Buying At Car Auction

Has anyone bought cars through auction. Had a look at a few online catalogues was expecting them all to be older trade-ins or ex-lease cars but quite a lot of under 5 year old cars from main dealers. Are these just dogs they want rid of. Will there be any savings to be made going this auction route.

 

[haulmblower]

Go for low mileage.
They may be from dealers because the mileage is a bit high for them to sell.
I've bought from auctions twice and have had good bargains that was more by luck than judgement though.
I'm looking for a little van for myself at the moment. I go for slightly damaged bodywork though so don't know much about cars from dealers.
Good luck

 

[Grassman]

Trouble is with auctions is the buyers fee. This can be a lot.
Those I have been to have a system geared towards big volume purchasers whereby they will pay very little and the one off buyer may pay big time. I went after a van and would of had to pay £600 plus!
It was nearly as cheap to go to the dealer
. Also with the auction you have no comeback in a lot of cases. A dealer has to give some back up

 

[Lincs Lass]

Program on telly about car auctions ,,maybe some of its set up for tv but alot of it is for real ,,cars can look ok but untill you have bought it you only get a couple of minutes to look round it, warning lights on ,major rust problems in places you cant see ,,Its really is buyer beware country .
Mostly cars that have been sent from trade ins that arent worth fixing by a garage

 

[RobFZS]

i reckon the cars garages put in are the stuff with intermittent faults that the garage can't fix without changing everything

 

[Grassman]

i reckon the cars garages put in are the stuff with intermittent faults that the garage can't fix without changing everything

It depends on the type of auction.
A lot of ex lease cars go straight to the auction. My son had a new car on lease for two or three years. When the lease ended he could either buy the car or return it. The return address was a local car auction. It went through the next sale. It was a perfect, immaculate, low mileage car.

 

[roscoe erf]

Trouble is with auctions is the buyers fee. This can be a lot.
Those I have been to have a system geared towards big volume purchasers whereby they will pay very little and the one off buyer may pay big time. I went after a van and would of had to pay £600 plus!
It was nearly as cheap to go to the dealer
. Also with the auction you have no comeback in a lot of cases. A dealer has to give some back up

what auctions do you buy from indemnity is charged on all cars brought in auction most have a 2hr try and return if major fault most do a engineers report first which is available
op yes I've dealt with auctions for many years and you will be fine a lot are ex lease trade ins etc a lot of main dealers don't want the hassle of non franchised models and stick them into auctions some have an age cut off too

 

[roscoe erf]

i recon too many of you experts have got your knowledge from minder

 

[Hattie007]

We've purchased three vehicles from auctions. All been absolutely fine. One was a VW, one was a van and the other was a nearly new pick up! All were very good bargains! Might have just been luck, who knows!

 

[Grassman]

what auctions do you buy from indemnity is charged on all cars brought in auction most have a 2hr try and return if major fault most do a engineers report first which is available
op yes I've dealt with auctions for many years and you will be fine a lot are ex lease trade ins etc a lot of main dealers don't want the hassle of non franchised models and stick them into auctions some have an age cut off too

Measham van auction was last one I went to but the buyers premium was a lot so didn't buy.
Bought an ex hire van from there previously and that was very good.
My lads car went to manheim sheffield. Lots of very nice cars there.

 

[Netherfield]

I swapped an Astra for a VW, and said to the salesman "this will be on the forecourt with a couple of grand added" his reply "It will be at BCA Brighouse on Thursday, we only sell new and used VWs,no matter how good the trade in is."

 

[Happy]

Thought most big main dealers automatically put anything over 5 years old or 50k miles to auction these days.
They can't all be complete dogs.

 

[roscoe erf]

thats where most secondhand dealers get their stock from

 

[carpenter1]

I did some work for an auctioneer at manheim he was saying you can get 1 year old cars that companies register, just to keep market share. All of the cars have inspection before auction by an independent party.

 

[Will 1594]

Has anyone bought cars through auction. Had a look at a few online catalogues was expecting them all to be older trade-ins or ex-lease cars but quite a lot of under 5 year old cars from main dealers. Are these just dogs they want rid of. Will there be any savings to be made going this auction route.

If you ring manheim direct and ask them what your looking for they have over 10000 cars on stock. Been looking for an a4 3.0 d Quattro They will find what you want. And tell you trade price and which auction its at and can buy with out it going through

 

[Beef farmer]

Bought my car from auction, and will always again.
Dad bought a a6 quattro from main stealer, salesman said that Audi will only allow them to have a 2nd hand car on there for court for 6weeks before it gets out through auction.

 

[Wombat]

A lot of the ex company cars go in, I know my last 2 from lease companies have gone straight from my house to the auctions.

 

[Refco]

I bought a Volvo for the mrs refco at Manheim Washington a few weeks ago. I think the buyer's commission was something like 7.5%, so you have to bear that in mind.
Manheim also have some cars that are marked with their seal approval, and they come with a short warranty period for an extra £20.
It's good fun being an Arthur Daley for a day, but always remember Caveat Emptor..

 

[rusty]

Bought my VWTouareg from BCA Nottingham which have a dedicated auction twice a month for VW Audi ex lease cars. About 200+ in each sale. Mine was 2.5 years old so still in warranty which gave piece of mind. If they don't make reserve price they get put back in next sale and reserve drops. Bid 18k for mine and got told reserve was 19.5k. Declined and went back 2 weeks later and bought same car again for 18k. Reserve was 18.5k this time so agreed to buy it. As said above watch the buyers commission. Should have been about £700 for mine but since I know a BCA auctioneer managed to pay about £350 on the poorest 'trade' rate.
It's also to be fully paid within 24 hrs.

 

[markpentre]

Bought nearly all my cars via auction. My old man used to buy one a week and sell them all in local papers. That was before eBay killed the job!