Mike Pilkington, managing director of Manheim’s Remarketing division said: “It’s always highly regrettable when any remarketing supplier fails but, however prominent Autoquake had become as a specialist quasi-retail sales channel, their business model was always going to be a challenging one.

“In fact, when they first launched their proposition over five years ago, backed by the first of three substantial tranches of venture capital funding, we expressed our views then about the difficulties they would encounter.

“Autoquake claimed at the time they would be successful by ‘taking a link out of the value chain’ and, by that, they meant removing the need for wholesale remarketing.

“We felt this was somewhat naïve, as success in today’s competitive market is driven through a proposition which offers speed to market through a choice of physical and online sales channels, coupled to an infrastructure providing logistics, inspections, reconditioning, vehicle imaging and preparation. Then it’s about generating highest value by marketing vehicles to the most appropriate buyers from within the massive buyer database, which Manheim for example maintains.”

Manheim confirmed that it will work closely with the Adminstrators as required and will also be available to help any customers of Autoquake who similarly need assistance.

“Naturally, we’re sorry to see the difficulties of any motor retail business,” added a Carsite spokesman.

“Our continued success is based on delivering trust and a benefit to both sides of the market – our partner suppliers and the customer’s looking to buy their cars.

“We have long standing relationships with our supplier partners because we understand their business, pressure points and requirements. We have developed the business model together. The net result is a proven supplementary route to market which delivers genuine, improved returns.
 

"Indeed the depth and breadth of our partners continues to grow into the manufacturer environment, so we know we’re getting it right.”