A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

[TimG]

Re: A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

That place is crazy big. Interesting indeed. Thanks for the share Mike.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

What a awesome place. The set up is incredible. Thanks for sharing, Mike.

[OhioCarBuff]

Re: A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

Wow thats really something, Its great they are using the meguiars DA. With the lousy economy a more and more people are holding onto their cars and/or buying used cars. Heck the prices of the new cars have been inflated so much, I think it makes a lot more sense now to get a pristine used one for like half the price

[Michael Stoops]

Re: A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

My two cents: From my experience, it depends on the particular job. As a rule, sanding down to bare metal would be a rare event; labor intensive as well as no practical reward for the effort.

And that sums it up pretty well. When the vehicles come in off lease, they are technically owned by the manufacturer. Many manufacturers actually have reps on site who make the determination, on a per vehicle basis, what needs to be done and to what extent. We don't have any more specific information on the repair/repaint process though.

[Trojan fan]

Re: A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

Just a quick question: Do they clay the cars? or go straight from wash to DA?

[Ryan331]

Re: A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

That is one heck of a field trip.. Thanks for the picture walkthrough!

I've been out to the Adessa auto auction - the detailing setup wasn't quite as intense, but it did have a lot going on. The sea of cars in the overflow lot was insane..

I happened to go for work, though - so didn't get to do much! (Validating some revisions to our Techstream software on a number of different vehicles - Adessa has a lot of Toyota/Lexus models)

[hoghead00]

Re: A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

That was pretty interesting.... The volume of cars going through that place is impressive....

[The Critic]

Re: A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

Just a quick question: Do they clay the cars? or go straight from wash to DA?

+1

I'm curious what products they use in their detailing process. Obviously their goal is volume, not perfection, so I'd assume that they'd use some type of one-step AIO product for the "machine buff?"

Michael, can you comment on what products they use or what their paint correction procedure may be?

I happened to go for work, though - so didn't get to do much! (Validating some revisions to our Techstream software on a number of different vehicles - Adessa has a lot of Toyota/Lexus models)

Do you work for TMS?

[RDVT4ME]

Re: A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

Mike,

You are just having way too much fun with this job!!!!

[Mikejl]

Re: A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

Mike,

I saw this thread when you first post it, but I was at work and zoomed through it. I took some time read your post and enjoy the pictures this morning.

Very interesting read! I wouldn't have thought about it, but an assembly line detailing operation at a huge auction makes sense.

You couldn't expect the quality of work to be at MOL member standards, but I was wondering if you saw any overspray issues on finished cars from their assembly line paint booth process?

Again, great post and pics!



Mike

[ethereal45]

Re: A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

I have to bump this thread because it's just so interesting to see this going on in bulk. That'd be an exhausting job to be on that detailing line.

[722ish]

That is awesome! I can hardly believe an XJ220 was there!! Did you manage to get any photos of it as well?
That's a very cool place for sure!

[JB0NE1]

Re: A Little Field Trip To Manheim Auctions

I really hate to bump this from months ago, but I was searching for some information on the Manheim auctions and this was the first result, I also saw someone ask about the buff process, so I figured I would give my experiences with the vehicles. I've been detailing for several years now at one of the higher selling Chevrolet dealerships on the east coast, located in northern Virginia, that also owns 5 more used car dealerships in the area, in which 95% of the cars come through our shop from the 6 dealerships, which is just a one person per detail, not assembly line style, with a max of 9-10 detailers we work 300-400 details per month, with maximum quality in mind. We get a very high amount of our used cars from Manheim (Florida, Fredericksburg VA, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania primarily) From what I've noticed is that you can honestly tell that they are focused more on quantity, not quality. The interiors are fairly good, maybe a spot here or there, the biggest problem of interiors are carelessness of inside pockets, or under rear seats that fold down, no big deal though. The exterior is a different issue. They're clean, and you can tell they have been clayblocked (sometimes clearcoat overspray and very occasionally primer and paint overspray, but otherwise decently smooth). In the hundreds of cars that I have personally detailed that have come from Manheim the number one issue is the buff. From what I have heard from our very knowledgeable product distributor, they use a 1 stage buff, which is an upper mid-grade compound/polish which a co-worker bought months ago and has yet to use for the fact that it is very very greasy, and quite coarse. The majority of the cars that I personally see coming from Manheim are GM SUV's, and for our high end dealership Mercedes, BMW, Maserati, Audi, Aston Martin and occasionally GT500's or Viper's. Being that some of the cars bought are sold for $100,000+ I would expect maybe a bit more care given to them in detail, but that seems to not be the case. I have yet to see a vehicle from this auction that is not horribly swirled, even white, in some cases they have been etched so deep that sanding has been needed to remove some its of them. They may look good from a distance at auction, but up close they definitely have issues. I understand that quantity in a place that runs as many vehicles though as Manheim is rather important, but getting a car that has only 22,000 miles and looks like it's been through the worst detail shop around gets frustrating. I hate to put down this huge auction, but I can't help but bring to light the problems. They do more than you can imagine for our dealerships, but fixing their mistakes usually take more time than doing the full detail before they had touched it.

Example: My fix for the day, 2009 Cadillac CTS-V 22,000 miles from Manheim. The camera didn't nearly show the full extent of swirls, which turned into over 3 hours of work to fix.