Cash is NOT king at Car Auctions.

[ALFIE CONN]

Last week i bought a car at auction (B.C.A Bedford) for £6k but was quite surprised at the extra charges they put on top for non traders.
I ended up paying £352 extra, the most surprising to me was the 1.5% they charge if you buy with cash or C/C.
I paid the minimim needed in cash (£1,200) to secure the car, which i had to pay the 1.5% extra.
We then went into the nearest Town to pay the cash onto the wifes debit card to save paying another 1.5% on the outstanding £4,800, saving about £72.

P.S. I ended up paying as much as i would have if i had bought locally but im not complaining, i was sick of the lying, cheating, scamming and never as described cars people had told me about while i was trying to buy.

It has made me realise that if you have a local trader you can trust, it would not be a bad option.

 

[Big_Jon]

Fortunately I have a BCA Gold Car so get a reduced buyers fee, still dear enough though.

Going to the auction is a surprise for many, you did your homework but many dont. We genuinely see people expecting to buy a car that would be £5995 on the forecourt for £2000 at auction because they really do believe thats what we pay for them.

Pleased you got yourself a new set of wheels for the wife.

 

[PXW]

Various times I've been to Blackbushe (usually to look for something small and cheap for kids etc to drive) I have failed to come away with anything. I check the lists first, do my research and go armed with a debit card to an account with enough money in it. But from my perspective I want to buy for a bit over trade price, given that I am buying effectively uninspected and without dealer back-up/warranty; I guess theoretically the dealers should drop out at a given level, and then a private buyer should be able to pick it up for one more bid. But in practice from what I've seen, the kind of car that appeals to private buyers just rockets up in price - I've seen ordinary focus etc cars go for £250-500 above book retail price. Can only assume it is a bit of bidding fever.

Admittedly I haven't been recently, so the situation may have changed a bit (and I recently sold an 02 plate 307 through sure-sell, which ended up fetching about £350 below BCA's suggested reserve, so maybe things have come off the boil a bit). And I suppose if you have time to visit lots of times it wil eventually work. But I don't have the time to do that, and it certainly didn't strike me as the place to go for a world-beating bargain.

 

[Bill_33]

funny times

some dealer put their secondhand prices up by an average of £400 last month because of shortage of stock versus demand

The secondhand market has been good over the past few months

Auctions are never great value unless you are a "trader" and know exactly what you are doing. In these times they are not for the private buyer who wants just one vehicle and does not want to take a chance.

Franchise dealers can be great value for their "none franchise part exchanges" as a Merc dealer would never want to retail a secondhand Jag...no matter how good..........his business is to sell Mercs and vica versa

 

[Big_Jon]

PXW - Not surprised about the focus, we regularly see older focai say 99-02 making retail money+ at auctions and quite often they are in need of paint etc also.

SureSell generally doesnt make great money, the reason? As with multi-source, dealers are wary as the question is, Why is it in the auction when it could be sold elsewhere? so those who buy sure-sell and multi always bid on the basis that it needs a monkeys worth of mechanical minimum.

 

[janner]

Buying ex fleet/motobility cars direct can result in a bargain but almost all other cars are there for the wrong reasons. Auctions that don't charge dealers an entry fee are usually a waste of time because dealers just keep their cars there until some mug buys it at a silly price. I can understand a cash handling fee because banks charge to pay cash in. The buyer's premiums are just a con and often stupidly high.

 

[Big_Jon]

Totally agree about buyers indemnity.

We have had loads of cars that have come from BCA and still have finance on as the dealer putting them in dont clear the finance until the car is sold.

This is disgusting as we have bought to order only for it to nearly fall through as the punter doesnt want to take the motor with HP showing.

I have asked BCA what the point of the fee when they will willingly auction cars with HP outstanding.

As for the cash charge, it has to be there as securicor and the like arent cheap and as mentioned, banks charge also.

 

[Carrotchomper]

monkeys worth of mechanical minimum.

Like the phrase

I've almost always bought from auctions and never come majorly unstuck. It's a good rule to have and I generally abide by it. With most auctions you can see the vehicle start up and drive in, which gives you an opportunity to discount MAJOR oily distress.

Agree though, that anything that isn't a fleet disposal needs to be given a little more in-depth attention.

I've only come unstuck once with a new engine on a Primera. But that was mainly because I didn't follow my own rule of seeing it start up- And then a local garage did some work on it, which probably contributed to the major failure. Lesson learnt on both fronts!

 

[James Rothwell]

I don't buy from auctions as the cars we retail go for silly money, even at closed auctions.

 

[Sp!ke]

We were seeing plenty of cars go through the auctions on the pistonheads threads only to appear shortly after on autotrader for +£5k or more instant profit.

So I'm not so sure I agree with all that is being said in this thread.

 

[James Rothwell]

It's only profit if it actually sells.

 

[Seamster15]

PXW - Not surprised about the focus, we regularly see older focai say 99-02 making retail money+ at auctions and quite often they are in need of paint etc also.

SureSell generally doesnt make great money, the reason? As with multi-source, dealers are wary as the question is, Why is it in the auction when it could be sold elsewhere? so those who buy sure-sell and multi always bid on the basis that it needs a monkeys worth of mechanical minimum.

Personally I never touch sure sell, too many problems with them. Plus they don't often meet reserve so you waist time anyway. Cars tend to hang around for weeks, arn't cleaned and have flat batteries!

 

[Seamster15]

It's only profit if it actually sells.

Agreed, there is money to be made but as James says it has to acually sell. A few times I have seen new members appear with a nice AMG model which has passed throught the local BCA houses and been sold for a nice profit, but the state that the car has been in at auciton the dealer has had to spend quite a bit to bring it up to scratch.

Don't forget the following costs;

Delivery
Preperation (valet, paint etc)
PDI
MOT (If required)
Service (most cars at auction are there requiring a service)
Advertising (Autotrader is NOT cheap for the trade)
Showroom or storage
HPI
Warrenty

Why not work out how much it would cost you to source, transport and do the majority of the above - I challenge you, work out the costs?

Traders possibly don't make the money that most punters think.....

 

[hawk20]

Last week i bought a car at auction (B.C.A Bedford) for £6k but was quite surprised at the extra charges they put on top for non traders.
I ended up paying £352 extra, the most surprising to me was the 1.5% they charge if you buy with cash or C/C.
I paid the minimim needed in cash (£1,200) to secure the car, which i had to pay the 1.5% extra.
We then went into the nearest Town to pay the cash onto the wifes debit card to save paying another 1.5% on the outstanding £4,800, saving about £72.

P.S. I ended up paying as much as i would have if i had bought locally but im not complaining, i was sick of the lying, cheating, scamming and never as described cars people had told me about while i was trying to buy.

It has made me realise that if you have a local trader you can trust, it would not be a bad option.

Why not try MB dealers. They give you a full 12 month approved used warranty.

 

[Seamster15]

Why not try MB dealers. They give you a full 12 month approved used warranty.

Not everyone has your bank balance Hawk!

 

[ALFIE CONN]

Why not try MB dealers. They give you a full 12 month approved used warranty.

I went to MB Lakeside to see what was in our price range and size of the cars for the wife to judge.
Only the A class was the rightish size car for her but it was to dear for us AND not worth the money I.M.O.

 

[jaymanek]

Cash is not king anywhere really.

Banks charge up to 70p per £100 to pay the stuff in.. on a £10K car this is £70 out of your profit.

I used to dispose of cash at auctions, but like you say, they have caught on too..

 

[Big_Jon]

I hate taking cash for cars now, I once had £13k in tenners for a range rover and it was a pain.

People always ask for a cash discount, if they get ****y when I say no I explain that I dont do cash discounts because I am not bent and actually pay my income tax and VAT without endless cash fiddles.

One auction I use doesnt charge for cash BTW.

As for banks, the simpletons there do make me laugh, I paid in £6k last week, it says "CAR SALES" on the paying in book and I was interrogated as to where it came from, I usually say Im a pimp or something just to see the shock on their mugs.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

As for banks, the simpletons there do make me laugh, I paid in £6k last week, it says "CAR SALES" on the paying in book and I was interrogated as to where it came from, I usually say Im a pimp or something just to see the shock on their mugs.

Do be careful. They may see the funny side and do nothing. Unless things have changed, if the teller follows procedure then they should report you for that.

 

[mirras]

Why not try MB dealers. They give you a full 12 month approved used warranty.

I tried with my last car, MB Carlisle were pulling out all the stops to avoid doing a deal.... They let me test drive a dirty, ill-prep'ed car which needed a bundle of "we'll fix that before you collect it" work done. Then they offered me bottom book for my 211, minus £300 to tidy up a small scratch on the paintwork, as a trade-in against top retail book on the car I wanted to buy. The 'salesman' then went off to his manager to see if they would move on the price... he offered to drop the price on the car by £200.... on a £24k sticker price... I walked straight out.

The dealership was like a ghostown all the time I was in, I wonder how they stay in business... I wasn't looking for a giveaway but I was looking for some sensible prices to change... a price I was able to get elsewhere without trying. The MB warranty bit isn't worth the extra thousands you pay to buy the cars there... I still got £1500 worth of work done by MB under warranty on my 6 year old car despite not being bought from an MB dealer.