News Coverage
Part I: Auto wholesale ‘is going digital,’ but big role for brick-and-mortar
Friday February 1, 2019
Article Highlights
- [At its NADA 2019 press conference,] ... Cox Automotive was touting a range of projects in the hopper designed to “make a difference in the future of dealers,” said [Sandy] Schwartz, the company’s president.
- “One is digital wholesaling,” he said. “We’re a big, big player in the wholesale market. That business is going digital.
- Within Cox Automotive’s Manheim business, 43 percent of sales in 2018 — and over 2 million transactions — involved a digital buyer, the company said. “And we have seen that accelerate in recent years,” said Derek Hansen, Manheim’s vice president of off-site solutions, during the press conference.
Auto Remarketing, Feb. 1, 2019 — There wasn’t any “grand announcement” from Cox Automotive when Sandy Schwartz took the floor at an NADA Show 2019 press conference here late last month.
Rather, Cox Automotive was touting a range of projects in the hopper designed to “make a difference in the future of dealers,” said Schwartz, the company’s president.
“One is digital wholesaling,” he said. “We’re a big, big player in the wholesale market. That business is going digital.
“We’ve been working and doing this for many years, but we’ve really reached a point today where I think you’re going to see the future change dramatically.”
The present changes in the wholesale car market are dramatic, as is.
Though he acknowledges some may find this stance puzzling given Manheim’s physical auction presence, Schwartz said that, “we believe we should run no cars through the lane. We think there is amazing technology out there today that allows you to move the car less, to get great history on the car. Not everyone subscribes to that. Some of our customers do.”