Manheim Australia posted its highest monthly wholesale auction sales result in four years for the month of July, with volume up 17 percent over the previous month and 64.5percent over the same month last year.
The strong result saw year-to-date (YTD) Manheim Australia wholesale volumes finish 43.9 percent up over the same January to July period last year.
Better supply across the new vehicle market means an increased rate of public and private fleet turnover, which has in part driven the volume of vehicles coming through the auction lanes Manheim says.
Increased throughput is evident at all Manheim Australia sites, with sales up 48 percent YTD in Melbourne, 56 percent in Brisbane, 27 percent in Sydney, 43 percent in Perth, 40 percent in Adelaide, 24 percent in Hobart, and 89 percent in Darwin. Good rates of growth are also evident at regional hubs Newcastle (up 38 percent) and Townsville (up 28 percent).
Manheim says it has generated significantly more volume across all major sources of wholesale vehicles, rather than relying on one or two of its key accounts.
This includes dealer vehicles (up 50 percent YTD), fleet and lease (up 44 percent), and government (up 59 percent). Notably, manufacturer-supplied volume is up 75 percent, covering OEM ex-company cars sold at closed dealer auctions.
While auction volumes are up the average sale prices have cooled since the market peaked in mid-2022, a time when vehicle shortages were most pronounced. Wholesale prices are down 7.6 percent across the last 12 months and around 20 percent since May 2022, as measured on the Manheim Australia Price Index.
Manheim says it continues to see traditional passenger vehicles (sedans, hatchbacks, wagons, coupes) maintaining elevated prices relative to their average pre-COVID levels, than slower-to-sell SUVs and light commercials.
Average passenger vehicle auction prices are up 49.4 percentage points on the index since December 2019 compared to SUVs which are up 15.8 percentage points over the same December 2019 to July 2024 period, and utes which are up 31.2 percentage points.
The relationship between average selling prices and selling time also tells an interesting story: Passenger vehicles overall took 20 days to sell, compared to 27 days for SUVs, and 34 days for utes.
Likewise, older cars continued to hold onto higher price indexes, with demand for lower-cost vehicles sold in the clearance lanes remaining strong. Manheim’s weekly Altona auctions in Melbourne are now running two clearance lanes every Wednesday to satisfy demand, the company says.
To put this into context, the average price of two- to four-year-old passenger cars sold in July was 39.6 percent greater than that same sorts of vehicles in real terms in December 2019, compared to a 67.5 percent increase for those aged eight to ten years.
The principal sources of vehicles in these clearance lanes are dealer trade-ins or the general public via Cox Automotive’s 10-year-old car buying service, Sell My Car, which the company says will pass 50,000 cumulative car purchases during August 2024.
Electrified growth
At the time of writing more than 11 percent of vehicles at Manheim Australia sites were hybrids or electric. One eye opening stat is the seven times increase in sales of Toyota RV4s aged two to four years, on the back of heavy fleet hybrid turnover due to improved supply pipelines on new models.
Of further interest is the uptick of OEM-owned EVs aged under two years being sold at dealer-only auctions, with a record 6.6 percent share of sales in July. Mainheim says car dealers should start putting a toe in the water to supply eco-friendly cars to meet the market.
Many retail dealers already are, according to Cox Automotive data, given the number of two- to four-year-old used EVs in national dealer used inventory is up 291 percent YoY.
Dealers should be aware that there’s some value to be found, with EVs consistently returning a lower percentage of RRP at dealer auction than internal combustion vehicles – around 60 percent versus 83 percent for petrol models, the company says.
Manheim says it is further exploring ways to maximise residuals on wholesale EVs, with initiatives such as battery state-of-health testing and digital EV-only auctions in the development pipeline.
Top five cars sold at Manheim across July:
- Ford Ranger – Up 22.8percent MoM
- Toyota HiLux – Up 41.2percent MoM
- Isuzu D-Max – Up 81.3percent MoM
- Toyota Camry – Up 69.4percent MoM
- Toyota Corolla – Up 76.6percent MoM
