Some surprising bids at Enfield yesterday. A G reg Rover 216 auto in white with unwarranted miles made £360. An H reg Rover 216 GTi SOHC, in flame red and rust, with 125k miles and doors that wouldn't lock, made £310. An A reg (yes, 1983, that makes it 20 years old) Cavalier in sewage green started at £1 and went up in £1 bids....all the way to £65! One of the auctioneers remarked that he'd just lost the will to live at this point. When a G reg Cavalier 1.8 in some unremarkable colour came in, the auctioneer could see what was going on and started it at £100, it made something around £250.
What is the matter with people, they seem so desperate to buy old lumps of scrap like this?
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A "sewage green" Cavalier? The mind boggles!
As was said elsewhere by myself some old bangers can be excellent and pass MOT's with flying colours, my 15 year old Corolla just did. It's pot luck with an older car and pot luck with a new one given all the computer failures. You take your chances really and at those prices what have you lost?
My mate sold his B reg Micra at auction (end of 2001) and made £10. Not bad for a car that to start it, you had to smack the starter motor with a hammer! And I had to drive it for six weeks before finding my perfect motor. That was just too embarrassing for words having to climb out the car, open the bonnet and brandish a hammer in the depths. I got some very strange looks I can tell you, so definately some old motors are worth it and others most certainly aren't.
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I've seen this type of think happen before at Saltash, where I bought the L reg Xantia.
You get wreck after wreck go through for as little as £1, and then for no apparent reason, half the population seem to want the next pea green future classic that lumps along!
Then the half decent cars like the late 405s go for a pittance!
I say, if these people want them, good luck to them!
More decent cars for the rest of us to buy, with fewer buyers.
The other problem I've seen is where main dealers are putting silly reserves on cars. I remember one chap bid £80 for a wreck which, in his words, was just to get him home. The reserve was £300, and they wouldn't budge.
A lot of small dealers were also moaning that night. All it did was leave a lot of unsold cars at the end of the night.
Hugo
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Would be nice to know what BCA charge the vendors of these cars.
It must cost close to £100 to auction these cars (entry fees/commision). Why auction a 1983 Cavalier ?
The company I work for auction all of thier P/ex's and just recently have stopped auctioning anything older that 1992 because of the low prices fetched. Now its straight to the scrapyard.
Seems criminal to me because some are half decent cars with some life left in them.
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