Auction giant Manheim has introduced a vehicle grading system for both physical and remote sales.
To support the roll-out, which complies with National Association of Motor Auction (NAMA) guidelines, Manheim has invested in hand-held appraisal tech and imaging systems.
The firm has launched NAMA’s new Code for Vehicle Grading across its 17 UK auction centres as well as on its online sales platforms.
The code grades vehicles from ‘1’ (good) to ‘5’ (poor) according to their condition or categorises them as ‘U’ if an appraisal would be uneconomical due to extreme damage. Vehicles are checked from a viewing distance of 2m and at an angle of 90? (plus or minus 45?), which NAMA claimed provided buyers and vendors with a standardised comparison no matter who is assessing the vehicle.
NAMA said it has introduced the grading system to provide consistency to the growing number of customers bidding for cars online.
Boss Louise Wallis said: “Buyers looking at a batch of cars will be able to sort them by grade and know there are consistent condition grades across the auction halls and online.”
Contrary to the views of CD Auction Group (see story above), Chris Cush, operations director at Manheim, said the system “will bring commonality across all auction houses and give customers more confidence to buy from a distance.”