Day off, so what better way to spend half of it than at British Car Auctions in Brighouse?
Playing my usual game of 'guess the price' resulted in a few over-valuations, which tells me prices may have come down a little bit.
A 56-reg Focus Tdci Ghia which looked OK to me failed to make £7K and I thought a couple of Saab convertibles were cheap.
Both around two years old, 1.8 turbos, leather, so good spec, £10K anybody?
Similar age drop-top BMWs and Mercs were making £5K more.
Had no idea what an 07 Mini Cooper would make - £10K exactly is the answer.
I over-priced a couple of Honda Accord diesel estates, thought Hondas were meant to hold their price.
There was an 06 Audi hatch with nearly 100,000 miles on the clock - some people must live in their cars. A 55-reg Audi estate with similar mileage made about £8k.
The bling-bling car of the day was the 57-reg BMW 6 series convertible in gangsta black.
It books at £42K and attracted a bid of £35K, which the auctioneer described as ''very provisional'.
A word of praise for the cafe, ifithelps lunched well on steak and kidney pie with roasties and vegetables, and the staff were polite and friendly.
I would be interested to read comments on my market report - particularly from those on here who, unlike me, know the used car trade.
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Personally, I would love to see more regular auction reports in the news section and threads like this to be regularly updated.
Can't get enough used price news straight from the front line.
Thanks for the input ifithelps.
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Well, for a start anyone who attends car auctions on an even slightly regular basis would give you a list of about 100 things to do better on a day off.......;)
Seriously, they get very boring very quickly.
Price wise, many cars are down, but a few are up. Depends on the model. There are some unsold cars doing the rounds from March/April.
To be honest, what you really need to see where prices are going are several months CAP data. On ex-lease cars 90% will go between Average and Clean.
To my mind, auctions are a waste of time for anyone who hasn't got an account. The fees are a total rip off, you don't get access to the same data as an account holder so it can take ages to find the right car, no online bidding so you always have to be there and if you buy a pup and have to punt it back through it'll get put in the worst section and they'll charge you 8% comission.
Get an account if you plan to buy at auction - even if only buying 1-2 cars.
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Incidentally, both BCA and Manheim give sale prices for the last 30 days on their websites to account holders. Manheim's is a little easier to read (their website in general is better than the awful Auctionview) but they both have the data.
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pd wrote: 'Well, for a start anyone who attends car auctions on an even slightly regular basis would give you a list of about 100 things to do better on a day off.......;)'
Quite, I spend a lot of my work time haunting Her Majesty's Crown Courts - people turn up there on a day off 'just to see what it's like'.
I feel a certain affinity with those people - probably got no mates, same as me.
Plus you're forgetting the roast dinner for a very reasonable £5.95.
Back on topic, there was an online auction in one of the halls, although it looked a bit cranky from where I was sat.
Very few online bids and the auctioneer kept urging those on the net to push their buttons quickly - In my opinion, BCA have not got the technology quite right.
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I tend to go to BCA Bedford fairly regularly when I'm between contracts. I always go with a mate of mine who's a dealer and he's usually after a few cars each visit. I usually chose my own cars when I'm there and it also gives me a good idea of what will be available should I need a new vehicle when I'm working away somewhere and don't have a chance to buy one at auction.
I know a few of the traders who are always there so I've always got a few people to have a netter with when nothing interesting is going through.
However, unless I was looking to buy, if I just had a single day off work then I'd not go, but to break up a four month break between contracts it does a reasonable job of getting me out of the house for an interesting cheap day out.
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