I have been buying cars at auctions for well over 5 years now. I've made a few mistakes and also some cracking deals. I'll try to pass on my experiences to help those thinking of buying at auction.
The first question you should ask when looking at possible cars in an auction hall is, why is this car here? There can be a number of reasons.
1) A lot of cars come direct from leasing companies who generally only keep cars for 3 to 5 years. These can be great buys because a registered dealer will have serviced them on the dot, and the car will have been maintained regardless of cost. The only things to look out for here are worn interiors and poor paintwork/accident damage.
2) Quite a lot of part exchange cars are put through the auctions by dealers and car trade centres. For them it’s an easy way to get rid of unwanted vehicles. These cars are more of a lottery. You can pick up someone’s pride and joy, or someone’s troublesome cast-off. The main thing to look at here is the history of the car. Has it been serviced regularly? Someone who services a car a month or two before sale has usually looked after it.
3) Dealer lemons. These are the cars that have been difficult to sell for some reason. They have sat on some dealer's forecourt for some months without interest. This can be for a number of reasons, but they are best left well alone.
Personally I only ever buy a car at auction if it is "Sold with no major mechanical faults". This basically means the auction has had the car checked over by a technician and will guarantee that the major systems of the car are fully functional. With ADT, the biggest auction group in the UK, all cars under 5 years old are sold under this policy. Any cars that are "sold as seen" are to be avoided at all cost. It’s just not worth the risk. Yes, you may save a few hundred pound if you get a good one, but you will be lumbered with a few thousand pounds worth of scrap if it turns out to be a dog.
When buying a car over the magic five-year figure, I would suggest buying privately or from a trade centre. This will give better results as you can test the car for yourself. Other than that, auctions are great!
A final point to take into consideration is mileage. In my experience, as a mechanic and auction buyer, as long as a car has a full service history and looks clean, don't be put off by high mileage.
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* thats was meant to read car (not cat- I dont own cat's except catalytic converters!)
Connoisseur_Haggler 17.03.2001 01:00
very useful opinion (esp. to me!!)as my car got written off (and I may just see it at one of these car auctions and I am totally lost without my cat..am investigating ALL possibilities, thanks,
Mar 17th, 2001
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