Cars Just In From A Auction At A Dealers

[Aletank]

I was at a smallish prestige car dealers the other day and they has 2 cars just in from a BCA auction.
One was a 56 plate C180k Avantgarde with about 60k miles they wanted £9k
The other was a 06 plate C220 Diesel Avantgarde again about 60k and wanted £10k
Both these cars were in awful unloved condtion the C180 didn't even have a gear knob and the dealer was complaining that Mercedes want £140 for one.
The dealer said a couple of hours with our valeter and you won't reconise them. That maybe so but i wouldn't buy one now knowing what a unloved history they have had, If I hadn't of seen them in such a condition i may of considered them.
Here's the C180 all cleaned up 2006 MERCEDES-BENZ C180K Avantgarde SE
Are most cars from auction that dealers aquire in such a state before the valeter starts his work to hide it's poor pre sale condition ?

 

[davidjpowell]

I would imagine it depends on where they come from. Ex-Lease cars are often in decent condition as the Lessee gets stiffed on charges if the car goes back with damage.

Repossessed cars could be in any state I imagine, depending on how long the previous owner has been hanging on, and anything sold by dealers, I would expect to be pretty crap on the theory that if they could they would send it out to traders direct or retail themselves if they have a dealer marque in the network.

 

[aka$h]

Usually cars that are in from big groups are cleaned before being entered. That said some cars are filthy, but in most cases they clean up well.

 

[jaymanek]

no, some cars can be in a state but then any sane buyer would avoid those as a filthy car usually means the owner hasnt been bothered... usually auction cars sold by the larger groups are normally cleaned to a decent standard...

 

[Toodeep]

Worse than this . . . . years ago (about 1995) a car of mine was written off by my insurer as uneconomical to repair. It wasn't in a crash but had been stolen and stripped of most of its interior and alloys. I decided to buy the write-off from the insurers to fix myself, which meant collecting it from a salvage yard on the Isle of Sheppey. When I got there, hundreds of seriously damaged cars were being stored in steel racking and at about midday scores of transporters and Land Rovers with trailers started arriving belonging to used car dealers who were buying up these wrecks at auction to repair and foist upon the unsuspecting public. I am talking hundreds in just a single Saturday and this was a weekly or, at best, fortnightly event!

I have owned more than one used car that. at some point, has been suspected of being resprayed, rebuilt or having parts that were inconsistent with the model or year of manufacture. What I saw that day explained a lot.

As a sub-plot (and off-topic), there were some older, cheaper cars that were damaged but running - presumably written off because, despite the apparently minor damage, they would still cost as much to fix as they were worth. These were being purchased by individuals who turned out to be mini-cab drivers (this was before they had to be licenced) who would buy a wreck, run it until it expires, then replace it with another wreck. So the answer to the conundrum "Why were mini-cabs always Nissan Primeras with a different coloured door and odd wheel trims?" the answer is that's how they bought them. Few of us would have suspected when we booked that cab from the pub "to get home safely" that, in some cases, we were riding in a potential death trap.

 

[Rory]

I would imagine it depends on where they come from. Ex-Lease cars are often in decent condition as the Lessee gets stiffed on charges if the car goes back with damage.

We used to lease our company cars and some people treated them terribly - not deliberatly, I would say, but just took no interest in them whatsoever. Some weren't serviced from start to finish and I would regularly go out with people and find there had been a bale of hay on the back seat, washers were empty, tyres well underinflated etc.

Every now and then a stiff memo would come round about it, but no-one every seriously followed up on it.

Sounds terrible but the lease companies attitude doesn't help - they put crap tyres on when they get changed and any faults are just dismissed that you're a moaner.

 

[crockers]

My last company leased their cars. They had set brands of tyres and they were changed at 3mm. I used to just say I'm not willing to mix brands so could I have a memo saying they took responsibility. Always had what I wanted fitted. Last car ran on conti sports.

 

[Rory]

My last company leased their cars. They had set brands of tyres and they were changed at 3mm. I used to just say I'm not willing to mix brands so could I have a memo saying they took responsibility. Always had what I wanted fitted. Last car ran on conti sports.

I tried that on my daughter's car which was on a VW service & maint package and they said "fine, buy your own tyres then"!

They put Conti eco tyres on the front leaving non-eco tyres on the rear. That's wrong on so many levels and Continental are on record as saying it's potentially dangerous to mix them. My complaints went unanswered.

 

[davidjpowell]

A previous firm I worked for had a historic policy, where the cars were leased for three years, purchased and then run for a further year, before being sold. All this was outsourced by a external fleet company.

Early on my boss was told off by the head of office, after incurring a £800 bill from the Audi main dealer. A good chunk of this related to brakes, which the garage advised replacing, while the fleet company with 3 months to go wanted to not do the work. My boss went spare that they wanted to scrimp on brakes.

After that we were told that cars over three years old had to go outside dealer network to a local garage who cocked up ever car that they saw. madness.

 

[The Pan Man]

I know a lot of people who do not look after their car in any way shape or form, the interiors are so bad I would not let my dog sleep in them. All of these are decent level of cars not just hacks, and they all have good jobs just spend nothing in time effort or money on the cars.

 

[Alps]

I tried that on my daughter's car which was on a VW service & maint package and they said "fine, buy your own tyres then"!

They put Conti eco tyres on the front leaving non-eco tyres on the rear. That's wrong on so many levels and Continental are on record as saying it's potentially dangerous to mix them. My complaints went unanswered.

As long as tyres are the same on each axle (both fronts, both rears same) then theres nothing wrong with mixing.

 

[Rory]

As long as tyres are the same on each axle (both fronts, both rears same) then theres nothing wrong with mixing.

It's considered best practice to put new tyres on the back (although, particularly bizzarely for RWD, Mercedes doesn't totally agree with this).

The complication with "Eco" tyres is they're usually considerably less grippy than typical OEM standard fit tyres so you end up with an imbalance in the car. In that case, they probably are better on the front, but you're reduced to guessing instead of following recognised best practice.

Continental, whose Eco tyres VW maintenance insisted on fitting, recommend that they're not mixed on the car at all.

 

[Stratman]

.......................

Continental, whose Eco tyres VW maintenance insisted on fitting, recommend that they're not mixed on the car at all.

I wonder why. Nothing to do with "Need one tyre? Buy four" of course

 

[Rory]

I wonder why. Nothing to do with "Need one tyre? Buy four" of course

No, it's because the grip of eco tyres can be significantly less than non-eco tyres. It's sound advice, in my opinion.

 

[DrNick]

No, it's because the grip of eco tyres can be significantly less than non-eco tyres. It's sound advice, in my opinion.

Non-grippy tyres. How does that work then? Makes you keep your speed down by making it difficult to go round corners, thus improving economy? What next - a spike instead of a drivers airbag to improve safety?

 

[Rory]

Non-grippy tyres. How does that work then? Makes you keep your speed down by making it difficult to go round corners, thus improving economy? What next - a spike instead of a drivers airbag to improve safety?

It's one of those weird and complicated things that I don't pretend to fully understand, but it can explain why a car will inexplicably spin at fairly low speeds in the wet as one end lets go and while the other is still gripping.

We all know that different tyres have different levels of grip, and, in a sweeping generalisation, "eco" (low rolling resistance) tyres are less grippy than "normal" tyres due to their harder tread compound.

There was a good demo of this on one of the motoring TV programmes a few years ago regearding worn tyres - the somewhat bizzare thing is that a car with new tyres on the front and worn tyres on the back will spin out on a wet bend at lower speeds than one with 4 worn tyres.