Mazda Motors UK enjoyed a successful return to physical closed auctions at Manheim’s auction centre in Coventry.

In total, 122 vehicles were offered and a conversion rate of more than 90% was achieved, with a total sales value of £1.72 million.

The auction was attended by 43 buyers, 27 of whom were physically at the site, with the remaining 16 attending via Manheim’s live broadcast service Simulcast. With the group buyers present, this meant that almost half of Mazda’s franchise network was represented.

The auction saw a strong performance for Mazda’s sixth generation cars, with the CX-5 model, along with the all-new Mazda6 accounting for 46 of the vehicles sold. The sale was also supported by LeasePlan, which offered the Mazda buyers an alternative stock profile of cars.

Peter Allibon, sales director, Mazda said: "We are delighted by the success of this physical closed auction event. The brand repatriation offering of additional stock profiles proved very attractive to Mazda’s franchised dealer network, it was well attended and the quality and variety of the product on offer created a lot of interest, which resulted in very lively bidding."

Neil Hodson, group sales director, Manheim, added: "We were excited to deliver this important used car event for Mazda and combining both manufacturer and leasing product in the sale was very well received by the franchise dealers. We are proud to support Mazda with its remarketing programme and we are looking forward to developing our partnership."

Mazda has a solus remarketing agreement with Manheim in the UK which has been operating a CyberAuction sales programme for the company since 2008.