Only one auction in the nation can receive the General Motors “Auction of the Year” award, and for the year 2000 that award has been presented to general manager Jimmy Compton and the staff at Arena Auto Auction in Bolingbrook, Ill.

The award was presented to Compton in July by Jeff Heichel, GM’s Director of Used Vehicle Activities.

“Our congratulations go out to Arena Auto Auction for ranking No. 1 in resale retentions and for their outstanding performance for the calendar year 2000. They’re doing a great job in 2001 as well,” Heichel said.

Arena Auto Auction ranked first out of 56 GM-sponsored auctions nationwide for maximizing the resale value of more than 21,000 GM vehicles they sold during the year.

This is the third year GM has presented this award. The 1999 winner of the GM Auction of the Year Award was Manheim’s Northstar Auto Auction in Shakopee, Minn.

“We are very honored to receive this award,” Compton said. “We have the best staff in the auction business, one of the best reconditioning centers in the country, a great sales team and strong, committed dealers who are buying based on value. All of these things have contributed to making us No. 1.”

Joining Heichel in presenting the Auction of the Year award plaque to Compton were Dan Kennedy, national sales manager-GM Remarketing, Tom Grove, regional sales manager-GM Remarketing and Dean Eisner, Manheim Auctions president and chief executive officer.

“We’re very proud of the job that Jimmy and his team are doing at Arena,” Eisner said. “They’ve set a high standard for all of the auctions, and we thank General Motors for recognizing that.”

Serving dealers since 1949, Arena Auto Auction is located 33 miles southwest of Chicago. The eight-lane, 120-acre facility is complete with a state-of-the-art, full-service reconditioning center. Plans are under way to add two more lanes to the auction by spring of next year.

About Manheim Auctions

Manheim Auctions offers services that impact every stage of a used vehicle’s life cycle. These include transaction, reconditioning and certification services; managed remarketing; end-of-lease term management services; vehicle transportation; dealer floor planning; retail inspection; and government auction services. The company also assists auto manufacturers, fleet and lease companies, banks and other financial institutions in selling their used vehicle inventories.

A wholly owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, Inc., Manheim Auctions has been involved in the wholesale automobile auction industry for 56 years.

With more than 34,000 employees at its 126 auctions and related businesses, Manheim is a global remarketing organization with 85 auctions in North America and additional operations in France, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. In the year 2000, the company auctioned more than 7.5 million vehicles at its North American auctions.