Buying a used car from an auction!

I have tried searching on auto auction on fwf and didnot find any other information.

I am considering buying a used commuter vehicle. Tried cars.com, craigslist and other such places where i can get a better value for money.

My budget is about 5-6000.
I find that for my budget, i can get a "better" car if i get it from an auction. I found a guy who is registered to buy cars. He attends the auction every tuesday and gives the list on friday/weekends. According to him, the most update list comes off on monday.

I need to research based on VIN and give him the which ones i am looking for and the maximum i am willing to bid for.
He charges $600 for this.

I believe the vehicle inventory is built up based on
- cars that dealers couldnot sell
- seized vehicles by law enforcement, customs, etc.
- foreclosures and defaults on vehicle loans, banks trying to get rid of them
- Damaged vehicles [not sure flood or what?]

My question is, by doing a carfax search, is this a "better" approach in terms of:
- reliability vs say craigslist [local, so can see, get inspected before buy].
- value for money vs say cars.com or craigslist

Or is it just another one of those "scams".

This is my first fwf post and i am looking for feedback to help me decide if its a sane/safe approach.

If i haven't followed any fwf practices, please educate me instead of burning me alive

Edit1: I posted in fwf, so i can get very good feedback from masters and car purchase is an expensive one, so there is a financial view on it.

Edit2: The auction is in Triad region of NC.

this is really in the wrong forum. with that said, a great deal can be had in a car auction if you know what you are looking for. 3 of my family cars have came through the auction route and I have even resold a car at profit after using it for close to a yr. I would suggest checking out the public auctions first b/c they DO have decent cars and the $600 they want to charge you for the dealer auction seems a bit high especially considering the price range you are looking. You have to be aware that most auctions will charge you an additional % fee based on the final price of the car.

edit: in addition, carfax is really useless. you should inspect the car in person. and I've generally seen cars being sold at dealer trade in values +/- $500 for most cars at these auctions. It's a time consuming process b/c they are soo many cars to choose from. if you are not picky about the type of the car, i would just hit up a large public auction and just decide from the selection they have instead of looking for the next "best" thing.

yes, i'm interested in this discussion, because my family is needing two more cars pretty soon, for my teenage brother and my own car since my car is going near 200K miles about now.

I hear from various people that going through auctions can save me alot of money, but I'm interested in the experiences of the vets around FWF.

As Ive posted in the past, Ive been attending auctions for over 20 years now (yes since I was a small child). I view over 10,000 cars at auction per year, in addition to the ones I browse online, on eBay, etc. I buy a few cars a year, drive them , enjoy them, and resell them for 200-600% of what I paid. Some I keep 2 weeks, some I keep 2 years.

I would NOT buy from an auction unless you have some experience with cars or bring someone who does.

I would NOT buy from eBay unless its a reputable dealer with near perfect feedback. 95% feedback on eBay motors means the sell has sold SO many lemons that 5% of buyers actually risk getting a reciprocal negative feedback to complain, and the seller has kept the other 25% of unhappy buyers quiet. I have 100% feedback and have sold many on eBay motors. eBay is where you get top dollar for cars that look good but run like crap.

$600 is very high to pay a dealer. There are dealers on craigslist willing to do that for much less in my area. Also note that if the dealer only makes his $600 when you get a car, he wont be lookng out for the condition, he will just makes sure he closes the deal. If he can help you AVOID a problem car, and use his good judgment when bidding for you, that can be worth more. So you might want to create a payment structure that doesnt reward him only if he gets you a car.

The difference between auction and private sellers is that 95% of private sellers have an inflated # in their mind about what their car is worth. Less than 5% of private party cars are priced great. You can look at ads for weeks and run all over town and not come up with anything.

At dealers auctions, most of the prices will be good to great. At public auctions, the public often gets caught up in the bidding can overpay. The big advantage to a private sale is if they allow your mechanic to inspect before you complete the purchase. If you arent going to take advantage of the inspection ability in a private sale, you are taking just about as much risk as at an auction.

the public auction i used to attend near the philly region had 2 auction dates with newer/older cars. They would rate the car with green/yellow/red light and would carry a 48/hr tranny warranty for the green light cars. I was able to drive the car around the lot before the start of the auction since all keys were inserted. I think the key to public car auction bidding is that don't settle on one car, choose several and win the 1st one that you have your eyes on.

swandown said: The problem with car auctions is that you are competing with professional resellers who know EXACTLY what that car is worth. They will not allow that car to sell for a "bargain" price.

You're much better off finding a good deal from a private seller.

that's not all true. you won't find a car for $1 but you can def get one below dealer trade in value. Most of the cars in the auction are leased cards with defaulted payments. So banks are simply off loading these assets to become more liquid. For example, my current honda civic was bought for $8000 out the door with only 23,000 miles on it. That was almost 2yrs ago and i can prob private sell the same vehicle for ~6000-7000 after loading close to 40K miles on it.

what i'm trying to get at is that you have to know exactly what you are looking for before entering an auction. You really can't take the shopping for a car in a dealer mentality b/c you will either miss out on a good deal or overpay.

edit: so one of my missed opps was a mitsu eclipse, red, almost brand new that was given a salvage title due to the heavy rain in philly few years back. The car obviously didn't get water at all when we looked at it but they slapped that title on anyhow. it went for only 2k but i wasn't set on getting that model at the time..but i regret it as a great deal missed.

Where can I get more information about these dealer's auctions? Find a dealer who goes to goes to wholesale dealer auction? Thanks.

Be sure to check AutoCheck for previous history. Carfax is garbage and failed to report one of the cars we looked at as having been in a previous accident and having a lien. Sometimes dealers and or banks try to launder cars with spotty history through auctions. Some better deals can be had through dealer targeted auctions (Manheim and Adessa) but sometimes these companies require registration fees or a dealer license.

gexi said: Be sure to check AutoCheck for previous history. Carfax is garbage and failed to report one of the cars we looked at as having been in a previous accident and having a lien. Sometimes dealers and or banks try to launder cars with spotty history through auctions. Some better deals can be had through dealer targeted auctions (Manheim and Adessa) but sometimes these companies require registration fees or a dealer license.

Is AutoCheck better than CarFax? Or should we run through both?

I remember hearing that most dealers at an auction won't let 'fresh meat' get away with buying a car at dealer prices. In other words, if a new face is spotted and determined to be a civilian, then any car that person is bidding on will get pushed up in price even if there is no real interest.

I know that when I went with friends of friends, they provided me with a 'backstory' if anyone asked me about my creds, and several people did. This was over ten years ago, in the NYC area, and my memory is not great, but I wonder if this is typical for those who have tried, or who are in the know.

Thanks!

Interesting topic.

Can you conditionally bid at a public/dealer/repo auctions and make payment if your inspection turns ok?

dealcather said: Interesting topic.

Can you conditionally bid at a public/dealer/repo auctions and make payment if your inspection turns ok?

No. Win the bid, you bought the car.

exsynner said: I remember hearing that most dealers at an auction won't let 'fresh meat' get away with buying a car at dealer prices. In other words, if a new face is spotted and determined to be a civilian, then any car that person is bidding on will get pushed up in price even if there is no real interest.

I know that when I went with friends of friends, they provided me with a 'backstory' if anyone asked me about my creds, and several people did. This was over ten years ago, in the NYC area, and my memory is not great, but I wonder if this is typical for those who have tried, or who are in the know.

Thanks!

Dealers are notoriously attuned to the bottom line. They don't care enough about your one-car-purchase to spent a penny of their money crushing a new face.

I don't know what the rules are in NYC but in CA, true "wholesale auto auctions" are not open to the general public (those without a CA dealer's license).

taxmantoo said: beadedmonkey said: Manheim and other wholesale auto auctions require you to hold a valid CA dealers license in order to register and buy their cars.

The problem comes in when you have a dealer, but you want to see the car at auction. Your dealer can possibly get banned if he makes a habit of bringing non-employees with him and gets caught.

I don't know that much about it. I used to be in this business to a certain degree. I never attended one. The bank I worked at sold their repos through Manheim and I knew that you had to have a dealers license to purchase a vehicle from them.

We sold the totally wrecked/damaged/no ins to CoPart or this small mom&pop wrecking yard, whichever brought in the biggest bid based on the PDA report.

LAwoodtiger said: I have purchased the last two cars with cash, from private sellers that I have found on recycler.com. I have found that you can get a significant discount if you flash the cash.

BMW 325: asking $14500, purchased for $12400
Honda Prelude: asking $3200, purchased for $2300

I have a Mercedes, asking $32k, will sell for $25k in cash. I'll meet you in the alley between 4th and 5th streets tonight, let's say around 3am?

i only buy cars from enthusiasts who baby their cars and have all records from day one. Also i never ever pay more than KBB TRADE-IN. No personal taxes in GA for person to person sales, too.

Auction/Lease turn-ins all bad mojo man.

Oh yeah i got a free +7/100K platinum warrant thrown in on the deal too since he just wanted to sell the car to get something fast the next day (he paid for the warranty xfer).

I vote going the GSA route as well.

I've purchased 2 cars from there and never had any issues. Normally you'll find 3-5 year old cars for anywhere between 4 and 8 thousand.

I just purchased a 2003 Olds Alero for 6k.

Selected State: North Carolina (NC)

North Carolina

No Auction Houses.

Surrounding Area

Georgia

Atlanta Auto Auction

South Carolina

Rawls Auto Auction

Tennessee

Chattanooga Auto Auction

Virginia

Richmond FMC
Fredericksburg Auto Auction

GSA Website

Just to share my own experience.

I went to a public police auction in my town. They had tons of stuff they were auctioning off, and a few vehicles. There was a Medium sized MART(Massachusetts Area Regional Transportation) bus on the lot with about 5 other cars. All they told us about the cars, is that they were all driven down here. Now when bidding came to the MART bus it reached $500. I mean the thing was a decently beat up municipal vehicle. Then the last vehicle was to be auctioned, it was a large van. Turns out the guy who bidded on the MART bus wanted the van not the bus and was confused. So he requested if he could withdraw his bid. The auctioneer allowed it, sold the van for $300 and then offered the bus back uo. However most people were leaving at this point. As the auctioneer went lower, and lower, and lower I raised my hand when he said with embarrassment "$20"?

So I walked out of there with a 15 Person bus that had been used to transport prisoners back and forth to community service jobs. It had a handicap wheelchair lift thing in it and an intercom system! Among that it had only 63,000 miles on a Ford Diesel V8, Bus was based on F-350 setup.

Now questioning the police officers that were on duty there. I asked them if I could drive it home, my house was about 5 minutes away( a short drive on the highway included). Now I figured this wouldn't be allowed, but the cops said to me "yeah go for it, its yours" and so I took down his name and badge and drove it home. As I was driving the already cracked side windows began smashing in a bit, and of course the brakes BARELY worked. I somehow arrived alive at my house.

I called up a friend of my dad's who runs a tow company. He came and towed the vehicle from my Mother's (I was 18 when this happened) to his house where he removed the wheel chair lift. His wife was losing ability of her legs and to this day they still use this lift in their personal van. He paid me about $300 plus a free tow for the lift setup. My Father had the engine removed and replaced in one of his many work trucks. The transmission had a warranty still on it and only about 3,000 miles on it. We sold that to someone in town for $300. The tires were ALL BRAND new, like still had the stickers on em and everything. We sold those for about $300. Then we scrapped the bus for probably another $200 or so.

So it was a pretty good investment off $20.

Bottom line, you can get LUCKY at auctions. Just has to be right place right time. IE: Maybe it will rain out and no one goes

Great story Mike! You probably could have also just slapped that puppy on eBay and made a few thousand $$

DealsBrokeMe said: delzy said: This whole $600 deal is rotten. Have someone drive you to the next GSA auction (as I mentioned earlier) and drive your new car home. If you're not comfortable choosing, inspecting and bidding, buy your car somewhere not at auction.

I have a car, but looking for the II one. The problem is the auction happens every tuesday and is about 2.5 hrs from where i live. Going to auction means, losing an entire day. If there is a guarantee of me getting a car, then i don't mind it.
But here it might take few weeks, if i am not lucky to get it in the first time.

Hence i am trying to rely on the dealer. I am not sure if this is a wise path at all, because i am "delegating" this task to a person who defacto will have conflict of interst as pointed out in earlier posts.So you are going to pay six hundred bucks plus blow at least one day off work to save a couple grand on a car with a questionable past? Unless you trust this agent through great referrals or personal experience and can just let him keep an eye out for you until he is able to deliver a car to your driveway, I'd pass and start looking for a private seller deal closer to home.