Manheim Introduces New Dealer Tool for Wholesale Values

Manheim, part of Cox Automotive, adds another degree of precision to its Manheim Market Reports on the wholesale value of used vehicles — commonly called MMRs.
The updated reports include the availability of precise, vehicle-specific information on factory-installed options and packages on the reports.
That’s important because the value of options and packages relative to the base price keeps growing across the industry, especially for high-tech options and especially for trucks.

“The packages today, there’s a bigger variance than there used to be,” says Burnell King, corporate pre-owned director for megadealer group Hudson Automotive, Daniel Island, SC.

“There’s a big difference between a basic Ford F-150 and an XLT Lariat,” King tells WardsAuto.

Before the current Manheim MMR upgrade, he says the dealership group made highly educated guesses — but they were still guesses — about which trucks had higher equipment packages based on their prices.

King says that worked well, but adding options and packages to MMRs provides more certainty about how a given unit is equipped.

Incidentally, according to Ford.com, the manufacturer’s price of an F-150 starts at $38,960, including $1,995 destination vs. a starting price of $67,390 with destination for the XLT Lariat. Wholesale prices reflect that difference, but the system becomes complicated because some options and equipment packages retain value better than others.

Manheim says that even before the latest enhancement to MMRs, it was indirectly factoring options and packages into its used-vehicle value data.

Mark Allers, associate vice president, Business Intelligence at Cox Automotive, tells WardsAuto that MMR market price estimates already tried to take options and packages into account based on the average content for that make and model.

That’s a good estimate for content that’s very commonly installed, which is often the case, he says. Nevertheless, that approach is an estimate, and it’s important to be as precise as possible when determining the benchmark prices Manheim quotes in its MMRs.

“The average profit on a used car is only a few thousand dollars," says Allers. "If your dealership buyer acquires a truck and (overvalues) an option package, that’s a mistake that’s potentially worth the total profit on the car."

Ben Flusberg, Chief Data Officer at Cox Automotive, says adding factory-sourced build data on options and packages is the latest of several upgrades to Manheim’s MMRs over the past decade or so.

“A long time ago, average value was based on make, model, trim,” Flusberg tells WardsAuto. “Then we introduced mileage adjustments, then regional adjustments. Then, in 2017, we added exterior condition and color adjustments. And now, the latest is the optional-equipment adjustment. It’s precise to the individual VIN rather than averaging."