buying from the auto auction

[jen0610]

Does anyone have experience with buying a car at the auto auctions? The good, the bad, and the ugly. We want to pick up a spare car, but don’t really want to spend a fortune on it. Someone suggested the auto auction as an option other than dealers and private sales. I have no clue how they work, at all.

I looked up the website for our local site and can see the run list, but have no clues from there what to do or better yet, what NOT to do.

I looked at some of the pictures of the cars that are up for sale that would fit what we are looking for, but no clue what would be considered a good price point, high and low for buying from the auction. Looked all of them up on autotraders.com to see what was the selling price was on cars close in description to those cars up for auction – make, model, year, and miles.

If anybody has any suggestions or know how, I sure would appreciate the info.

 

[mckelvey72]

We bought a car at an auction one time for my younger brother and we had a good experience.

Just know this.....(at least the one by us) they don't guarantee anything. So if you drive it off the lot and it breaks down the next day, you can't take it back. No lemon laws for these types of cars. But if it is a reputable company that does auctions all the time then you will probably be OK.

We live in MD so we bought the SUV for 4K (it has 100K miles I think) and we brought it home for inspection (which we have to do in MD to get it tagged) and had to put out another 1100.00 in order to get it road ready for inspection to pass.

Go in knowing how much you want to pay and don't get caught up in the auction. Call ahead of time and get the rules/guarantees etc a day or so prior to the auctions so you are well informed. And if it is close to you and you have time...you might want to go and sit thru one for a little bit to see what goes on.

If you want guarantees/warranties and someone to go to if there is a problem....then stick with a dealer. Otherwise, you can get some great cars at great prices at the auctions.

 

[Colleen27]

You really have to know your stuff to buy at auction, because there's no opportunity to test drive or have the car checked out and there's no warranty or recourse if it turns out to be a lemon. Plus the auction moves very quickly so you need to have a good idea of what the car(s) you're interested in should sell for and what the most you're willing to pay is. I used to go to auctions sometimes with a mechanic friend and it can be a good way to get a deal, but it isn't for everyone. It is very easy to overpay or end up with something that isn't as good as it looked at first glance.

 

[PeterPanic]

I have purchased three vehicles at an auto auction. I saved thousands of dollars on the purchase. With two of them I had absolutely no problems and drove them for 10's of thousands of miles with virtually no maintenance problems. The one that did have a problem was a situation where the person selling had hidden the problem long enough to sell it. It still turned out to be a minor problem but was a hassle to get it taken care off. Overall, I'd say that I have no real complaints. I knew going in that there is always a possibility that something might turn-up after the fact. It is helpful if you have a basic knowledge of automobiles and can make an educated guess about the overall condition. Generally the more you pay the better your chances are that things will be OK. But there is no guarantee, so it's a gamble.

Most auction houses don't want to lose business, so they have their own system of classifying vehicles into categories of Excellent, Good, Not able to determine or Use Caution when buying. The last category is the one where the vehicles are the cheapest. They may call it something different then what I said, so check it out carefully.

 

[burnurcomputer]

Do you have a dealer/mechanic who will be acting in your stead? If you do not, I would highly advise that you work with one to get the best deal. You will have to pay a finders fee, but they can inspect prior to auction time and will look for what you want. Its best to be specific, but general at the same time. Stick to model and year range that you find acceptable as well as mileage you want to be under. Let them know what you will and will not accept for body and interior. Sometimes you can get a better car with a bad paint job or that was in a small fender bender and was repaired, leased vehicles, or trade-ins from around the state/country (depending on the size of the auction).

I live very close to a large auto auction, and grew up in that town. Many classmates had family dealerships stocked with cars only from that auction.

 

[heatherleigh]

I thought you had to have a dealer's license to go to one. My husband runs a large Chevy dealership, but the auctions he buys from aren't open to the public. They're pretty strict abt buyers. You have to have a dealers license on file and an id from the auction (like manheim) and be 21 yrs old to get in.

I've heard the other places that are public type auctions can be overpriced. People go in thinking they're getting a deal, so they wind up over bidding these cars. I wouldn't recommend it, personally.

 

[FLCyndi]

We have bought 2 cars from auto auctions, but we hired someone with a license and paid a $500 finders fee for the vehicles. It was well worth it.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

I thought you had to have a dealer's license to go to one. My husband runs a large Chevy dealership, but the auctions he buys from aren't open to the public. They're pretty strict abt buyers. You have to have a dealers license on file and an id from the auction (like manheim) and be 21 yrs old to get in.

I've heard the other places that are public type auctions can be overpriced. People go in thinking they're getting a deal, so they wind up over bidding these cars. I wouldn't recommend it, personally.

There are both public and dealer auctions. Government auctions are almost always public, local repos can also be common in public as well.

 

[burnurcomputer]

I thought you had to have a dealer's license to go to one. My husband runs a large Chevy dealership, but the auctions he buys from aren't open to the public. They're pretty strict abt buyers. You have to have a dealers license on file and an id from the auction (like manheim) and be 21 yrs old to get in.

I've heard the other places that are public type auctions can be overpriced. People go in thinking they're getting a deal, so they wind up over bidding these cars. I wouldn't recommend it, personally.

Hey! That's my auction

 

[heatherleigh]

Burnu, you are in the car business then- very cool. I wonder how many dealers are on the dis.

We went on a trip to Disneyland last yr for training. All the Chevy dealers had to go to get their bonus $. My husband attended the classes while I brought the girls to the park.

Not sure he was excited abt the classes, but they sounded interesting. It was all abt customer svc Disney is known for, and teaching ways dealers can implement that type of thinking at their stores.

The majority of the dealers were there to get their bonus Chevy $ though, according to my husband.

 

[runsandjumps]

The auctions around our area tend to be overbid. As in they could get the car cheaper of Craigslist and actually get to test it out before they put thousands into it.

Ana