Salvage Auction Statistics 2026: What 1.2M Copart and IAA Lots Show

If you picture the car that ends up at a salvage auction, you probably picture a crumpled front end and a tow truck. You're half right. In SalvageAlert's records of every Copart lot and the IAA lots our crawlers saw in the United States and Canada between August 17 and November 12, 2026, the typical car was a nine- or ten-year-old Japanese sedan or small SUV, most likely from the 2017 model year, painted white, with a set of keys in it. Copart put its retail value at about US$11,400 and its repair estimate at almost exactly the same figure. That near-tie is the whole reason the car was there.

This page collects the numbers behind that picture: 1,196,870 lots in under three months, broken down by make, model, age, body, fuel, value, bids and sale day, plus what Copart and IAA's parent company report about their own size. It's meant as a reference. If you write about salvage cars, the figures are yours to cite with a link.

The market in one paragraph

Two companies dominate salvage car auctions in North America. Copart reported US$4.67 billion in revenue for its fiscal year ended July 31, 2026, said it sold "more than 4 million units" in the year, and listed 286 operating facilities in 11 countries in its annual report. IAA has been part of RB Global since 2023, and RB Global doesn't report it separately: its automotive sector, which is mostly IAA, sold 2.45 million lots worth US$8.66 billion in gross transaction value in 2025, according to RB Global's 2025 annual report, and grew volume another 8% in the third quarter of 2026.

Behind both sits the insurance industry. Copart says 79% of the vehicles it processed in fiscal 2026 came from insurers, down from 81% in each of the two previous years. And insurers are writing off more cars than ever: CCC Intelligent Solutions, whose software prices a large share of US claims, found that 23.1% of claims in 2025 were flagged as a total loss, a record, and that the share reached 23.5% in the first half of 2026. Repair costs have risen faster than used-car values for several years, so a smaller dent now tips a car into the total-loss pile. Our guide to total loss thresholds by state explains where each state draws the line.

What we counted

The figures below come from SalvageAlert's own catalogue, for lots with a sale date between August 17 and November 12, 2026:

Each lot is counted once, even if it was relisted under the same lot number. A car offered again under a new lot number counts again. Copart's numbers are complete; IAA's are what our crawlers saw, which is close to complete but not guaranteed. Where a statistic only exists for one auction, we say so.

The most common makes and models

Toyota is the most common make at salvage auctions, with 11.9% of all lots, ahead of Ford (10.4%), Chevrolet (9.1%), Honda (9.0%) and Nissan (7.1%). Hyundai, Kia, Jeep, Dodge and Subaru complete the top ten. The luxury brands are further down than people expect: Mercedes-Benz and BMW each had 2.5% of lots, Lexus 2.0% and Audi 1.6%.

The model list is a list of the best-selling cars of the past decade, which makes sense. Salvage auctions sell what's on the road, after it has met a truck, a flood or a hailstorm.

The Honda Civic and Toyota Camry were tied at the top with about 31,400 lots each, followed by the Corolla, Accord and Chevrolet Silverado. The CR-V, Elantra, RAV4, Altima and Rogue complete the top ten.

Canada looks different. At Copart Canada, the Civic alone was 6.8% of all lots, more than twice its US share, and Honda was the top make with 13.1%. The Elantra was third at both Canadian auctions. American full-size pickups, which crowd US yards, barely register: the Silverado isn't in either Canadian top five.

How old salvage cars are

The median car at auction was 10 years old at the time of sale: 9 at Copart US and 11 at IAA. The most common model year was 2017 at Copart and 2015 at IAA. One lot in three was 8 to 12 years old, and only 14.8% were three years old or newer.

That fits what insurers report. CCC says vehicles seven years old or more made up 74.3% of the cars it valued as total losses in the first half of 2026. An older car is worth less, so the same repair bill is a bigger share of its value, and it crosses the total-loss line sooner. In our data, cars eight years or older were 65.4% of all lots. The two numbers use different age cut-offs, so they don't match exactly, but they point the same way.

For context, the average US light vehicle on the road is 12.8 years old, according to S&P Global Mobility (a 2025 figure; S&P hasn't published a 2026 one). Salvage cars are younger than the national fleet. Part of the reason is probably that newer cars are more likely to carry full coverage, so when they're badly damaged there's an insurer to pay out and sell the wreck. A 20-year-old car with liability-only insurance often goes straight to a scrapyard and never reaches an auction.

What kind of vehicles

At Copart US, SUVs were 35.5% of lots and sedans 31.5%, with pickups at 10.4% and vans, hatchbacks, wagons and coupes sharing most of the rest. Copart Canada has slightly more sedans than SUVs.

Not everything is a car. In the last 60 days of Copart's US file, 93.1% of lots were cars, SUVs, pickups and vans. The rest included medium-duty trucks (2.7%), motorcycles and scooters (1.0%), RVs and campers (0.8%), heavy trucks, trailers, forklifts and generators, ATVs, buses and a few boats. Copart Canada adds snowmobiles. IAA's public listings don't give a vehicle type, so these shares are Copart only.

Gas cars were 79.8% of Copart US lots. Flex-fuel vehicles followed with 6.1%, hybrids 4.8%, diesels 2.5% and fully electric cars 2.2%. Our guide to salvage EVs looks at that last group in detail, including why a damaged Tesla can lose access to Tesla's own network.

And they come in the colors of every parking lot: white 23.1%, black 20.4%, gray 14.7%, silver 12.5% and blue 10.1% (Copart, last 60 days).

Who sells them

Insurers. Copart's annual report puts their share at 79% of the vehicles it processed. Our own data can only partly check that, because most lots don't show a seller name we can classify. Of the 35% of Copart US lots that did, 87.1% came from insurance companies, 8.1% from rental companies, 4.0% from lenders and 0.8% from dealers. IAA's listings don't name the seller.

The seller matters to a bidder. Insurers' cars rarely come back unsold. Lenders and dealers more often set a minimum price, and when the bidding falls short the car often returns within a month; our guide to relisted cars has the numbers.

Values, repair estimates and bids

Copart publishes two estimates on most US lots: an actual cash value (ACV), its estimate of what the car was worth before the damage, and an estimated repair cost. Neither is an appraisal. Across Copart US lots in the period, the median ACV was US$11,400 and the median repair estimate US$11,065. The median ratio of the two was 0.97: on the typical lot, the estimated repair was almost the whole value of the car.

In Canada, the median ACV at Copart was C$12,546 and the median repair estimate C$14,321, a ratio of 1.02.

Then there are the bids. SalvageAlert records the last bid placed before each live auction. That is not the price the car sold for: the live auction often goes higher, and neither Copart nor IAA publishes final prices to the public. Treat these figures as a floor. With that warning, the median last pre-auction bid at Copart US was US$800, about 10% of the car's ACV. For cars three years old or newer it was US$4,550, or 18% of ACV, and for cars over 20 years old it was US$250.

Among the most common models, the Chevrolet Silverado drew the highest median pre-auction bid, about US$1,750, followed by the Corolla (US$1,250), Camry (US$875), Civic (US$825) and Accord (US$600). At IAA Canada, where pre-auction bids were visible on 55% of lots, the median was C$2,200. IAA US shows no bids to the public. For prices by title, see our salvage vs clean title guide, and to estimate a specific car, the price index.

Keys, and when the auctions happen

Keys were present on 93.4% of Copart US lots that recorded the field, and 97.8% at IAA US. A missing key is worth checking before you bid on a modern car, since a replacement often has to be programmed to the vehicle.

Salvage auctions run on weekdays. Tuesday was the busiest day, with 26.4% of all lots, and almost nothing sold on a Saturday or Sunday. Copart Canada's sales were concentrated on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which together carried 95% of its lots.

The buyers

Copart says it has about 1 million registered members in more than 185 countries. One figure in its annual report stands out: in fiscal 2026, 38.2% of the US vehicles it sold went to international members, by unit count. That's more than one car in three leaving the US auction system for a buyer abroad, and it helps explain why common models with plentiful parts dominate the yards. If you're bidding from outside the US, our guide to bidding from Europe covers the practical side.

More numbers from our other guides

Each of these guides is built on SalvageAlert data for roughly the same three months:

• Damage: "Front end" was the primary damage on 48.9% of Copart US lots; at IAA US the most common label was "normal wear and tear". See Copart and IAA damage codes.
• Titles: six Copart title codes cover 84% of its US lots. See Copart title codes explained.
• Mileage: 77.9% of Copart US lots had an "actual" odometer status and 12.9% "not actual". See Copart odometer status.
• Yards: Copart's Houston yard was the busiest, with 18,400 lots. See the busiest Copart and IAA yards.
• Relists: 5.9% of Copart US lots were put back on sale. See why cars get relisted.

How to use these figures

All SalvageAlert figures on this page cover lots with a sale date from August 17 to November 12, 2026. Copart figures come from Copart's complete sales data file; IAA figures come from our crawl of IAA's public listings and may miss some lots. Colors and vehicle types cover Copart's last 60 days only. Values and repair estimates are Copart's own estimates. Bids are last pre-auction bids, never final prices. Company figures come from Copart's fiscal 2026 annual report and RB Global's 2025 annual report and third-quarter 2026 filings, all on the SEC's EDGAR system.

You're welcome to quote these numbers with a link to this page. If you need the underlying lot data for research, SalvageAlert sells it by the row at salvagealert.com/datasets, and a free daily sample with masked fields is on GitHub.