[Teaboy]

I've decided to take the day off work on Thursday to go to a car auction. I'm not looking at clunkers but recent cars put through by main dealers for a particular manufacturer, the cars on sale are all produced by the manufacturer as well. So my questions:
1. Why is a main dealer putting through the sort of cars I would expect to see on its forecourt, many current models and few more than three years old.
2. In the condition report a number say "poor previous repair" and "poor paint". But there is no reference to them being Cat C/D, presumably the auctions would have to report if they were the same as any other car seller?
3. Any other tips? My only previous experience of a car auction was when I accidentally bought the wrong car and when I got to it looked like it had been recovered form a canal, it never went into second gear, I manged to get from first to third on a couple of occasions but it usually it never went fast enough to make that change up. I payed someone £60 to scarp it after two weeks (not before forking out for seat and steering wheel covers to disguise the moldering interior). The worst of it was it had a big "On a mission" sticker across the rear screen.

[mrjonathanr]

Because they've taken them in as part ex and don't consider them worth the expense of bringing up to saleable condition?

[Teaboy]

That's what you'd think but many of them are no more than a year old and all cars are graded from 1 to 5 and even a 4 doesn't mean it's damaged in anyway and there are plenty of 1s which sounds pristine. The only thing I can think of is that many are not current models but by no means all.

[Fultonius]

Maybe a cash flow issue? (total guess) They maybe just want to offload as much as possible as quickly as possible?

[Paul B]

What mileag I noticed the used approved searches for many manufacturers started way above my budget.

[Teaboy]

Maybe a cash flow issue? (total guess) They maybe just want to offload as much as possible as quickly as possible?

Again doubtful as its all the main dealerships, rather than just one, I assume. 150 cars is a lot to get rid of in one go for one dealership. I think it must just be models they think are going to be hard to shift in future due to the replacement models being som much better.

[Teaboy]

What mileag I noticed the used approved searches for many manufacturers started way above my budget.

4k to 41k with the majority being in the 20s

[Fultonius]

If they're diesels with particulate filters, maybe they're fecked? Bit hard to guess not knowing what you're looking at!

[Teaboy]

They're all low mileage Mercedes, is this a known issue?

[Fultonius]

Only with diesels with DPFs, but yeh, it's about £500 to regenerate them if there's a problem, or up to £1800 to replace if it's fooked. No idea how prevalent it is - I'm just throwing ideas around about why they might want rid at auction.

[Sidehaas]

Big group of Mercedes being sold cheap at 10-30000 miles sounds like an ex business pool or hire car fleet. Our pool cars are always returned at about 15000.
If that's the case, it doesn't necessarily mean anything wrong, but generally they won't be as well looked after. It'll show on the v5 if you can see that.

[Paul B]

Big group of Mercedes being sold cheap at 10-30000 miles sounds like an ex business pool or hire car fleet. Our pool cars are always returned at about 15000.
If that's the case, it doesn't necessarily mean anything wrong, but generally they won't be as well looked after. It'll show on the v5 if you can see that.

Do you think? I can see where you're coming from but where I work (the Contractor side of the business), all of the servicing, tyres, scratch, glass etc. repair is taken care of by the providing company. They come to the office and sort everything for each car. Whereas (although an extreme example) a friend at work asked if I thought their pug 107 was due a service after about 40k miles since it was bought!

Can you get reg numbers Teaboy? The gov.uk MOT checker is very useful for seeing what work has been flagged up and thus undertaken (or outstanding). This obviously depends on age. All you need is the reg and make.

[Teaboy]

Good tip on the MOT thing Paul, all registrations are on the website so I might do some more digging. For anyone interested the auction is on Thursday 19th Jan in Preston and all cars are listed on the British Car Auction website. I've got the prices for a number of cars from Parkers guide so I'll report back as to whether there are bargains to be had buying this way.

[Duma]

under 3 yrs old = no MOT shirely?

[Paul B]

Can you get reg numbers Teaboy? The gov.uk MOT checker is very useful for seeing what work has been flagged up and thus undertaken (or outstanding). This obviously depends on age. All you need is the reg and make.

That's what you'd think but many of them are no more than a year old and all cars are graded from 1 to 5 and even a 4 doesn't mean it's damaged in anyway and there are plenty of 1s which sounds pristine. The only thing I can think of is that many are not current models but by no means all.

/slackline