Does anybody have experience with buying vehicles at a Dealer Auction? I posted a ad wanting to buy a car and received an email and a call from a Dealer stating that he could get me that car from searching his Dealer database.

I just wanted to know if anybody might have had any experience with something like this so I don't get scammed. Thanks for any info.

 

I did and got an amazing deal. It's better to go with a dealer you know and trust. Biggest thing is to check the car over completely before bidding on it. You don't have much time to think about it and decisions must come fast.

I've had very good luck so far and this is my 3rd car from the auction. Luckily my uncle is a dealer so it's much easier for me.

 

hmm.... it sounds like a used-car dealer that buys cars from auctions, fixes them up, and then resells them. Perfectly legal, as long as he has the business license and he has the permit/he paid the fee to enter the auctions to buy cars. In many cases those cars are repossessed.

I'm not sure if its illegal but sometimes people can pull a scam essentially - they buy piece of shit cars from auction then clean them up a little and put whatever crap on them so that they run at least decently as then sell them for profit. They pose as private sellers selling a car for a friend or some other (even though they actually bought it a week ago). This is called curbstoning.

When I was younger and less aware, I bought a 95 Integra from a curbstoner. I didn't run a Carfax or anything since the car was cheap as hell, and the name on the title didn't match the name on the dude's driver's license at first I was like, something's fishy.... but my friend assured me that if the car was stolen or some other they could just track the dude back to his house and investigate or whatever. meh

In the end the car ran great aside from a few minor issues. I did find out that it had bodywork done to it on the quarter panel but no biggie. I think I did more damage to it by not knowing how to work on cars and trying to anyways. but it was a great car to learn on and its long gone now, I too sold it for way cheap knowing its history (pre-me and during my ownership)


aaanyways stay away from people like that, but usually used car lots with business licenses are somewhat more trustworthy. Just don't hand over any money until you can see the title, or until you can go to the bank/credit union that holds the lien.

 

I think you may be referring to something other than what the OP meant, unless I'm reading his post wrong. I know many dealers that will take you to the dealer auctions and charge you a free(2-300) if you purchase a car there. Many of those cars are off leases and such. However, I could be reading OP's post wrong.

 

If this are used car auctions where used car dealers and some private owners buy you can get some incredible deals but I also know a couple people who got burned badly. The ones in Jessup Maryland do not let you drive them, they allow anyone to look them over visually, then stat them up befor ethe auction.

One former colleague bought a late 90's low mileage Chrysler 300 for a great price in 2000, only to have to replace the transmission three months later. Another neighbor had a similar experience getting a car for their daughter going to college. On the other hand many years ago a former boss bought a used Audi 5000S diesel for ~$1K, and he already had one. The value in the spare parts to him was worth well more than that, he wound up putting another 100K miles on the Audi, he also fixed them so that helped some.

Overall you have to be VERY CAREFUL at public auctions. A friend used to buy used Acura's/Honda's, fix them up with a partner, and sell them in the paper. He never bought from this auctions since his partner claimed the ones in MD and southern PA were the left over cars from other auctions where the local used car dealers bought from. They far prefered to buy from private buyers.

 

Do you have a chance to run carfax on the auctioned cars? I'd be very reluctant to purchase a used car without carfax report, testdrive, and DME scan.

 

I've bought many cars from the auction. Check for paint work, carfax doesn't always give you the full story. My best experiences were off-lease from manufacturer sales, like Lexus, Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Acura. Cars are usually 1 owner leases that are ready to be driven without any reconditioning. My aunts and my mother's MDX's came from there, both had 81K miles at time of purchase.

 

Depending on your state, dealers when reselling a car only need to make sure the car is drivable, they are not required by law to perform any type of service to the car beyond making sure the brakes and tires are good, and it can pass emissions test.

Dealer auctions are about they same, they just need to make sure the car is able to move, they don't do any major inspections besides the visual stuff (I might be wrong, but that's what I was told). Sometimes you do get lucky and land a good deal, you might end get a low mileage car that is still under factory warranty, so you'll come out winning.

Don't put down any money upfront, negotiate with the person offering to take you to the dealer and tell him you'll only pay once you find a car you want, granted they can't kept taking you to the auction all the time, but most dealers usually get listings of what cars will be at the auctions a few days before.

I agree with vas, check for paint work, look at the body, make sure everything is aligned, if you can, take a good mechanic with you - even if you have to pay him.