Dealer ’s Diary
Peter Simpson provides us with an insight into the automotive sales trading world – and beyond.
► British Car Auctions held a live auction with full public attendance, at their Nottingham centre on December 8 – their first since they closed their halls to the public in March 2020 due to coronavirus. The sale, which had around 600 entries, was described as ‘experimental’, and attracted a good attendance. Vehicles on offer seemed to cover the whole range of ages and types from a five-month-old Motability Citroën C3 down to a 2003 Toyota Avensis. Interestingly though, almost everything seemed to be either ex-fleet leasing or main dealer part-exchange – we spotted only a couple of UKCGR (webuyanycar.com) vehicles, despite these now forming the biggest single source of cars sold at BCA.
Anyway, this live sale has, as I suspect was the intention, raised a few eyebrows and become something of a talkingpoint within the trade, not least because as recently as 2021 BCA stated publicly that it was “unlikely to ever return” to physical sales. site of a typical large dealership, and as a result the likes
When the switch was made permanent, a lot of BCA staff of Motorway and Carwow are already running their own were made redundant; online-only sales require far fewer auctions. And from here, it’s surely an extremely small step for people. Additionally, although BCA have added more sites, main dealers to just run their own auctions of part-exchange the new ones have no public access facilities and simply aren’t and other surplus vehicles, bypassing BCA completely? setup to handle public sales; all you really need is a secure But having said that, my overall view is that this may have compound, valeting and testing bays, and a few offices. At the been a genuine trial run to test demand for the return of some same time, some sites with public facilities – Peterborough live auctions, or it may simply have been a pre-Christmas and Derby for example – have closed. publicity gimmick. Either way, while the return of some live There is, though, another side to all this. If fewer facilities auctions would be welcome, especially when it comes to are needed to run online-only auctions, the barriers to entry older stuff which it’s harder to assess without seeing, a 100% are also lower. Think about it. Everything listed above that’s switch back, or even 50/50, seems unlikely. BCA just don’t now needed to run an online auction can also be found on the have the human or physical infrastructure to do it!
Constellation buying into Vertu
► Constellation Automotive, owners of British Car Auctions, Webuyanycar, Cinch and Marshall Motor Group, seem to be in acquisitive mode, despite profits at Marshalls in their first year having dropped by around 50%. They have recently increased their stake in Vertu (formerly known
