CARMEL, Ind. — ADESA and Toyota Financial Services finished 2009 on a strong note, as the companies held two record-breaking weekend sales events on DealerBlock to conclude the year, they announced late last week.

As most know, ADESA DealerBlock hosts a weekend sale every Friday through Monday. This gives dealers an additional way to find inventory, as they have an opportunity to purchase units from top sellers in a competitive bidding environment.

"The holidays tend to be a slower selling season, so the fact that we reached these record numbers this time of year is phenomenal," commented Jason Ferreri, ADESA vice president of e-business, sales and operations. "It is a testament to the strong working relationship between our partners at TFS and our team at ADESA."

Some of the various Toyota and Scion vehicles offered during the DealerBlock events included such top-selling models as Tundra, Lexus RX330, 4Runner and Camry.

Moreover, the company noted that the five participating TFS auctions — ADESA Boston, ADESA Dallas, ADESA Lexington, ADESA Los Angeles and ADESA New Jersey — helped to get the word out about the sales.

"This was our first opportunity to sell vehicles during the last two weekends of a calendar year," stated Ralph Fisco, national remarketing manager for TFS. "So I challenged everyone to take full advantage of this unique prospect.

"ADESA surpassed our expectations with two record weekend sale events as well as an exceptional year overall during a difficult market," he added.

What's more, shortly before these events, ADESA's Toyota Dealer Direct Web site had just shown record-breaking growth, officials noted.

Basically, this dedicated online auction platform allows Toyota and Lexus dealers to buy from one another and also lets them to buy units that are owned by TFS or Lexus Financial before these vehicles make their way to physical auction locations, the companies noted.