A special sale conducted by British Car Auctions (BCA), on behalf of the BMW Group, has broken the UK record for the highest auction turnover in a single sale.

The Special BMW Sale took place at BCA Brighouse late in December and a total of 300 cars were offered by BMW.

The sale featured a comprehensive selection ranging from Mini One to BMW 7-series and also included new M3 and M5 models. Nearly 70 BMW dealers attended the sale and with 51 buying on the day. Bidding was brisk throughout.

A further 16 dealers logged on to bid using BCA's Live Online system. The sale achieved a 100 per cent conversion, totalling £9.5 million, setting a new UK auction turnover record for a single vendor sale and an average sale price record of just under £31,600.

The sale achieved the equivalent of 107.5 per cent of CAP Clean across the board, with individual vehicles achieving up to 124 per cent of CAP. The highest individual value on the day was £65,400 realised by a 2007-registered BMW M6 SMG Coupe. Live Online buyers bid on 46 per cent of the cars, buying 14 per cent (41 cars) and adding over £25,000 to the value of the sale.

The previous record - also established by BMW in 2006 - was £8.2 million. BMW auction manager Nigel Smith said: "The strong attendance from our dealer network and the confident bidding throughout the sale underlines the desirability of the BMW range.

The cars are certainly shown to their best advantage thanks to the first class presentation by BCA and the added buying power generated by Live Online was instrumental in achieving this record-breaking result."

BCA national account manager Paul Dunn added: "This high profile event broke the turnover record for BMW and underlines the strength of the brand in the prestige and executive car market."