Manheim Car Auctions

Ganga

I called at our local Manheim car auction depot about 4 miles from my house to see when the next auction was on as we need a newer car this year ,thought i would go on auction day to see what sort of cars are going thru and at what sort of prices ,security told me they are not open to the public anymore TRADE only.
Another avenue of possibly affordable motoring closed to the man on the street.

Grey_Critic

My Grandson works for BCA and it has all been online for a long time.

Steve182

I wasted a day of my life at a BCA auction trying to buy a car about 10 years ago. I found the buyers premium for one off buyers so high that it offset any savings from buying privately on Autotrader or similar, which is what ended up doing in the end.

forgotmyname

If you narrow down your choice of car then just keep an eye on Autotrader etc. You need to move fast usually though.

With my current car the advert went live late on Saturday where the garage had closed for the day, closed on Sunday so
I took a drive and got there before they opened on the Monday morning, Guy arrived and gave me the keys whilst he opened up.
As I was checking the car over a guy turned up but drove away when we got in for a test drive.

Is it normal for a garage to just give you the keys and let you off on a test drive without any checks?  Happened to me several times
now although the first time I did wonder if they wanted me to steal the car, it had a few issues.

Ganga

Thanks for the replies and whilst i might not have bought anything it would have ben nice to see what cars were going for as compared to the prices on dealers forecourts.

photome

Ganga said:

Thanks for the replies and whilst i might not have bought anything it would have ben nice to see what cars were going for as compared to the prices on dealers forecourts.

I believe there are many online car auctions where you could see those prices

[Deleted User]

The usual advice if you have an out of warranty car with an expensive fault is get it working long enough for WBAC or similar to buy it and throw it in an auction.

These days I'd assume any car sold at auction probably has major problems, or the owner probably wouldn't be selling it that way.

Ganga

[Deleted User] said:

The usual advice if you have an out of warranty car with an expensive fault is get it working long enough for WBAC or similar to buy it and throw it in an auction.

These days I'd assume any car sold at auction probably has major problems, or the owner probably wouldn't be selling it that way.

I never thought of that ,i thought that most of the cars supplied to Motorbility ,leased cars ,PCP cars etc went to the auctions when the term of use was up and customers returned them.
Also presumed because the likes of We Buy Any Car and similar brag that they give the best prices for used cars that people took them there rather than a main dealer.

facade

Ganga said:

[Deleted User] said:

The usual advice if you have an out of warranty car with an expensive fault is get it working long enough for WBAC or similar to buy it and throw it in an auction.

These days I'd assume any car sold at auction probably has major problems, or the owner probably wouldn't be selling it that way.

I never thought of that ,i thought that most of the cars supplied to Motorbility ,leased cars ,PCP cars etc went to the auctions when the term of use was up and customers returned them.
Also presumed because the likes of We Buy Any Car and similar brag that they give the best prices for used cars that people took them there rather than a main dealer.

WBAC own BCA & Cazoo.

Anything Trouble, starship miles or plain old goes straight to auction, the best stuff goes to Cazoo for retail

Motorbility cars are sold direct to contracted dealers if they are A grade, bid on by selected dealers if they are B grade, and punted to auction if they are C or worse.  You can buy your motorbility car, but they want retail or higher for it, and value it based on how well you looked after it, so you shoot yourself in the foot keeping it nice if you want it.

Auction cars tend to be trade-ins (and they always have something wrong, don't believe the naysayers who reckon trade-ins are absolutely perfect, just needing a bucket of water thrown over them and they will retail for £5000 more, they wouldn't be at auction if they were), so dealers bid low at auction knowing they are going to have to spend £££ to bring them up to retail, or may even get burned and have to punt it back- some cars go through 3 or 4 times.

Private buyers (if they can get in) will pay way more than a dealer, because they aren't factoring in possibly fitting a new gearbox or complete injection system when the thing won't start on the next cold morning, or the dash lights up like a Christmas tree the first time it goes over 60mph

Ganga

facade said:

Ganga said:

[Deleted User] said:

The usual advice if you have an out of warranty car with an expensive fault is get it working long enough for WBAC or similar to buy it and throw it in an auction.

These days I'd assume any car sold at auction probably has major problems, or the owner probably wouldn't be selling it that way.

I never thought of that ,i thought that most of the cars supplied to Motorbility ,leased cars ,PCP cars etc went to the auctions when the term of use was up and customers returned them.
Also presumed because the likes of We Buy Any Car and similar brag that they give the best prices for used cars that people took them there rather than a main dealer.

WBAC own BCA & Cazoo.

Anything Trouble, starship miles or plain old goes straight to auction, the best stuff goes to Cazoo for retail

Motorbility cars are sold direct to contracted dealers if they are A grade, bid on by selected dealers if they are B grade, and punted to auction if they are C or worse.  You can buy your motorbility car, but they want retail or higher for it, and value it based on how well you looked after it, so you shoot yourself in the foot keeping it nice if you want it.

Auction cars tend to be trade-ins (and they always have something wrong, don't believe the naysayers who reckon trade-ins are absolutely perfect, just needing a bucket of water thrown over them and they will retail for £5000 more, they wouldn't be at auction if they were), so dealers bid low at auction knowing they are going to have to spend £££ to bring them up to retail, or may even get burned and have to punt it back- some cars go through 3 or 4 times.

Private buyers (if they can get in) will pay way more than a dealer, because they aren't factoring in possibly fitting a new gearbox or complete injection system when the thing won't start on the next cold morning, or the dash lights up like a Christmas tree the first time it goes over 60mph

The only person i know personally that bought from an auction told me he needed a car for his daughter ,he checked what the dealers were bidding for similar cars and bid about £50 more for one that looked ok ,was ok and driven for years.

facade

Ganga said:

The only person i know personally that bought from an auction told me he needed a car for his daughter ,he checked what the dealers were bidding for similar cars and bid about £50 more for one that looked ok ,was ok and driven for years.

That was a long time ago

Actually,the cars to buy at auction, if you know what you are doing, and are a low mileage user, are the super high milers.

Dealers wont pay much for them as they are poor sellers, but if you are lucky they are well maintained, and were "got rid" because of an impending massive expense, that could still be several years away if you drive low miles.