Hi chaps, got a few questions for you all.
As a big fan of DIY, it seems that the best way to go and buy my next car is at auction. I have no experience of auction buying, although am commercially savvy (bought and sold lots of cars privately etc.)
So far my research has got me to:
Bought a login to auctionview, looked at lots of cars for sale. Read months worth of honest john's auction reports. The car I'm after is a 3yr old BMW 330d for around £10-12k, preferably with M3 alloys and leather.
Questions for you lot are:
1. If I turn up at an auction, what should I wear? Jeans / tshirt?
2. How do I bid - hand in air?
3. If I win an auction; what's the ontop fees that I need to pay? I've heard normally 3% on top of the bid?
4. How can I pay up the money - swipe switch card?
5. When can I take the car home - presumably I can come back a few days later with the wife to be able to collect it?
6. How much can I inspect the car beforehand? Obviously I wouldn't expect a test drive but (most importantly) can I see the service records or at least a printout plus the v5?
7. Presumably the car won't be cat d / stolen? If so, would I have recourse against the auction house? At the £10k end of the scale I'd expect the auction house to be guaranteeing that the car isn't dodgy?
Cheers for your help - I'm sure this is the right way to go but would appreciate your advice. In my head I calculate that buying at auction will save me between £500 and £1500 on buying the same car privately - does this sound about right? If so I don't mind doing the research to save this kind of money...!
Ta
Rich
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oh and one more thing I emailed a guy at auctioncarbuyer and he reckons for a fee of £250 he can do the bidding / buy the car for me, using his trade account to reduce the 3% admin charge by the auction down to about 1% meaning the net cost of using him is peanuts. Anyone done this? Recommend it?
cheers!
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in reply to 1. yes anything that blends in,and in reply to 2. try if you can to be a bit more discreet get in a position where you can be seen by the auctioneer but not out in front of everyone else, once the auctioneer sees you are bidding a simple nod or shake of the head is usually enough, be carefull though as the trade will sometimes run you up to near retail money if you are too keen...cheers...keo.
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sorry about two replies 6. you cant inspect much service records etc are usually described ie. auctioneer will state straight from lease company full bmw service history with 5 stamps in the book printout etc or whatever the car has and you may get an end of sale warranty which might be an hour or so in which you can return the car if it has any major fault.
7. the buyers premium covers such things and if stolen recovered the auctioneer usually states this, the premium includes insurance against your newly purchased pride and joy is actually someone elses or more than one car ie a ringer...cheers...keo.
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I would be extremely suprised if you can get an 02 plate 330d with leather for £10k. Glass's Reckons almost £14k for an 02 with 70k on it.
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I would be extremely suprised if you can get an 02 plate 330d with leather for £10k. Glass's Reckons almost £14k for an 02 with 70k on it.
tinyurl.com/5hvc2
there's 2 on here retailing at below £14k so I was hoping to get something at auction for less than that - ok so perhaps I may need to be prepared to get a slightly older car (2000 ) for my £10k
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