Used Trucks From MAN Move to Dedicated Auction

German Manufacturer MAN's division for used trucks, MAN TopUsed, is moving its older stock at a dedicated auction site. ProTruck Auction is an auctioneer located on the Sandtoft Industrial Estate near Doncaster, where MAN is disposing of its older models not used for retail.

Tony Bevan, MAN TopUsed's General Manager of Sales, says the auction has proved a profitable way of moving older models, and have been sold to buyers overseas as well as in the UK.

"We entered 26 trucks, typically 03- to 06-registered, in a recent sale, sold 25, and 21 of them beat their reserve," said Tony Bevan. He went on to explain that MAN wants to make these auctions regular, subject to availability.

"We'd like to try to hold these sales monthly, but it's all down to the availability of vehicles," he says. "We've thought about holding electronic auctions online but we've decided that we prefer the traditional approach, and there's plenty of online bidding at traditional auctions these days anyway."

MAN TopUsed runs a trade-in offer based on part exchange for new trucks, and this offer has been the source of much of their used stock being sold at auction. Bevan says that the age of their used trucks makes them perfect for auction.

"We're getting 04-, 05- and 06-registered vehicles offered to us by customers and there's a good export demand for them," he said.

"We wouldn't usually retail them ourselves because we tend not to retail anything that's more than four to four-and-a-half years old."

MAN are taking advantage of their Euro-4 accredited range, which have become increasingly popular overseas because they do not depend on AdBlue like the models of their rivals like scania trucks.

"One thing we are finding is that some overseas markets are looking for Euro-4 trucks and MAN can of course meet Euro-4 without having to use AdBlue," he said. "That's starting to benefit export sales."