Different Types of Car Auction

Manufacturer Sales of nearly new ex-rental and ex-demonstration fleet cars can be a good bet. The cars are clean, usually have some warranty left and you know where they're coming from. However, such sales are increasingly aimed at the private buyer as well as the trade and it can be difficult for obvious private buyers to actually buy at true trade money. Either rival trade bidders or the auctioneer may 'run up' your bids, and if the auctioneer runs you past your limit, the car will simply be re-entered in a subsequent auction.

True trade money for a car changes through the course of the sale and self-tracks to a variation of no more than £100 for a given make, model and mileage in a similarly desirable colour. If you write down all the prices paid, you will be able to see this for yourself.

With manufacturer sales, listen carefully to the auctioneer (what he says is taped) because some of the cars may be faulty and returned to the manufacturer for a refund, either under a special scheme or simply under the Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994.

Dedicated Fleet Sales can be good too. These are where a section of the sale is given over to cars from a single named fleet source. MFL (Motability Finance Ltd) has the largest fleet in Europe and, for obvious reasons, its cars tend to be low-mileage, less than three years old, with a good sprinkling of power-steered automatics.

You need to be a bit more wary where the named fleet also has its own retail outlets (I'd better not name any names here) because you have to ask yourself why it has not retailed the cars itself rather than consigned them to auction. Some fleets retail their ex-fleet cars from their own sites, then enter the cars they take in part-exchange in their dedicated sections, so not all the cars in their dedicated sections are genuinely ex-fleet.

West Oxfordshire Motor Auctions (01993 774413) holds ex-police vehicle evening sales at least twice a month and sometimes weekly. Blue lights, sirens, radios, 'jam sandwich' fillings, will all have been removed, so there's no chance of impersonating a police officer on the drive home. And the specification of all but 'undercover' cars can be a bit basic (no sunroofs, for example). But it's a great way to pick up a high-mileage, well-maintained ex-Panda Escort or Astra, or even a full-blown Range Rover, BMW or Volvo T5. Well worth a visit. (WOMA also does Britain's best auction house bacon rolls, with optional chilli sauce.)

Fleet/Finance Sales may offer a mix of cars from named and un-named fleets and repossessed cars from finance houses. A dedicated Finance House Sale can be an excellent source, particularly where it includes pre-registered zero-mileage dealer stock which had not been sold before the dealer's creditors pulled the plug and did a midnight swoop on his premises.

Theme sales such as 'Diesel Cars', 'MPV & 4x4', 'Japanese', 'Late-year low-mileage' are designed to help the trade shift metal and can catch private buyers out. Most of these vehicles will be traders' cars, spiffed up for the occasion, on which the trader hopes to make his living. He may even be there on the floor bidding against you. It need not be a catastrophe for a private bidder to buy such a car from a trader, especially at one of the bigger auction houses that doesn't tolerate 'low-lifes'. But be extra attentive to the auctioneer's description, make sure the mileage is 'warranted' and that the car comes with its V5 listing previous owners so you can check the mileage yourself within the auction house warranty time limits.

For General Sales, the same applies. But these sales often also include 'wrong make' dealer part-exchanges such as Mazdas from Renault dealers and vice-versa. If you happen to make the top provisional bid for a car that's already been through the halls 'over reserved' several times, the chances are the dealer will instruct the auction house to 'get it gone' and you'll lay your hands on a bargain.

Dedicated part-exchange sales to shift generally older excess stock taken in by larger groups such as Inchcape, Evans Halshaw, Hartwell and Pendragon can be good sources. Inchcape rarely warrants any mileages, but 'gut-feel' and some broad hints from the auctioneer should tell you which cars are right and which are wrong. If, for instance, the auctioneer reads out the car's entire service history you don't usually have to worry that the mileage is not warranted.

Classic & Historic is another form of general sale aimed principally at the public. About half the cars will be entered by traders or restorers. But the others will be genuine private and executors' entries. Pick of the bunch are often late entries on the supplementary list rather than in the catalogue. Classics are rarely sold with warranted mileages, due to the impossibility of checking them, and it really is up to the buyer to satisfy him or herself of the car's true condition prior to bidding. Remember also that the public is easily hoodwinked by shiny paintwork and glittering chrome. It can be well worth a trader's while to fill a rusty old classic with 'pudding', give it a respray and try to get bids of £3,000-£5,000 more then he paid. So classic auctions are one type of sale to which it's still worth taking a magnet.

Lastly, BCA is now developing special sales purely for private vendors, called 'Sure-Sell'. (www.sure-sell.info) These are a good idea for anyone who doesn't fancy undesirables ob their doorstep, or being plagued by scammers phoning them up and promising to put them in touch with buyer for a fee of £70 to £90. They are also good for executors of a will because an auction is an open sale and there can be no accusations of favouritism.