hi there, I'm in the fortunate position where I'm looking for a newer car at the moment,

I've bought 3 cars from the bca auctions in blackbush, but that was when i living down the road from there, now I live in the middle of nowhere, but whould take a day off to go to my nearest big auction place if I thought I could get a good deal.

I've got about 6500 for another car and I've narrowed my search down to a bmw 320d sport e46, or an early 120d sport, or a newer astra sri cdti 150 xp 5dr.

but privately these are all beyond my budget

I would like lower than 60k miles on the bm's or lower than 30k miles on the astra,

what are my chances at an auction?

I am a fussy bugger and I can wait a while, because I got an old banger to run about in (not sure how long it will last though)

 

make sure you go trade days only (mid week) your money is fine, you will drive away happy. my mate went 2 weeks ago to Enfield and got a Diesel Range Rover for silly money > car is perfect

 

Best time to buy aswell!!!

Ive just got a 330d but would love a 3 door 120d

 

I just subscibed to the bca auction view car search,

the right cars are out there,loads of 120d sports, I have tracked a few of the likely cars that I would be interested in, so hopefully I'll get a better idea of what they are going for-thats if they update the system with what they went for,

the thing is I dont want to take a day off work and drive 300+ miles roundtrip(blackbush) just to see them go outside my budget, but if I knew that I would get a sub 60k mile 120d sport for 6500, I would go without question

I'll let you know how I get on,
cheers
Taffyboyo

 

I do think you're pushing it a bit expecting a 120d sport for that price.....if there is two get me one ill send you the cash!!

 

faulkster, I know what your saying mate, it would be a lot of car for 6500, but then again they can be had for 8500 from independent dealers so I reckon they must be making 2k on each car, and the big auctions are the place they probably get them from,

fingers crossed

 

I hope you do get one mate...Im always down at BCA at Brighouse near Bradford and Im suprised how much they fetch......cant beat a bargain though.

 

didnt go through with it in the end, just picked an octavia vrs 2.0t fsi (privately)
I'm so glad I never bought a diesel now

 

Do you think that cars will fetch more in London than the rest of the country, i.e. is it worth traveling to one outside of the capitcal to get a bargain?

 

not at all, best bet might be to go to blackbush, there are 100's on most sale days, monday-wednesday-fridays,

if your after anything in particular, pm me the details and I will have a look on the auction view and see when and where they will be going through
taffy

 

Not any more. The internet has ended the north-south differential.

Now that anybody can find out what's on sale nationwide with a few mouse clicks, it's completely levelled prices.

A friend of a friend used to make good money finding out what London dealers wanted, searched around oop north and when he found the right car, drove it down and picked up a nice earner. He did really well, but not any more. Last I heard he was letting houses.

One thing I have noticed now and then is that quite a few low mileage cars are around the south east, for obvious reasons of traffic. But that doesn't mean they haven't been driven much, just that they've been shunted along in endless jams, and rammed up and down curbs for parking. Check the seats and the pedals, and curbed alloys

Richard.

 

I canot imagine any independant dealer getting anywhere near 2k on a car.

 

my car budget was 4 - 6k, but it just got slashed cause I got a hire car knicked with my mountain bike in the back, with the excess its taken about £2.5k off my budget, so I'm now hoping I can get a total bargain at the auctions.

Looking for something between £2.5k and 3.5k..

 

You need to be very areful at auction and remember to check how much is added to the hammer price to get an idea of the real total. I have an 04 plate vectra diesel for sale for 3k if you are interestes btw

 

It's got to be close to that just to make the business viable - 20% minimum as a rough rule of thumb. Preferably 30%.

That would perhaps be the difference between price paid and screen price, plus a little room for a deal, which everybody wants these days.

But it's not all profit of course, they have to carry the capital cost, valet the car, fix minor things, maybe fit a couple of new tyres, check history, put some warranty on it, advertise it, plus carry a share of the business overheads. Only then can they look at some profit.

Richard.

 

As a car dealer I can promise you that there is no room in the market to make 2k on a second hand car. After warranty and valet costs £400 is closer to the truth. Even in good market conditions the largest margins were 800-1200 now just selling the things is a bonus, a trader up the road from me would sell a car with £200 profit on the bonnet though he does specialise in cheap sheds.

 

As car buyer, I can promise you that the cars being sold on ebay/trader are at least 2k more than what they are going for at auctions,

not all cars mind, just the desirable ones,(1 series bm, new shape 3 series, astra diesels etc) even ebay has gone daft recently because everyone thinks they are getting a bargain and saving money from buying at a dealer but 9 out of 10 times thats exactly what they are doing

 

Not sure we're necessarily disageeing much here. I'm talking percentage, not cash. TaffyB was talking about an £8.5k car. I'm not sure what £400 represents, but I don't see how you can sustain a business on 5% margin unless you sell ten cars a day I'd be really interested to hear your answers to these questions, based on a car that a typical dealer would sell for an actual £10k cash price paid.

What would you expect to buy the car at?
What would be your total costs to get it ready for sale, inc warranty etc?
What would be the screen price?
How long would expect to wait before agreeing a £10k deal?
How long from you writing a cheque to buy the car, to banking a cheque for the sale?

Sorry, don't mean to quiz you. But if you don't ask etc etc

Cheers,

Richard.

 

I tend to deal in the cheaper stuff so different to a usual dealer and only been doing it 7-8 months but you buy the cars at what you can get them for the trade guides have a price guide and the rule is pay less than that unless it is a car that you know you can sell quick. prep consists of a valet for decent cars 5k plus and a speedy wash for cheaper stuff, a proper ful valet is 100+ and a warranty that actually pays out costs 70-150 depending on the car and cover level. Screen price for me is usually 500-600 less than the guide price for retail but depends on each car. If a car does not sell in a month then I would try to get my money back and buy something else. I always pay cash for cars and have at times sold cars before I have seen them and at others had a car for 3 months, I have sold 5 cars in a week and also gone 3 weeks selling 1 its a tough trade. The trouble is that nost people want toget rid of a car when its ****ed and needs money spent on it and a times problems can be hard to spot. Most people with a part ex try to con you and its the biggest irony of the car trade that people trying to rob you blind part exing ruined cars will go nuts if any small thing goes wrong with their car.

 

I thought you were in the restaurant business?

 

Thanks LPB. On reflection, the questions I asked were well cheeky. You might well have told me to pi55 off, so thanks for your reply bud

Richard.

 

I think this is what puts most people who aren't skilled mechanically off buying at auctions, fear of buying a shed...

 

I am but took a break to try something different, the 50-70 hour weeks were starting to make life miserable so I went for a change and rented a car lot.

 

Understandable...

Do you have a BCA account by the way? Wondering if it's worth it for me. Don't trade but do end up changing cars a bit and I also buy cars for a lot of my family. The buyer's premium is a killer as a private buyer.

 

BCA account saves about £25.00 per car for 4 cars per year you need to buy or sell 10 to get a real discount. and its 10 in a twelve month period. You do save a log book fee as soon as you get the card though.

 

Wow, didn't know the dealers got stung with the buyers fee as well. I'm sure there are better prices to be had privately with that included.

On your career change, out of the frying pan into the foyer? Sorry - it's a few days late.

 

You just need to be aware of it when you buy. Cars have been making silly money at auction lately as every tom dick and harry seems to think they can get a bargain. A mini went through northampton this week for 2k more than the cap clean price. Smaller auctions tend to be better value but 90% of the cars have serious problems.

 

Have to agree with above, even before the credit crunch I have been to our local auction a few times with a mind of picking up a bargain - that will suit me for a while that I can then shift on for profit once bored.

But every time I have gone, I have come away astonished at what the cars were selling for. i.e High. Bearing in mind you really don't know what your getting from an auction, and your can't pull it about, or take it for a test drive etc. The prices were going for the same if not more than most private sales after you allow for just a little sensible haggling with a private seller.

But granted there did always seem to be the odd car that threw convention and went what seemed to be cheap, but then it was always a car like a daewoo matiz or some crappy car I personally wouldn't give time or day to.

I suspect most dealer would admit to making far more profit on punters PX'ing the cars in. I have personally PX'd a few cars over the years, and PX'd them for far less than I suspect they could pick them up for in an auction.

Conclusion for me, was if your looking to buy for yourself even if like me you never keep for long, you could do much better with a private sale than the auctions.

However if your just looking to turn a buck and VERY open minded about what car you want then there was a potential profit to be had.

 

From what I can see on BCA Auctionview, prices have now bottomed out - January prices are a little higher than December, just like most years as this is a seasonal pattern. However I don't see any signs of recovery, and on an annual basis, cars will still depreciate like they always have. But the values 'falling off the cliff' since last May seems to have stopped. If you have the cash/finance, now's not a bad time to buy (or wait until Nov/Dec for the annual seasonal low point).