Hi there,
Some of you may remember a similar post by me a few months back. Well, I'm now in a position to buy myself a 97/98 Mondeo 2.0 Ghia X from auction, but I've got a few questions to ask of you lot :)
Firstly, there is one worry I have and that is choice. Ideally I'd like to get the car bought by the end of November. I live down in Plymouth so the nearest auction is a small one in Saltash. Now, this isn't a bad place and I've been down there many times for just a look, but becuase it is a small place, it isn't exactly teeming with high specification Mondeos. Not a problem as I'm prepared to travel as far as Bristol to buy - and a day out at either the BCA auctions at Bridgewater or the Manheim place in Bristol would probably proove more advantagous than a trip to Saltash, however the distance involved means I can probably only do this once. I'm also a bit dubious of buying such a car from a small auction - a lot of the auctions held there are clearing trade-ins from the big car dealers in the area, which is fine, but my question would be why isn't such a dealer selling their part-ex's on the forecourt if they are a model/age/condition which is the sort of thing they usually sell - local Ford main dealer has Mondeo's as old as 96P on their forecourt, yet they often send the odd 98R through the auction..
Am I right in thinking if there are less cars to choose from the price is going to be higher? I'd have thought if 2 people want Ghia X's and 5 people want LX's, and there is 1 Ghia X and 10 LX's, the LX's are going to go, comparativly, cheaper becuase there are more to go round..
Finding out when/where/how many Ghia X's there are at any one sale is prooving to be a nightmare. I can't seem to work out if they are 'common' - ie, turn up to any sale and there will be a couple to choose from, or the sort of thing which perhaps goes through once or twice a fortnight at best. I'd not want to travel all the way to Manhiem to find they've got nothing. I've used the BCA auctionview service but throwing £5 at it each week I want to see if they've got anything is going to get expensive and irritating - and it does seem a tad odd I have to pay THEM to see if they have anything I wish to buy from them.
So, err, how common are they?
My second question is which is the best auction house - the BCA auction, or the Manhiem auction? People seem to rate the latter higher than the former, but with the latter you can't even pay a fiver to find out what's going to be there unless you a trade - it seems to be a case of 'turn up and take pot luck'.
I don't suppose there has been much change in the values in the last 3 months or so, has there? What would you say I should currently be aiming to pay for a good condition 97/98 2.0 Ghia X hatchback? Mileage is not important to me, but condition is - I don't want something that rattles or creaks or is covered in scratches, if you know what I mean ;)
Should I just give up and buy something else? I don't want to go for a GLX, Si or a Ghia becuase I know I'll just be thinking 'If only I'd got a Ghia X' further down the line ;)
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Hello Michael
I live just up the road from you a few miles the other side of Tavistock!
You're right, Saltash is not exactly teaming with choice, but you do sometimes get main dealer clearouts.
On the other hand, why not ask Vospers what tradeins they're putting through?
You never know you may be able to to a straight trade deal!
Best of luck!
Hugo
"Forever indebted to experience of others"
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Michael
Can't speak for the West Country, but I've bought my last 2 cars at Manheims in Colchester and they always have a big ex-fleet choice. They used to offer a fax-back service where they will fax you a list of cars in the next sale but it does ( or did) involve a premium rate call. I think choice and price is always an unquantifiable factor in any auction. I bought a Saab 9-5 a few weeks ago, there were two in the sale, the first one made £6000 and an almosy identical one (except slihgtly lower mileage)followed soon after and as my budget was around the £5000 mark I thought I had no chance, however I ended up getting it for £5250. I think if you're buying at auction you have to factor in at least 2 or 3 visits before you get the car you want as prices, condition of cars etc etc are so variable.
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Hi Michael,
I've never been to the Saltash auction but my trader brother often offloads cars in there - he lives in Plymouth and visits Bridgewater and Tewkesbury a lot. You are restricting yourself a bit by looking only for a Ghia X, might want to lower your sights a bit and go for any Ghia spec. Your best bet is to seek out sales that include Ford distributors - I think there's a Brunel Ford sale at Bridgewater? In the South East BCA do a Dagenham Motors sale at three auction sites and it's where you'll find all the cheap Fords.
You've got it in one as regards prices/availability. If two people go to an auction to buy a specific car on the same day, and there's only one such car, they'll bid against each other and push the price up to retail levels. Happens all the time.
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Michael,
For what it's worth, I've just sold on my Mondeo 98 Ghia X. Star car and I loved it. I know EXACTLY what you mean about buying a lower spec model; you always wish you'd gone for the top spec, however daft that is.
I've now purchased a Lexus, and although it's utterly glorious there are one or two tiny points about it that frankly the Mondeo did better...so go for it if you can get one.
Mind you, even with the Ghia-X I always hankered after one with the optional Ford satnav that allegedly exists, and I've never even seen one of those!
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There was one with the Ford satnav on Ebay a while back. The extent of the system was really a small screen (about an inch squared) which displayed different greyscale arrows. No map etc, so you didn't miss much ;)
How much did you sell yours for, in the end?
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Well, I kind of thought the Ford satnav was a bit feeble, at least in those days. I don't know about the latest version. The one in my Lexus is storming, but that's beside the point.
I traded it in, so got something like £3500 for it from the dealer. Probably could have got £4000 if I'd done it privately but it didn't seem worth the aggro to be frank.
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