Buying a car at auction

I am looking to buy a small car (probably a Ford KA) for my daughter as her 1st car. Thinking of going to the auctions to have a nosey and possibly buy. What tips can you give me? What to look for on info displayed on the car, that sort of thing. Looking to spend around £1000 - £1500.

Ta

---

 

That car with that budget your best buying private where you can get a good look at the car.

Through work ive probably sold 1,000's of cars via the auctions and the only thing id buy was a banger with a bit of MOT. Anything pricier and its too big a risk to bother with imo.

---

I love you.

^^ yups, auctions however are a great place to sell cars with f*d gearboxes

---

:burp:
- In every moment you have freedom of choice -

Hmm, but isn't buying privately just as risky? i.e. no comeback if its fooked? I suppose the good thing is that, as you say, I can have a good root and toot around it.

---

 

Only ever done it once and bought a Rover 820 for £600. Lasted just over a year and cost nothing in maintenance before an internal oil seal popped after a high speed run back from Paris. Lost of nice cars going for silly money but there were a few dogs there too.

I was lucky in having my bro-in-law who's experienced at this sort of thing. He did all the bidding and helped choose the right car. The same day he bought a Jag HE for £1500 and sold it two months later for £2,800.

---

VDSC#4
Personal Fitness Training in and around Hertfordshire Discounts for VD members
The Rider's Digest
English Contact Karate Association

PE Optiflow Mobile Mechanic

I want rustlers, cut-throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperadoes, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con-men, indian agents, mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull-dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and... METHODISTS!

strag wrote

Hmm, but isn't buying privately just as risky? i.e. no comeback if its fooked? I suppose the good thing is that, as you say, I can have a good root and toot around it.

No mate, at auction you cant even tell if the car has decent tyers. You can even see how easy it fires up, best buy private. Its gunna be sold as seen and you have no come back, but you can spend as long as you want (within reason) having a look, having a test ride and talking down the price - at auction, its down with the hammer and you have to buy it then look at what you have.

---

I love you.

Mancunian Lee wrote

No mate, at auction you cant even tell if the car has decent tyers. You can even see how easy it fires up, best buy private. Its gunna be sold as seen and you have no come back, but you can spend as long as you want (within reason) having a look, having a test ride and talking down the price - at auction, its down with the hammer and you have to buy it then look at what you have.

Not sure which auctions you've been to Lee but when I bought the Rover I had an opportunity to check the tyres, lift the bonnet, start the engine and all that. Admittedly, the engine was started as the car joined the queue to go into the auction area but at least I had a chance to rev it up a bit to see if it smoked etc etc.

---

VDSC#4
Personal Fitness Training in and around Hertfordshire Discounts for VD members
The Rider's Digest
English Contact Karate Association

PE Optiflow Mobile Mechanic

I want rustlers, cut-throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperadoes, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con-men, indian agents, mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull-dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and... METHODISTS!

TRDman wrote

Not sure which auctions you've been to Lee but when I bought the Rover I had an opportunity to check the tyres, lift the bonnet, start the engine and all that. Admittedly, the engine was started as the car joined the queue to go into the auction area but at least I had a chance to rev it up a bit to see if it smoked etc etc.

I use stoodley and BCA mate, ive bought and sold loads. You can follow the car from it being started, you can have a basic look over year but nothing compared to a private sale.

Ive bought some right stinkers too, they will warm a car up before the public come in and when people crowd round a car they will see it fire up first time!!

There's millions of sneaky things you can do at auction thats harder to get away with when selling private, the one ive heard people do is when they sold a transit van they took out the warning bulb alerting you that the (forget the name of it, but the bit that charges the battery!!) was fucked. The auction had made sure there was enough juice in it to fire it up first time and run it through the auction etc.

If your driving it yourself you will see that the warning lights dont come on at the start.

Obviously there are bargains to be had, ive had a nice Golf VR6 and Mazda RX7 which turned out to be shit hot, but over all id never reccomend them unless you want a cheap car to tide you over.

£1500 on KA will get him a mint one privately, thats a far better option imo.

---

I love you.

A mate of mine has bought dozens of cars in that pricerange at auction and has always bought gems. However, I took him with my to buy a £500 banger and got badly stung.

The trick is to get there early, have a good nosey around all the cars, and set yourself a price limit that is below book price. DON'T go over your limit if you get into a bidding war - it's not worth the risk of paying over the odds for something that may be past it.

We arrived late, it was dark, and the exact type of car we wanted (big diesel estate) was just rolling into the auction arena. On my mate's advice I bid straight away without having a chance to properly check the car over. We immediately saw a few minor marks and a missing rear lamp cluster, but otherwise it looked like a good motor with only 130,000 miles. We got it for £300 plus fees. Upon trying to drive it home, I discovered it had:

No MOT
No tax
Virtually no clutch (slipping all the way home)
Central locking completely screwed
Alarm siren missing, alarm system active and screwed
Keyfob inoperable
Outside doorlocks inoperable
Passenger doorlock smashed off
Attempted breakin to passenger side
No diesel
Inoperable fuel guage
Inoperable speedo
Rear footwells swimming with rainwater
175,000 miles

And in the weeks following, to pass the MOT and make it roadworthy I had to replace:
£150 suspension spheres
£70 doorlocks and ignition barrel
£200 drive belt tensioners
£70 cam belt
£10 headlamp bulb

And had to do all sorts of annoying jobs like disconnecting the alarm, fixing the leak, adjusting all the suspension, and various other annoying jobs. In the end the car cost over £1,000 - significantly higher than my £500 banger budget...

That said, over a year later and the only major repair has been a new clutch - admittedly most of the interior electronics have now packed up, but engine-wise it's still going strong on nearly 200,000 miles, and is parked just down the road waiting to take me home tonight...

You CAN get some good bargains at auction, but you need to be prepared, go with someone who knows what they're talking about, don't rush to buy a car if you haven't had a chance to look it over, and don't go for the first car you see.

---

"Years of delivering pizzas has taught him to drive like this" --Sheriff John Bunnell (Ret'd)

"makes unnecessarily protracted posts, mostly talks sh*t" --Trace

"this place is stranger than Mad Ax's fiction" --editor

"You actually seem much sweeter in person... ...but can you please stop posting so much crap?" --Sunny

Think you are allowed to return cars, post hammer dropping, within a couple of hours if they have major faults?????

---

Sig removed: offensive.
It sucks to be you.

Fliptophead wrote

Think you are allowed to return cars, post hammer dropping, within a couple of hours if they have major faults?????

There is usually some kind of rule along the lines of "not fit for purpose" but much of this does depend on the type of fault and the nature of the people running the auction.

If you spent £3,000 on a car, only to have it dump all its oil and consume its innards in a cloud of smoke 200 yards down the road, you might have grounds for compensation.

Spend £150 on a car with no MOT and complain about a dodgy clutch, and get told to sling yer hook, I'd imagine

---

"Years of delivering pizzas has taught him to drive like this" --Sheriff John Bunnell (Ret'd)

"makes unnecessarily protracted posts, mostly talks sh*t" --Trace

"this place is stranger than Mad Ax's fiction" --editor

"You actually seem much sweeter in person... ...but can you please stop posting so much crap?" --Sunny

Some good food for thought there I am going to go tonight and just get a feel for the place (not buying).

---

 

One by Wandsworth bridge was always good entertainment with all the pikeys and Arthur Daley types.

---

Sig removed: offensive.
It sucks to be you.

Mad Ax wrote

A mate of mine has bought dozens of cars in that pricerange at auction and has always bought gems. However, I took him with my to buy a £500 banger and got badly stung.

The trick is to get there early, have a good nosey around all the cars, and set yourself a price limit that is below book price. DON'T go over your limit if you get into a bidding war - it's not worth the risk of paying over the odds for something that may be past it.

We arrived late, it was dark, and the exact type of car we wanted (big diesel estate) was just rolling into the auction arena. On my mate's advice I bid straight away without having a chance to properly check the car over. We immediately saw a few minor marks and a missing rear lamp cluster, but otherwise it looked like a good motor with only 130,000 miles. We got it for £300 plus fees. Upon trying to drive it home, I discovered it had:

No MOT
No tax
Virtually no clutch (slipping all the way home)
Central locking completely screwed
Alarm siren missing, alarm system active and screwed
Keyfob inoperable
Outside doorlocks inoperable
Passenger doorlock smashed off
Attempted breakin to passenger side
No diesel
Inoperable fuel guage
Inoperable speedo
Rear footwells swimming with rainwater
175,000 miles

And in the weeks following, to pass the MOT and make it roadworthy I had to replace:
£150 suspension spheres
£70 doorlocks and ignition barrel
£200 drive belt tensioners
£70 cam belt
£10 headlamp bulb

And had to do all sorts of annoying jobs like disconnecting the alarm, fixing the leak, adjusting all the suspension, and various other annoying jobs. In the end the car cost over £1,000 - significantly higher than my £500 banger budget...

Poor obs.

---

€œMan differs more from Man, than Man from Beast.€ - Rochester

strag wrote

Some good food for thought there I am going to go tonight and just get a feel for the place (not buying).

This is certainly the best thing to do. Get a feel for how it all works. Don't take any money with you the first time so you're not tempted to jump in without looking.

---

VDSC#4
Personal Fitness Training in and around Hertfordshire Discounts for VD members
The Rider's Digest
English Contact Karate Association

PE Optiflow Mobile Mechanic

I want rustlers, cut-throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperadoes, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con-men, indian agents, mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull-dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and... METHODISTS!

Well there were some decent (ish) looking motors sub £1000 that would do as a first car. Loads at £500 ish. I don't mind spending that as long as it gets her through her first year of bumps and scrapes.

---

 

The thing with a Ka is that they are so easy to sell privately that anything that appears at auction HAS to be a bit suspicious.

I've just bought one for my daughter, too.

Satisfy yourself you are happy with the car you want.

Try and "detect" the dealers in the crowd and see what they are bidding on. They don't generally buy a "duff".

Dealers will generally not go as high as a private bidder. If you "step in" just after the dealers "drop out", you'll probably get a good deal and a reliable vehicle.

Has "worked" three times here - the third vehicle is still giving trouble free service.:burnout:

Let us know how you get on, please.

---

What, not another jolly ?

Used to do it a lot.
Just factor in a wedge of money that it may cost you after you've bought it for things like clutch and the like.
Add a bit and if it's still a bargain then go for it.
Worst case scenario, leave it in the auction for a resale next week which will cost of course but gets rid of your new found dog.
All good fun, recommended.

Yes, just bought 2 cars at auction.

You have to know what you are doing, and some types/prices of vehicle are best bought privately. The auctions have lots of 2 and 3 year old ex lease company cars, most of which will have been well maintained. Vehicles are much more reliable these days than they were so I had no worries about buying a 3 year old 40k miles ex executive type car.

On the other hand, auctions are a way of getting rid of high mileage & problem cars. Partciularly the case with small cars such as the Ka. There is always good demand for decent small cars on the forecourt and in the private sale market so view with suspicion any small car going through the auctions.