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Anyone bought a car from one of these? I've been looking into buying a 3-4 year old German car from auction and interested in any experiences.
The car condition grading system seems pretty good but I understand as a private (non-trader) I would have to pay a higher auction purchase fee and might be more at risk from getting stiffed by other bidders artificially bidding it up.
Been many times but not bought anything. Watch out for the fees and so on, it all mounts up. You'll be competing with the traders who are buying for stock. I've never seen anything there i'd class as a bargain to be honest (based on the hammer price which i assume dealers pay unless they get some kind of trade discount?)
I have bought several cars from auction.
Had good deals everytime.
You are effectively buying at trade price but you do have to accept greater risk.
Like any auction, do your research and set a budget and stick to it. Don't go chasing a car, there are loads out there.
It's possible to get the keys and paperwork for a car before the auction start and have a proper look. You can start it up but not drive it.
Remember you can make an offer before the start of the auction if you like. Never done it myself but can be effective apparently.
BCA don't operate like that although I know the smaller auctions do. BCA have cars direct from leasing and hire companies plus all the trade ins from places like Motorpoint go there as well.
I recently purchased a van at auction. My advice would be to do a bit of research on the sort of prices the vehicles you are interested in tend to attract at auctions and to stick rigidly to your budget. Lots of auction sites will produce lists of past vehicles sold and the prices they fetched.
As said above you are buying with a greater level of risk so be prepared to be a little ruthless and discount anything that you aren't sure about. I got to the auction early to take a good look at a number of vans I was interested in and crossed a lot of them off my list before bidding even began.
Also be prepared for the speed of some of the bidding. If there are some stock hungry traders in the bidding hall the prices will go up very quickly; something to be wary of when you make your own bids.
I'm happy with the price I paid for my van although I went with low expectations and an even lower budget!
good stuff - thanks for the feedback
Can you check service history and that the car has all the proper documentation with it? Any tips for the actual bidding process itself?
I bought a car at Blackbush BCA - I went loads of times to do research & when the one I wanted came up I was prepared. You stand out a mile as a private punter so I hid at the top behind a low wall, way out of sight. All the dealers are hovering around at the bottom looking a the car - I'd already been all over it ages ago.
Anyway, bidding started, I was crouched down so nervous, soon as the hammer was about to fall I stuck my head & up & started bidding, only went 2 bids I think, say 200mo re, hammer went & it was mine. Scarpered pretty quickly as I didn't want to get spotted.
Paid by bankers draft, sorted out some insurance over the phone & drove it home. Owned the car for 5 years & never missed a beat. I'd do it again tomorrow.
I've bought a few 3 year old vehicle from bca, all been good value with no problems.
They've moved from Newport now tho.
Go a few times with no money just to get a feel for how things work. Also consider how you'll get your new car home - road tax, insurance etc as they usually require the car to be moved off site fairly quickly or they will charge you storage fees.
I'd visit a few auctions with no intention to buy first, there can be interesting dynamics with the prices items sell for depending on what else in in the auction. I've often noticed in various types of auction I've been to if theres a number of similar lots (which could be similar age/make/models of car from a fleet) the first and last ones sell for more than the ones in between them. The first sets a market value, after that nobody wants to pay as much as that as they want to feel the got a bargain, so the next few sell short of that price, then the last one sells for the most because people for excited bidding on the previous lots and don't want to go home empty handed.