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INDIANA
Daniel Wolfe, president, Wolfe’s Terre Haute Auto Auction Inc., Terre Haute, Ind.:
“We’ve been experiencing a real good February. January was down, but mainly due to the weather that we’ve incurred here. It was the same way at our South Bend (Ind.) auction.
“Right here, we’re running 340 to 370 units. We have four lanes.
“Those volumes are up compared to this time last year. One of the reasons is that we experienced a tax lift in January (2008). A lot of people didn’t get their refunds as quickly this year as they did last year.
“We just saw a lift in consignment and sales (in February) that was phenomenal compared to January.
“Our sales percentages in February are at 68 percent. It’s pretty incredible.
“I think everything’s
doing better than this time last year.
“We’re getting about 40 percent of our bidders from Illinois and 60
percent from Indiana. We’re right on the
Indiana-Illinois border.
“I think dealers are
optimistic. In general, they think it’s going to be a good spring.
“The other thing, dealers are buying to restock sold units (instead of
speculating).
“But we get quite a few repos. Our repos are about 15 percent of our units
offered.
“Our average price is in the low $3,000s. It’s about the same as this time last year. We’re a pretty consistent sale. We’ve been in business for 34 years.
“We’ve seen SUVs come back, as I expected they would, as gas came back down to $2 and below.
“We also run some salvage units before our regular sale – about 25 to 28 every week.
“Weather absolutely had an effect on our sales this winter. We’ve had as cold of a winter as I’ve ever
remembered. Our South Bend sale has an average snowfall of about 71 inches, I think. This year we’ve had 90-plus. That makes a difference.”
NEW MEXICO
Ray Vickers Jr., vice president, Farmington Auto Auction Inc., Farmington, N.M.:
“Sales are pretty good considering the economy we’re in.
“We’re still running about 125 units a week through one lane.
“That’s up a little from this time last year. We cater to the note people – the buy-here, pay-here dealers – and their business is actually pretty good.
“The reason is people are not buying new, they’re buying used.
“Our sales percentage is about 60 percent. That might be up a little bit from this time last year.
“We’re getting between 50 and 75 bidders in the lanes each week.
“Many of them are local. We’re right up in the northwest corner of the state.
“We’ll also get some dealers from Albuquerque and southern Colorado.
“The credit issues are helping the note dealers.
“Overall, dealers are concerned. Turn on the television and it’s just gloom and doom. Dealers really struggled through October, November and December. It might have been the worst (quarter) ever for everybody.
“Tax season has been a little slow starting.
“New-car guys are getting ready to jump off bridges. Independents can control their overhead easier than new-car dealers.
“We’re getting our fleet-lease units from banks and local companies. We have one major account (that helps a lot).
“Our average price overall is about $3,200. It’s up a little bit from this time last year.
VIRGINIA
Mike Hockett, president/general manager, Tidewater Auto Auction, Chesapeake, Va.:
“Sales are great. Percentages are through the roof.
“On a good week, we’ll run as many as 1,100 units. On a bad week, we’ll run about 800. We have eight lanes.
“Volumes are down compared to this time last year. But they’re down everywhere.
“It’s (down) because we’re mostly an auction of new-car trades.
'We’re running about 400 new-car trades at our auction recently. When the volumes were up, we’d have as many as 700 units that were just new-car trades.
“Our repossession volumes are doing great. They’re up significantly. A lot of the auctions out there right now would close if they didn’t have repos to fall back on.
“Our sales percentages are right at 70 percent and 70 percent is an absolute fluke.
“We’re 10 percent higher than this time last year. So everything coming through the lanes has a real good opportunity of selling.
“Secondly, vehicles are selling because dealers are betting on a good spring market.
“New-car sales are way down because the banks won’t finance anyone. I don’t think consumer confidence has anything to do with it. I think it has everything to do with the banks.
“If banks would (loan money), people would go out and get loans.
“We’re getting easily about 500 dealers in the lanes. They’re raising their hands a lot more.
“We draw dealers from as far south as Florida and Texas, and as far north as New York and Illinois.
“A good portion of our buyers are local, from
Virginia and eastern North Carolina.
“New-car dealers in the lanes are crying the blues, but – at the same time – they’re adapting. They’re shifting their market from new cars to their used-car inventory.
“The independents out there are having some big months. I know some
independent dealers who are moving 100 used cars a month. These aren’t big dealerships, either.
“Our average price
overall is about $4,500.
“Old trucks – 10-year-old trucks – are doing well. In November, you couldn’t give away a truck.”
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