Who here has ever bought a car @ auction?
 

You know - like Manheim, or the like?

Anyone either licensed or have someone with a license buy a car at auction, and if so, how was the experience?

My dad owns his own little dealership, and he goes to the Manheim auctions in Riverside and Fontana often, and I've been with him quite a bit. My RX-8 was bought there at the one in Riverside, actually.

You don't get much time to check out the vehicles before they're up for auction, so it's best to get there very early; about 6am or so, if you want time to really check out cars. The cars out on the lots are all unlocked and have the keys inside (unless it's an exotic of any kind), so you can start them up and get a feel for how they run. I don't think you're allowed to drive them at all, which is a big downside.

To successfully buy, you need to be able to catch anything that could possibly be wrong right away. The actual auction of each car is very brief-less than a minute at most. Once you win, it's yours; there's no turning back.

^ how much did you get the RX-8 for at auction? Was there anything wrong with it?

I'm interested to know what the cost was as well. I have a friend in Riverside who works for an auction, with a family member attempting to start a small dealership (who has also worked for the same company). She says he may be able to buy one for me extremely cheap and sell it to me at cost...she knows they have them on their lots - she just can't find them in the computer systems.

I bought my car at the real Mannheim auction in Mannheim PA. I looked around a tthe 18 or so they had that day, targeted the 4 or 5 I liked most, went into their internet cafe and carfaxxed them, noticed that the paintwork I saw on the bumper of the one I ended up buying was reported, and went back out to bid.

If you buy a green-light car, you can test drive it, and even pay fro a post sale inspection before you are LOCKED in. Its the only way to buy a car.

Last November I paid $17,200 counting fees for my 05 touring with 7k miles.

We paid $10,500 for my car if I'm not mistaken. It's a 2004, and we bought it in June '07. It was in an accident where the previous owner rear ended someone, and you can see they replaced the front bumper and resprayed it. It had all the recalls done on it and it's never given me any big, unexpected problems.

I work for an exotic car dealership and I go up to Manheim A.A every week and that's where I've picked up my past three cars (Acura TL, Acura CL, and Audi A4) and I am going to be picking up my RX8 from there :)

The bit about post sale is correct, so make sure the person who is buying your car is a well experienced buyer who can pick up paint work and such within a few minutes (feel the paint etc).

If you can, see if you can find someone who has access to the pre-sales and OVE and such so they can view the car before hand and run a carfax on the vin. That's the best thing to do is PREPARE for the auction because as people have said, you get a few minutes to look at the car as it's coming down the lane and then it's time to bid, and that's usually less than a minute.

You can also arbitrate cars if you find something wrong with it that Manheim did not find out, and the worse the problem, the easier to arbitrate.

For example we bought a Ferrari F355 spyder and the exhaust manifolds were bad and Manheim did not pick up on it so we were able to "return" the car in a sense and get our money back.

PM me if you need help with any of this as I have access to pre-sales and such.

Hope it helped!

got mine from an auction!!!!

My family owned a chain of dealers and I went to an auction with my brother and picked out my rx8.

2004 with 19K miles in 2006. Paid $19,000 back then.

Problems straight from auction (lol):
oil leak
trans leak
bent rim
water filled taillights

Problems Today (after numerous times in the shop)
oil leak
trans leak
popping noise in suspension
water filled taillights.

I would NOT RECOMMEND buyin a car without driving it and inspecting it thouroughly!!

I was impatient and was so excited when I saw the car I didnt think straight. Luckily, I love the car now and decided to just fix the problems and keep it, but I still wouldnt recommend the headaches I have had.