Car Auctions - advice

[crockers]

Thanks to everyone for their advise - all much appreciated. I think I will go and "view" a few first and compare what is being sold to prices in the adverts. I have a sneaky feeling that group 1 cars are pretty rare and may command "top dollar"...well she's still a learner at the moment and therefore there is no rush until after she has passed her tests....

 

[Vlad]

My experience of Blackbushe is that you can pick up a starter car out of Autotrader for less money than the price they make at auction....too many private punters driving the price up and getting auction fever!

Buying out of Autotrader also enables you to test drive the car, which, obviously you can not do at auction.

 

[television]

I have bought and sold a few hundred over the years, Cars from the Bank of Scotland make very good buys, and are sold on special sale days via BCA, these are directors cars and sold on age and nothing else, the mileages can be very low circa 5k and up, with varying specs depending on the group that the lease holder belonged too.

For normal sales never veiw in the rain or artificial light, eyeing up the car length ways by stooping down to the headlamp height, look down the length of the car for any marks in the panels, as they can be seen this way. Running your hand over the panels will detect any different paint texture.
Not all cars entered in sales from dealers are bad, it could just be a stock situation or high mileage.

good luck

 

[Spinal]

Most of my mercs come from auctions; in addition to all the advice above, bring with you a coating thickness meter. They're about £100 off eBay and allow you to find out (fairly quickly) if a panel has been resprayed...

Michele

 

[nickcc101]

Most of my mercs come from auctions; in addition to all the advice above, bring with you a coating thickness meter. They're about £100 off eBay and allow you to find out (fairly quickly) if a panel has been resprayed...

Michele

Also a magnet that shows when the body is full of filler.

 

[6CylinderMerc]

Also a magnet that shows when the body is full of filler.

Not much good on a lot of French cars as the wings & sometimes bonnet are made of plastic

Still, at least there's not much chance of rust in these areas

 

[Dieselman]

Cars from the Bank of Scotland make very good buys, and are sold on special sale days via BCA, these are directors cars and sold on age and nothing else,

Not sure you can say that. Bank of Scotland are just leasing cars like anyone else.

 

[janner]

Buying direct from leasing companies is usually okay. They are normally under three years old with full history, albeit sometimes higher miles. You have to watch for poor damage repairs and scrapes but it'll all fairly basic checks and the cars are always trade book. My advice on lease cars is to note the nicer ones and bid early. A lot don't get bids at all due to the sheer volume of identical cars and the auctioneer is not so likely to bid off the walls if he has a genuine bidder.
Fine if you want a two year old Focus Zetec with 50K.

 

[crockers]

Buying direct from leasing companies is usually okay. They are normally under three years old with full history, albeit sometimes higher miles. You have to watch for poor damage repairs and scrapes but it'll all fairly basic checks and the cars are always trade book. My advice on lease cars is to note the nicer ones and bid early. A lot don't get bids at all due to the sheer volume of identical cars and the auctioneer is not so likely to bid off the walls if he has a genuine bidder.
Fine if you want a two year old Focus Zetec with 50K.

What does that mean? Make up bids? That is surely illegal..

 

[Alfie]

What does that mean? Make up bids? That is surely illegal..

It is illegal but believe me, I know of an auction house not too far away that has 'plants' in the auction hall that bid things up with no intention of ever buying. One of them is actually one of their former auctioneers!

I used to go alot to the auctions just to see what my money would buy and I'll bet there are some people there still who have never bought a thing

 

[jaymanek]

Its common practice, there may be no one bidding but they will go up to around the reserve price to get things moving...

I have a good relationship with the auctioneers and they will tell me the reserves of the cars im interested in, then i can make up my mind before the car even goes through...

 

[janner]

ALL auctioneers make up bids. A lot of cars at auction don't get bought but I've never seen one not get a bid or three
Only when there's no reserve do they not 'add' bids.

 

[hawk20]

Saw a TV programme which said it is legal for auctioneers to make bids 'off the wall' up to the reserve price but not above it.
While I agree with Television (welcome back from hols) that large companies fleets at auction can be good value, they are rarely if ever group 1 insurance cars, which is what the OP wants.

 

[crockers]

Saw a TV programme which said it is legal for auctioneers to make bids 'off the wall' up to the reserve price but not above it.
While I agree with Television (welcome back from hols) that large companies fleets at auction can be good value, they are rarely if ever group 1 insurance cars, which is what the OP wants.

True - I am sure she would love a 5,000 mile ex directors MB or BMW but ................................ she AINT GONNA GET ONE...lol....


Well not until she can afford to buy, insure, run etc etc etc.....

 

[BarryS]

Hi,

I think you have some good advice already. I was in your position a few years ago - went to Blackbushe - frightening experience for all the reasons mentioned. At least if you like any control of a situation and time to consider.

Do just go and buy a nice Ford KA from a private or small dealer - for £2,500 you can get something really nice that you will sell for the same price a year or two later. I did. Just take your time to get a really clean example with FSH and in a nice colour.

My advice is to forget the auction and leave it to the experts,

 

[hawk20]

Hi,

I think you have some good advice already. I was in your position a few years ago - went to Blackbushe - frightening experience for all the reasons mentioned. At least if you like any control of a situation and time to consider.

Do just go and buy a nice Ford KA from a private or small dealer - for £2,500 you can get something really nice that you will sell for the same price a year or two later. I did. Just take your time to get a really clean example with FSH and in a nice colour.

My advice is to forget the auction and leave it to the experts,

I share your view. And the Ford Ka is often amazing value. But is it group 1 insurance even with a 1300 cc engine? If not there are some good Polo bargains around.

 

[Seamster15]

2.5k should get you a nice 52\03 plate KA, if you look around...

 

[hawk20]

2.5k should get you a nice 52\03 plate KA, if you look around...

Indeed. But is it group 1 for insurance which the OP wants?

 

[Shude]

A quick search found this:
http://www.wisebuyers.co.uk/index.jsp?guide=guides&page=car_insurance&id=18&group=1&x=15&y=1
http://www.carpages.co.uk/car-insurance/car-insurance-group-1-1.asp

Also found a thread on another forum where the general opinion was to ignore insurance group and just find a good car in the <= group 4 area. Group 1 cars now have an inflated price because they are more desirable in some cases than group 2 and as such you may save more money overall by buying a cheap group 2 car and paying the fractionally higher insurance.

It's a crazy world. Also insurance companies don't really use insurance groups, they have their own internal system for working out risk.

 

[nickcc101]

Not much good on a lot of French cars as the wings & sometimes bonnet are made of plastic

Still, at least there's not much chance of rust in these areas

But who would buy a french car if they could own a Mercedes. You could also exclude land rovers and cars with ali bodys but after owning a discovery i would never buy another one.