For decades, you could walk into an ADESA facility (or any auto auction, for that matter) and generally know what to expect on sale day.

A multitude of lanes, each with a block where an auctioneer would call bids, as vehicles would slowly drive through as dealers put in their bids.

The auction format has evolved over the years, particularly recently as more wholesaling goes digital or through hybrid online-offline formats — a trend driven over time by multiple factors.

However, it largely remains among the most significant avenues through which used cars are bought and sold wholesale.

Thursday’s news that Carvana would be buying the U.S. auctions of ADESA, the nation’s second-largest auction company, from KAR Global shakes up the dynamics of the auction industry, certainly when it comes to participant makeup of the space.

But what will an ADESA auction look like after new ownership?

With Carvana’s plans to utilize ADESA facilities as both inspection and reconditioning centers as well as auto auctions, essentially these facilities would be operating as “two businesses on the same land,” Carvana chief executive Ernie Garcia explained in an investors call shortly after the acquisition was announced.

“We’ve got our inspection center capabilities and we've got our logistics capabilities that we've built out over time,” Garcia said. “I think we can go and we can kind of place those on these 4,000 acres of land around the country, and operate them very similarly to the way that we historically have.

“And then I think the auction can continue to run the way it historically has, as well, so it will be business as usual sort of for both sides,” he said.

Where you might see the on-site integration soon is with ADESA’s retail reconditioning capabilities, Garcia said. That is part of what made the companies “a great fit” for each other, he said.

“There's kind of a secular and a cyclical trend going on with auctions. Where secularly, many more components of auction transactions are happening digitally, even those there's a very large desire by many customers, both buyers and sellers, to go actually transact in person,” Garcia said. “And that oftentimes means that cars can spend less time on the ground at auctions, meaning that their space can be utilized in other ways.

“Then cyclically, we're in a time where auction volume is very low, historically low, in fact. And so that means there's a lot of excess land at these locations,” Garcia said. “The average location is less than 50% utilized today. meaning there’s a lot of opportunity for us to work together and for these functions to co-exist.”

Carvana explained that the $3.275 billion in committed debt financing from JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. and Citi will fund the $2.2 billion purchase price, but also an additional $1 billion in improvements across the 56 U.S. ADESA auction sites.

Garcia did not elaborate on specifics around those improvement, but did say that there would likely be locations where recon capabilities are not added.

On the floor planning side of the house, KAR Global will retain the AFC business. However, its services will still be available to ADESA customers.

In KAR’s investors call Friday morning, chief financial officer Eric Loughmiller explained, “AFC will retain its presence at the locations and be an important source of liquidity for customers as Carvana begins operating a physical auction wholesale business. It remains an important part of their offering and that's been negotiated, so they have access to that, as they do now.”

During his closing comments on Thursday’s call, Garcia addressed ADESA’s team and customer base.

“To the ADESA team, we are extremely excited to welcome you guys, as well. We'll be talking more over the next several days. I think we have an incredible opportunity together. I can imagine that this is always a bit destabilizing. Change can always be scary, but we want you to know that we're extremely excited. We have a ton of respect for what you guys have built. We really look forward to working together, and we think it's going to be fun and we think everyone's going to benefit,” Garcia said.

“And to ADESA's customers, I would say the same. We're extremely excited to work with you. We think there's a lot that we can do together. I can imagine the news has shaken you a bit, too. Can't wait to meet you in person and talk about the things we can do together and again want to make sure you hear our commitment. that our goal is business as usual and not to shake things up too much too quickly,” he said.

“And so, we're excited to welcome you guys as customers and as I said in my opening remarks, we will value the same way that we've always valued all of our customers, which is centrally.”