For those of you with dealership knowledge...why are desirable cars sent to auction? I'm asking b/c when I look at the free CarFax reports for late model Accords/Civics on Autotrader I see that a lot of them were bought/sold through auction. I just saw an 07 Civic with 22K miles that had gone this route. I would think that a car like that would sell within days at a good price. Why dump it at an auction?

For those of you with dealership knowledge...why are desirable cars sent to auction? I'm asking b/c when I look at the free CarFax reports for late model Accords/Civics on Autotrader I see that a lot of them were bought/sold through auction. I just saw an 07 Civic with 22K miles that had gone this route. I would think that a car like that would sell within days at a good price. Why dump it at an auction?

A fair number of dealers are on strict 45 or 60 day "turns". They pay interest to finance their used car inventory, so the car costs money if it sits too long. The urgency is to turn it or auction it, thus freeing up the credit line to buy more..............

Used cars dealers get 70-100% of their cars from dealer ONLY auctions. At these very auctions, dealers buy off-lease or repossessed vehicles directly from the car companies and banks. So I am fairly certain that 07 civic you spoke about was originally a leased vehicle. Granted there are dealers that sell vehicles at these auctions as well, but if a 07 civic is not sellable by a dealer for more than auction price, then they should get out of the business ASAP!