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Author Topic: Buying at car auctions - any advice?  (Read 6989 times)

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aaronjb

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Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« on: 06 February 2019, 08:52:24 »

We've been looking for a new (different new, not new new) car for Lou, specifically an automatic Mini, post 2006 (to avoid the chocolate CVT gearbox), 1.6L Cooper as it's mostly town work etc..

..having looked at some proper nails at "back street" car dealers - the last one had a fog lamp hanging out, stank of burning oil, had a broken gear lever release, pulled to the left like it wanted to mate with the hedge and sounded like it had a knackered wheel bearing and, heck, the "dealer" hadn't even bothered to hoover the crap out of it - I'm drawn to auction cars as they look much better than 90% of the stock on forecourts.

Lou is wary of auctions though, as you can't test drive them, despite me pointing out that most of these "dealers" are getting their stock from the auctions.

Any advice? Is it madness to buy a £3-5k car at auction? Are they all nails?

For anyone with a BCA account, I was looking at this one: https://auctionview.british-car-auctions.co.uk/Results/LotDetail/24d84ad563d348ac8921d9073f75d7fb?VehId=2e6166a4-8c5a-4b0f-b645-5fdcee7aaaa3&FromSearch=true&searchQuery=q=Mini&bq=make_exact%3AMINI%7Cmodel_exact%3ACOOPER%7Cgearbox_exact%3AAutomatic%7Cfueltype_exact%3APetrol%7Cplate_exact%3A2012%2062%2C2010%2010%2C2008%2058%2C2008%2008%2C2007%2057%7Cgrade_exact%3A4%2C5&sort=Relevance&missingMileage=True&awaitingAppraisal=True&page=1&extraFiltersActive=true&returnTo=MT57FZS&promoAppliedSets=&Source=Search&selectedVehicleIds=
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Sir Tigger KC

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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #1 on: 06 February 2019, 09:40:11 »

There are a lot of good cars at BCA.  :y  But don't expect it to be cheap especially as a retail buyer with the buyers premium.  :(

That one is from WBAC, has less than 6 months MOT, is grade 4, has 1 key and no history.  :-\  Don't forget to check the MOT history, but as above will be over 6 months old now. When you are at the auction, you'll generally have about 5 minutes from when they unlock it to when it goes to the rostrum, so make sure you are there when they unlock it and start it.  The amount of cars that look immaculate but they struggle to start!  ::)  Some of the drivers are quite friendly and will let you pop the bonnet, open the boot etc, others not so...

I think you can find better, cheaper cars privately tbh, but I've always enjoyed the buzz of buying cars at auction and have had some bargains.  :y

I've had disasters as well.....  :(  ::)  ;D
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aaronjb

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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #2 on: 06 February 2019, 10:23:31 »

Lou is also wary of private sales for some reason :( Hence we've been trolling all over the country looking at cars at dealers (partly because she wants to trade in her Smart, I expect, rather than sell it privately or to WBAC)..

Funny story - the dealer we went to last weekend (see description of said skip above) also had a much better condition 2011 diesel Cooper in - I asked if we could test drive it: "No, but you can read the AA report on it". Er. Thanks? ::) I shouldn't have been surprised - the dealer took a call from a potential customer while we were out on the first test drive and it contained gems like "I've got over 80 cars, I can't be expected to remember the details of all of them.", "Yeah, probably a few [dents]", "No, price is what the price is."

Afterwards Lou said to me: "I'd probably have bought that one if we could have test driven it"

I should really email them and tell them that  ;D ;D ;D


Anyway, back to BCA - good point on the price, there's only really any point if we can pick up a reasonable bargain or at least underpay vs a dealer..
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Field Marshal Dr. Opti

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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #3 on: 06 February 2019, 10:50:32 »

Lou is also wary of private sales for some reason :( Hence we've been trolling all over the country looking at cars at dealers (partly because she wants to trade in her Smart, I expect, rather than sell it privately or to WBAC)..

Funny story - the dealer we went to last weekend (see description of said skip above) also had a much better condition 2011 diesel Cooper in - I asked if we could test drive it: "No, but you can read the AA report on it". Er. Thanks? ::) I shouldn't have been surprised - the dealer took a call from a potential customer while we were out on the first test drive and it contained gems like "I've got over 80 cars, I can't be expected to remember the details of all of them.", "Yeah, probably a few [dents]", "No, price is what the price is."

Afterwards Lou said to me: "I'd probably have bought that one if we could have test driven it"

I should really email them and tell them that  ;D ;D ;D


Anyway, back to BCA - good point on the price, there's only really any point if we can pick up a reasonable bargain or at least underpay vs a dealer..


I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume 'Lou'  is short for Louise. I'm going to assume you are not sharing your life with a hairy-arsed trucker from Detroit called 'Lou' who has done time for armed robbery. :)

As already mentioned many dealer cars are sourced at auction, or are privately owned P/X. My personal view is that people pay too much at auction and from dealers.

I would go the 'well looked after' private sale route. 
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STEMO

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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #4 on: 06 February 2019, 11:12:31 »

This one, from a private seller, looks ok. Three MOT failures in the past, but for stupid things like wipers and bulbs
.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201901284381212?atmobcid=soc3
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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #5 on: 06 February 2019, 11:18:24 »

This one, from a private seller, looks ok. Three MOT failures in the past, but for stupid things like wipers and bulbs
.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201901284381212?atmobcid=soc3

Suitable for a girlie (assuming Lou is a girlie) but expensive for a twelve year old car.
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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #6 on: 06 February 2019, 11:27:43 »

The mighty Signum is twelve years old and worth three parts of sweet f*uck all.

.......and costs almost £600 a year to tax. It's about time the cull of wealthy pensioners commenced.

Let us start with STMO. :)
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aaronjb

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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #7 on: 06 February 2019, 11:41:14 »

Thanks you two - yep, Lou is short for Louise  ;D ;D No hairy truckers here.. and you're right, private purchase is probably the route to best value for money (although when talking about MINIs, as you've noted, VFM is an alien concept!).

This one, from a private seller, looks ok. Three MOT failures in the past, but for stupid things like wipers and bulbs
.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201901284381212?atmobcid=soc3

I rather like that one.. I should get her to check insurance - despite her age (never ask a womans age, but it's only slightly less than mine) she didn't learn to drive until very recently.. that said, age appears to make everything cost about the same for her to insure*

Re choice of car - she specifically wants "small" (hence the Smart, she just doesn't get on with the automated manual single clutch gearbox .. I can drive around it's oddities but then I've been driving 22 years) and loves the MINI. She also likes the Citroen DS3 and, though I am forced to object on the grounds that it's "french shite", they actually drive quite nicely and are better VFM than the MINI.

Either way, small automatics are very hard to find these days - most of them are gearboxes like the Smart :/

We nearly went to look at an Astra GTC, too, but she decided it was too big for her.
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Field Marshal Dr. Opti

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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #8 on: 06 February 2019, 11:44:39 »

The BINI tends to be pretty gender specific....... Girls and gays just about sums it up. :)
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aaronjb

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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #9 on: 06 February 2019, 11:45:36 »

The BINI tends to be pretty gender specific....... Girls and gays just about sums it up. :)

I quite like them, too.

Oh, crap. :-X ;D
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joshwyatt

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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #10 on: 06 February 2019, 11:49:17 »

In my experience, a Mini is best avoided at all costs, out of a warranty and it’ll hurt. I never buy one, even if it’s seemingly cheap and would be ‘easy’ to make money on.

BCA - great vast offering of stock, but as Tigger says, buyers premiums are a lot! You need to have a BCA Gold card with you for it to be worth going. Look at some large independent auctions too!

Bigron

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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #11 on: 06 February 2019, 12:01:57 »

Just fpr the hell of it - no buying intentions - I went to a car auction near Chelmsford. I simply could not see who was bidding: no nods, no winks or any gestures from anyone, seemingly, yet the price went up and up until finally someone bought the car. Frrightened the carp out of me! :o

Ron.
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dave the builder

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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #12 on: 06 February 2019, 12:03:14 »

I used to work for a very big car lease company .
end of lease cars got inspected,any dents,damage,missing wheel trims ,gaps in service history got billed to the leaser ,
any car that was rough,had mechanical issues,missing history ,bad damage etc got sent to the pound ,fuel removed,tyres with good tread put on retail cars,then sent to auction.
any cars that where in good nick got picked for retail,prepared, minor dents etc (PDR) done,full valet, stone chips touched up dealer number plates and stickers etc etc
if a retail car did not sell in 6 weeks ,then it got sent to auction  as old stock.
so a valeted car with flat battery may be just that, a retail car that went old stock because the sales team never showed it anyone because they where lazy and had plenty of other stock without finding a jump starter pack.
part exchanges just got sent to auction (or purchased by savvy staff  ::) if any good)

auctions are ok,IF you know what to look for ,but you can still end up with egg on your face,
 private sales let you test drive ,check everything etc (mostly) but you can still get caught out (people sell cars for a reason)
retail sales, you tend to have some come back ,IF your purchase turns out to be yellow and citrus  :P

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aaronjb

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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #13 on: 06 February 2019, 12:08:12 »

In my experience, a Mini is best avoided at all costs, out of a warranty and it’ll hurt. I never buy one, even if it’s seemingly cheap and would be ‘easy’ to make money on.

BCA - great vast offering of stock, but as Tigger says, buyers premiums are a lot! You need to have a BCA Gold card with you for it to be worth going. Look at some large independent auctions too!

Hmm, probably not worth me going to an auction then on that basis - although I did ponder asking your good self if you'd find us a car. That said, given what you just said about Minis.. ;D

I had heard of reliability problems - I've worked with a couple of folks who've owned them for extended periods; one had a fuel pump fail (twice!), the other has had no problems at all that weren't easily solved with a little ingenuity (there's half a Bic biro in his headlight washers, for example ;D). But by reputation they don't have the greatest reliability record..

retail sales, you tend to have some come back ,IF your purchase turns out to be yellow and citrus  :P

Yeah - that's one advantage of going to a dealer.. at least one that looks half way reputable (unlike the last one I went to!). Thanks for the rest of the info, too :) As I have told Lou a couple of times - the reality is that most of the "back street" dealers are probably getting their stock at the auctions anyway..
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Re: Buying at car auctions - any advice?
« Reply #14 on: 06 February 2019, 12:14:44 »

Would a Signum prove too big for Louise?

 Like a designer label it has the status and 'street cred'............I'd be willing to let you have it for less than £4750. ::) 8)

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