9:22 am, February 19, 2026
The Car Dealer Podcast has continued its US road trip with a visit to the world’s largest car auction in Manheim, Pennsylvania.
Following a recent trip to Las Vegas for the NADA trade show, hosts Jon Reay and James Baggott then headed east to take in a seriously impressive site.
Measuring a staggering 500 acres, the Manheim Auction site is the biggest in the world by size and the Car Dealer team have been paying it a visit.
Keep your eyes on the Car Dealer YouTube channel for a full video from the site over the coming weeks and Reay says you should expect to be blown away by the scale of the operation.
Speaking on the podcast, he said: ‘It is enormous, it’s really, really big. It’s similar to the one we went to, in Japan in that it just goes way beyond the horizon.
‘You can’t really see all the stuff. Even if you get the drone up, it still takes 20 minutes just for it to cross the car park!’
The site is run by Cox Automotive, which has adopted the Manheim name for its auction operations around the world.
Joining us on the podcast this week was Liam Quegan, managing director of wholesale at Cox Automotive Europe, who was on hand to explain just how vast the Pennsylvania facility is.
‘It is certainly one of our real epic sites,’ he explained. ‘To put it in context, it employs more people on that single site than we employ in the UK for Mannheim.
‘It’s an absolutely huge operation and it’s fantastic for you to see it.
‘I think there are at least 30 or so [lanes] in operation, with a mix of physical and online selling. One of the things that you’ll pick up as go through it, is just the pace at which they work.
‘It’s seeing those auctioneers, it’s a real talent and they take it extremely seriously.’
Talk soon turned to how American auctions differ from their counterparts here in the UK, with Quegan saying that stateside sales ‘take things to the next level’.
He added: ‘I have been to a number of our US sites and what you always feel is the scale with which they operate, but also just how evolved they are in terms of the physical auctioneering capability that they’ve got.
‘I was in Phoenix in April last year when I was actually at the World Auctioneer Championships, which is a thing which happens annually over there. Seeing how seriously skilled their auctioneers are, it is a different experience.
‘We think of our auctions as an event, and we bring as much energy as we can. These guys really take it to the next level with things like Ring Men, and a whole different feel to it in a lot of ways.’
You can listen to all episodes of the Car Dealer Podcast, sponsored by Autotrader, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch the show on our YouTube channel.
