Manheim Auctions has announced its Riverside Auto Auction in Riverside, Calif., experienced a record week March 3-7, selling 3,907 units for $75 million, breaking its old record by $1 million.

During the week, the auction held three sales: its weekly Tuesday sale, a closed sale for BMW on Wednesday night, and an Exotic Highline sale on Thursday. Riverside Auto Auction’s Highline sale, which focuses on luxury and specialty vehicles, attracted 1,744 dealers, setting a new record for dealer attendance. The auction also set a new record for post-sale inspections: its reconditioning operations conducted 490 inspections that week, according to the company.

“It was a great week, and our success can be attributed to our employees’ unwavering commitment to deliver quality customer service,” said Scott Hurst, assistant general manager, Riverside Auto Auction. “Every one of our employees focuses on customer service, delivering value each and every day.”

Jack Green, general manager of Riverside Auto Auction, agreed. “Riverside Auto Auction has a reputation based both on our service commitment to buyers and sellers and our quality vehicles. Our auction has experienced dramatic growth in the past three years, and we’re continuing to build on that success.”

The company says the records established March 3-7 broke some established earlier this year, and they come right on the heels of a record year for Riverside Auto Auction. In 2002, the auction sold 90,431 vehicles, valued at more than $1.3 billion, setting a new annual record for the 16-year-old auction. In reaching that milestone, Riverside Auto Auction sold 40 percent more dealer units and 19 percent more fleet/lease vehicles last year than it did in 2001.

“Since the beginning of the year, we’ve set and broken several new records on a weekly basis,” said Green. “At the rate business is going, we expect to set a new annual record this year.

Southern California is a virtually untapped market and there’s considerable growth opportunity here, especially with our Exotic Highline sale,” Green said. “As long we continue to demonstrate the value of wholesale automobile auctions to both our dealers and fleet/lease customers, we’ll continue to set new records.”

According to the company, the wholesale auto auction industry as a whole provides great value by bringing buyers and sellers together. As Jamie Porter, executive vice president of operations for Manheim, said, “Auctions represent the open market at its most basic level, and they drive the used vehicle marketplace.”

In 2002, more than 43 million used vehicles – worth more than $370 billion – were sold. There are more than 218 million vehicles on the road today, and all of them will be remarketed at some point – some of them, several times.

“Auctions play a vital role in the remarketing process, as proven by the number of vehicles that drive through their lanes annually,” Porter said. “In 2002, the 294 wholesale auctions nationwide handled more than 16 million vehicles, selling more than 9.5 million at a value of just more than $81 billion.

The open, live, competitive bidding atmosphere of auto auctions empowers buyers to determine product value and ensure sellers receive true market value for their product,” he said. “To get true market value for a vehicle, there is no better place to go than to an auction.”

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 more than 32,000 employees at its 124 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.