
“The KAR group of companies is committed to creating an empowered, diverse environment for our more than 12,000 employees worldwide,” Hallett said. “We are proud of this recognition, and honored to have so many outstanding women professionals leading our board and teams.”
Insurance Auto Auctions made its third growth move in the past two months; this time expanding its services at a pair of Ohio facilities.
To respond to the demands of the winter season, IAA expanded its Buckeye State branches in Columbus and Cleveland.
The Cleveland branch, located on 7437 Deer Trail Lane in Lorain, Ohio, has added 9.5 acres as an overflow site. It is scheduled to open on Sunday. IAA has also increased its capacity to service the Columbus area, opening 420 Stimmel Road as an expansion of the existing branch.
"Our goal is to provide the best service to our customers,” IAA chief executive officer and president John Kett said. “The increased capacity in our facilities provides us the ability to serve our customers more quickly and efficiently, particularly during these difficult winter months.”
The newest announcement comes on the heels of Insurance Auto Auctions broadening its footprint into Iowa and Oklahoma as well as reopening of facilities in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.
Officials pointed out preview and auction times vary for each of IAA’s facilities. For more information on the two newest expansions, call the IAA Columbus branch at (614) 875-7484 or the Cleveland branch at (877) 917-6877, or go to IAA's branch information page at www.iaai.com.
Two former Manheim executives who headed up the company’s Total Resource Auctions division recently announced the formation of Novum Auto Services.
Michael Lasini and William Coleman highlighted Novum’s patent pending technology CrashCalculator can provide cash market value (CMV) pricing to owners of damaged, disabled or otherwise compromised vehicles.
Lasini and Coleman stressed that Novum backs the valuation with an immediate offer to buy the vehicle with guaranteed funds — without requiring physical inspection of the vehicle.
“By providing consumers with accurate pricing information and the immediate opportunity to sell their vehicle, Novum empowers vehicle owners with choice — to repair or replace their car,” Lasini and Coleman said.
The founders explained Novum can offer cash market value pricing because of the objective nature of the data inputs and the certainty of the predictive results its technology provides.
In addition to significant time savings, this option often puts hundreds or thousands of additional dollars in the hands of the consumer. Lasini and Coleman contend this new source of liquidity will drive more new- and used-vehicle transactions.
Novum currently has two consumer facing brands — DamageMAX.com and CarBuyerUSA.com.
DamageMax.com buys damaged and inoperable vehicles directly from consumers “as-is” without performing a physical inspection.
CarBuyerUSA.com buys any vehicle, anywhere in the United States, picking up the vehicle from the seller and paying guaranteed funds on the spot.
Novum will launch its third consumer-facing brand, CrashCalculator, in early 2015.
The company indicated CrashCalculator is currently Novum’s internal pricing system, used by customer service agents at DamageMAX.com and CarBuyerUSA.com.
Upon launch to the public, CrashCalculator can calculate not only valuations based on immediate collision damage, but also repair-related and stigma-related diminution in value that results from the accident. CrashCalculator correlates damage-specific information for damaged cars with the most robust sales data industry wide
“CrashCalculator will provide consumers with cash market value for a damaged car and the related diminution in value,” Lasini and Coleman said.
“In addition to streamlining the process for consumers, Novum’s institutional version of CrashCalculator will help dealers, banks, title lenders and fleets make smarter decisions on repossession and remarketing,” they went on to say.
With more than 25 million accidents annually in the United States, the founders believe DamageMAX.com can serve a vast customer base seeking to sell their non-total-loss vehicles.
CarBuyerUSA.com went live in 2013 to serve consumers with vehicles they are unable or unwilling to trade or sell to a private buyer.
“With more than a quarter billion vehicles on US roads, millions of consumers are seeking a faster, safer and easier way to sell their car,” Lasini and Coleman said. “Since inception, DamageMax.com and CarBuyerUSA.com have put tens of millions of dollars into the hands of consumers.
“Novum’s technology and direct-to-consumer value proposition will continue to disrupt and transform the remarketing industry for damaged cars,” they added.
Having a shared platform appears to have a positive effect on the auction prices of salvaged vehicles. That’s according to Insurance Auto Auctions' recent 2014 Industry Report Six-Month Update, where it has begun to look into the long-term consequences, both positive and negative, of the ever-increasing trend of cross-platform and modular-platform use in vehicles.
The company’s president and chief executive officer, John Kett, took the time to speak with Auto Remarketing and shared his thoughts regarding the effect of shared platforms on both the salvage side and the manufacturing side of the automotive industry.
“We sell a lot of cars, in basically every market in the U.S. and Canada, so we certainly are seeing it,” Kett said. “We’ve only just begun to study the platform-consolidation aspect of it.
“This is something new that we’re beginning to look at to just really understand what impact it’s going to have,” Kett continued.
In the report, two approaches were made to attempt to analyze how platform sharing affected past IAA auction prices. First, sales prices between vehicles on shared platforms and single platforms were compared to determine the effect on sales prices. Second, a single common example, the Ford Focus, was studied to determine whether moving from a single platform to a shared platform affected its action price.
According to the report, shared-platform vehicles sold for $162.22 more than those on non-shared platforms, on average. In the case of the Focus, however, no statistically significant difference was found when comparing the sale prices before and after the model switched to a shared platform. The report did find a difference in the sales performance of the Focus over the shared-platform time period when compared to the non-shared platform time period, noting an average increase of $673.91 when on a shared platform, but the difference could be due to the model’s 2012 redesign.
Two potential theories were further detailed in the report:
- Buyers find vehicles on shared platforms more valuable because a greater number of the vehicle’s parts can be used to repair other vehicles on that same platform.
- Manufacturers can produce a better-quality product with a shared platform, and that quality is then reflected in auction prices.
The IAA currently utilizes five metrics for evaluating the health of the salvage industry: the Crushed-Car Price Index (CCPI), metal prices, Producer Price Index of Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturing (PPIMV), Used-Car Price Index (UCPI), and the Index of Foreign Buyers. Platform sharing, while having been used by manufacturers for years, is something Kett never expected to have such an effect on salvage auction prices.
“It’s a much more sophisticated driver of salvage values than I certainly thought when I got into this business 13 years ago,” Kett said. “So it’s one component; it is very hard to isolate the impact of one driver on the value.”
Kett noted that, although manufacturers can possibly make a better vehicle foundation by pooling research and development funds into fewer platforms, there are still inherent risks, some of which we may be seeing today.
“As I look at it, the thing that comes to mind is the recall sort of impact,” Kett said. “If they’re using a very common technique across multiple platforms, if they have an issue with it, I would be concerned that it’s going to affect many more vehicles than it would have in the past, where if it was built specifically for a make or model. Now, if you’ve got it across you’re whole lineup, I think it could really hurt a manufacturer if they had any quality issues.”
Although the evidence is building in favor of the positive effect of cross platforms on salvage prices, Kett noted that it’s something the IAA is going to keep an eye on.
“Our view is that this platform-consolidation is a new trend that we need to pay attention to, to make sure our customers understand what impacts they might have,” Kett said. “We’ll continue to study it and report on it in subsequent editions.”
It was announced today that ShipCarsNow — a subsidiary of Union Pacific Railroad — is the recipient of the 2014 SmartWay Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The shipper and logistics excellence award winners were recognized at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals Annual Global Conference on Tuesday in San Antonio.
This annual award honors the top 1 percent of EPE partners that have worked to optimize their environmental performance and efficiency of their freight management operations.
The company reported that ShipCarsNow is the first railroad logistics company to receive the award, and was chosen based on its ability to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution through innovative transportation offerings.
It was also singled out for hauling more than 90 percent of its freight ton miles with environmentally and energy-efficient SmartWay carriers, the company shared.
Launched in 2004, SmartWay is an EPA program that works to reduce transportation-related emissions by creating incentives to improve supply chain fuel efficiency.
“Union Pacific and ShipCarsNow strive to protect the environment and reduce emissions by leveraging multi-modal options and SmartWay carriers to move goods in the most efficient way possible,” said Marty Coalson, president of ShipCarsNow. “Collaborating with the EPA and sharing best practices with our customers helps create socially responsible supply chains.”
ShipCarsNow is one of 11 companies to receive this distinction, out of SmartWay’s nearly 3,000 customers.
"On the occasion of our 10-year anniversary, EPA applauds this year’s SmartWay Excellence Award recipients," said Chris Grundler, director of EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality. "These firms are leading their business community to a cleaner, more efficient and sustainable future for goods movement. The award recipients’ efforts foster a more sustainable economy and strengthen energy security while generating environmental results.”
Copart recently announced the top three winners of its first-ever Copart Rebuild Challenge, a contest designed for enthusiasts and auto rebuilders to show how they restored, customized or rebuilt a vehicle.
Copart members from across the country submitted their rebuild projects for a chance to win the $10,000 grand prize. A panel of Copart judges narrowed the contest entries to 10 finalists, and then the public voted to select the top three winners. Entrants ranged from first-time car enthusiasts to professional rebuilders.
The company highlighted the $10,000 grand prize went to John Redshaw from Pennsylvania. In his video, Redshaw described how he turned a damaged motorcycle into a customized three-wheeled bike.
Copart mentioned Redshaw has rebuilt a handful of vehicles over the years, and today, many of his family members drive vehicles he repaired.
“For someone looking for a car and trying to save some money, it is very feasible to buy from (Copart) and repair it yourself,” Redshaw said.
Redshaw has been a Copart member for three years and said he plans to use some of his prize money to purchase his next big rebuild project.
“We were really impressed with the customizations Redshaw made to the bike he entered into the contest,” Copart chief marketing officer Matt Burgener. “He took a regular bike and transformed it into something special. I’m not surprised that the public agreed.”
At a young age, Redshaw was in a motorcycle accident and lost functionality in his left arm. The three wheeler he rebuilt for the Copart contest was the first bike he had been on since his accident. He modified the bike to allow him to ride without using his left arm.
“John is a perfect example of how our buyers understand the possibilities of used or damaged vehicles. It’s very inspiring,” Burgener said.
The second place winner was Chad Lennert of Indiana, who rebuilt a Subaru WRX, and the third place winner was Joshua Meeks of Georgia, who rebuilt a BMW Z3.
To view Redshaw's video, click the above window. All other finalist submissions can be viewed at Copart.com/Winner.
Title washing — the process of altering vehicle documents to remove unsavory details about a vehicle’s past from its title — is an increasing threat to the integrity and safety of the used-car industry in the United States.
According to a report released this week from researchers at Carfax, an estimated 800,000 used cars in the U.S. may be plagued by this issue, unbeknownst to their owners.
So what exactly can be covered up by this “title washing” practice?
The answer is daunting: pretty much anything that would probably make the average buyer walk away from a deal. Salvages. Flood damage. Rolled-back and non-functioning odometers. Many of these vehicles are repaired outside of the states where they’re sold, putting potential buyers looking for a deal at risk of financial and bodily harm.
The company claims the states hardest hit are New Jersey, North Carolina, Mississippi, California and Georgia — but that thousands of title washed vehicles could be in every state. More than 500 could be used as taxis.
Larry Gamache, Carfax’s communications director, believes looking into a vehicle’s history is one of the most key safety measures anyone looking to buy can make.
“Our research is clear evidence that title washing continues to fly under the consumer’s radar,” Gamache said. “These cars are sold mainly by perfect strangers who bank on you not taking the proper steps to protect yourself.”
On the dealer side, the responsibility is two-fold. Not only is it a good idea to find ways, such as providing a vehicle-history report, to assure wary used-vehicle buyers and maintain your reputation and integrity to your customer base, but it’s also the best way to protect your investments. Preventing title washed vehicles from being traded in or from going to auction is one key to saving money for everyone involved and potentially protecting the lives of those that drive your business.
For more information on Carfax and its services, visit their site here.
