Headlining Economist Tom Kontos Prepares to Retire in August

After a lengthy career in vehicle remarketing data analytics and economics, Tom Kontos is joining a statistical trend that encompasses the vast majority of careers: Retirement.

His employer, ADESA, a U.S. wholesale vehicle auction network, announced last week that Kontos, a leading used vehicle data analyst, industry media expert, and speaker and panel fixture at numerous vehicle remarketing industry conferences, is officially retiring on Aug. 16.

A Career Deep Into Auto Numbers

Kontos caps a rich 30-year career in automotive remarketing and 40 years overall when including early-career roles in strategic market research and business planning.

In his most prestigious role as chief economist, Kontos led ADESA Analytical Services, where he interacted with major industry clients and dealers, Wall Street and automotive analysts, and members of the media to provide critical insights on economic trends in the vehicle remarketing industry, according to a news release last week.

His namesake monthly “Kontos Kommentary” became a popular must-read for those tracking used vehicle market trends. Now the June/July edition will be his last.

Before Carvana’s acquisition of ADESA’s 56 auction sites in 2022, Kontos held key positions at KAR Auction Services, Inc., where he played a central role in developing remarketing and salvage strategies with customers across the then-KAR family of companies in the U.S. and Canada.

While Kontos is stepping down as chief economist on Aug. 16, he said he will stay on for six months as the company transitions to a new analytics function that spans its products and service offerings.

“Six months gives me a transitional period to continue to help within Adesa,” he said in a recent interview with Automotive Fleet. Kontos will help provide insights for the employees taking up the analytics services for clients.

Kontos, who works and lives in Tampa, Florida, said his retirement is at the right time at the right age.

He entered the vehicle remarketing industry in the early 1990s working at ADT Automotive, which was second to Manheim in size. When Manheim later acquired ADT, the FTC said it couldn’t own all the segments, so ADESA, a competitor to Manheim, picked up the divisions Manheim couldn’t acquire, he said. “I faced a choice,” he said. “The natural one would be to go to Manheim, but I went with ADESA in 2000.”

Industry Economic and Market Pivots

Kontos cited four major trends and influences during his vehicle remarketing analytics career:

1. The advent and growth of online vehicle transactions. He recalled “the clunkiness of online transactions” decades ago versus the more seamless and much faster technology available today. The pandemic years especially sped up the industry’ embrace and development of online transaction tools, he said. Online sales at the retail level have created new data streams informing buyers and sellers.
2. The expanded role of vehicle leasing. Leasing was not as big of a product in the 1990s and didn’t play a big role in the auction world. Since then, it has become more of a mainstream product, he said. The ebbs and flows of off-lease volume now heavily influence wholesale vehicle prices.
3. The introduction of the AuctionNet database that is now the most universal transactional database on used car selling at auctions. “AuctionNet didn’t exist at that size when I started, nor get delivered in a way that is as robust as it has been recently. As it’s improved, accuracy of analysis has improved,” Kontos said.
4. A breakthrough in the standards and methods of rating used vehicles via condition reports (CR)s. CRs at auctions previously used more subjective methods to determine a vehicle’s condition grade instead of set scales based on common criteria. “Now it’s more rigorous and useful. The information is more digital that enables analysts to provide actionable insights on what you should do to a car to get the most value out of it at an auction,” he said. “The ability to know a vehicle’s condition sight unseen based on standard grades has been a plus to enable online transactions.”

Kontos also pointed out four economic pivots during his career, that while painful, serve as industry milestones in altering or innovating the consignor-auction-dealer used wholesale vehicle transaction chain.

• The early- to mid- 1990s recession, that intersected with the first wave of mass internet usage.
• The terrorist attacks of 9/11 that caused a lot of uncertainty for vehicle demand and prices, yielding a tough market period that required resiliency.
• The Great Recession later that decade, which disrupted new vehicle sales and led to years of higher prices because of a reduced sales volume of vehicles.
• And the 2020+ pandemic period that constricted supply chains and sales and led to longer turnover period of fleet vehicles while leading to record high new and used car prices due to vehicle shortages,

Award-Winning Accomplishments

“Tom’s contributions to ADESA and the broader automotive industry are immeasurable,” said Mike Caggiano, executive vice president of ADESA, in a company news release. “His expertise and insights have significantly advanced our understanding of the market, and his work will continue to influence the industry for years to come. We wish him all the best in his retirement.”

Throughout his career, Kontos has received numerous awards, including the APEX and Keystone awards for excellence in investment and financial materials, the company said. His work has been frequently cited in the fleet and automotive trade media, underscoring his reputation as a leading voice in the industry.

Asked about his most meaningful accomplishments, Kontos cited receiving the Ed Bobit Industry Icon Award in 2016, which is presented jointly by the National Auto Auction Association (NAAA) and Automotive Remarketing Alliance (ARA), previously the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance (IARA).

“That was my most prized award in the industry,” Kontos told AF. “I really admired Ed Bobit. To get one of the inaugural awards was a big honor.”