Now that Atlanta is shut down, I can answer at least a few recent questions from the Best & Brightest. Over the weeks there have been emails sent to me that didn’t a require a five paragraph essay. In fact the answers would reflect the quick and easy answers preferred by the bridgekeeper of Monty Python fame. So before I decide to ponder the differences between an African or European swallow, here’s a few car related queries and quips.
“How do I buy a good car?” I wrote a four part series ‘1 2 3 4 ‘ back in the day. The safest road is to do some research based on prior owners and forums for that particular vehicle. Get a Carfax or Autocheck report as well. Drive it. Have it looked at by an independent shop (not the dealer), and don’t look at the price as being in stone. Most folks underestimate the cost of used cars these days thanks to increased demand and lowball figures from Kelly Blue Book.
“Can you get me a car at a dealer auction?” Depends. I strongly prefer to get cars for customers that want “workhorses” instead of “showhorses”. You want a Ranger or a Sienna for your printing business and don’t mind a couple of small door dings or scratches? Perfect. I am happy to work with you.
A person who is considering seven different variations of a high demand sports car that is rarely at the auctions in good condition (WRX, Boxster, Evo, Celica, etc.) will have their work cut out for them. Today’s market is heavily ‘finance’ driven and most of the good cars in today’s market will never make it to the sales. Those that do are competitively bid on. You will like pay the ‘clean wholesale value’ for a clean vehicle.
There are also far fewer vehicles at the auctions. New car dealers are selling more used cars these days, and the supply of vehicles at the sales have gone down considerably. Even the manufacturers are trying to close the access loop as much as possible. Strong profits for their dealers encourages strong sale numbers for their brands. Long story short. If you know exactly what you want and understand that this is a ‘used’ car which will be cheaper in part because it hasn’t been detailed or had it’s latest maintenance done, I can work with you.You can email me here.
“Can I hang out with you at an auction?” If it’s a public sale, probably. If it’s a dealer sale, no. I no longer have any financial interest in a dealer auction, and these auctions simply do not consider the public to be a welcome presence. A lot of vehicles need to be sold in a very short period of time and John Q Public is neither an auto expert (in the industry sense) nor a full comrephender of the words ‘AS/IS’. This term means I spend a lot of time looking at vehicles. A LOT of time. If there is something wrong with the vehicle, I need to figure it out and adjust my bid downwards before it goes in the barn. I may be called ‘The Professor’ at the auctions. But when it comes to my work I have to be a man of few words.
Senor, bueno, gracias.
And I should bookmark your series of advice articles, as should all the B&B. Or perhaps Ed would see fit to pin them to the top of the home page?
Some other classics that I squirreled away with the four-part buying series:
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=5913&cp=1#comment-80832 The smart car buyer is the one who buys em’ where they (other customers) ain’t.
And, once you own a car, Mr. Lang tells you How to reduce your costs of owning a car. — https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=3851
In my area there used to be a public car auction lot where anybody could buy or sell and dealers would also send their trade-in rejects there. Most vehicles there were the bottom of the barrel types, although occasionally a really nice rig came through the line. You could start up the vehicles (IF they started) but could not test-drive them. I used to go every other month or so mainly for the entertainment value (the auctioneer was a complete hoot – he had some great quips and really got the crowd into it).
I remember pulling the tranny dipstick on several cars and the fluid looking like somebody had poured glitter into it. Yes, you’ve got to be darn good detective at the auction lot, knowing both what to look for and how to interpret it. I did buy one car there for $300, but the brand-new tires on factory alloys it was equipped with were worth more than that, so I really didn’t care about the rest of the car which sat in the driveway for years donating parts to its twin sister before being hauled off to the scrapyard.
I tend to use Craigslist to find my cars these days, but the really good deals often are gone within a couple of hours or maybe a full day at the most. So you’ve got to be constantly searching and know exactly when to pounce. Also, it’s tough to get an inspection done this way if there are multiple buyers lined up with cash in hand. I bought a turkey Civic using CL that needs oil rings and a clutch (things that didn’t show up during the test drive, the clutch only acts up when cold) and has a few other issues as well. Price was right, I do my own work, and the car has been driveable as-is (add 1 quart of oil every other fillup if not more often). I wouldn’t recommend skipping the inspection unless you are fully aware of the consequences.
My experience at the public auto auction is a very mixed affair. I’ve always shopped for bargain basement cars that will hopefully last me a year, so my spending limits were always around £250. I’ve picked up a cars which cost only £100, looked passable at best and lasted me 15-20k miles before something expensive went wrong. Even then, some of these cars have yielded more than their initial cost by ebaying the parts before the carcass is hauled away to the crusher. On the other hand I’ve had one car which looked clean inside and out, had low mileage, all the fluids looked ok, only to have the headgasket blow on me the moment the engine got nice and warm 15 miles down the road – I’m guessing a cheap ‘slap on another head gasket and don’t skim the head’ job before shunting it down the auction house.
All in all though, for the money I’ve spent – despite the odd lemon – I’ve had a lot of mileage for not a lot of money.
My neighbor, who is a friend of mine, buys almost all his vehicles for his 6 kid (all driving) family from a local auction. They all look good, a couple looked great, but the rate of head gasket failure is way higher than normal. His latest purchase is a Chevy Eqiunox, for his oldest son, 20, and about 2 months after he bought it, it blew a head gasket. When his son in law, who is a tech at a local dealership, tore it down to replace them, it was obvious it had been done at least once before. a little straight edge checking showed that both heads were warped, and rebuilt ones were purchased and it should be fine now. It had 20K on it. Since they moved in, they have owned about 20 vehicles, all but one bought at auctions, and there are at least 6 that have blown head gaskets. They span all makes. Ford (Taurus), Toyota (4Runner), the Equinox, Nissan(Titan, was gone so fast it was shocking), Honda (Accord), a Lexus of some kind, and maybe another. Most of these vehicles have had some kind of engine work done, and I’m guessing that that’s why they wound up at an auction in the first place.
I’ve owned 14 vehicles, and have never had one blown head gasket, ever. I can’t imagine this is just bad luck.
I don’t understand why people think a dealer would be so willing to lend them a hand and find some piece of shit at a sale some where in order to save them money. On the rare occasion that we do get a specific used car for a customer it is typically off OVE and they will pay every bit of high retail for that car. The dealer is usually going to be well above where they feel comfortable on the car. So naturally th ecustomer is going to pay all the money for the deal to make since.
I bought an 02 M5 with 11k or 13k miles( i can’t remember now) for myself maybe 2 years ago on OVE and even with those miles I was able to pay within 10% of clean on it. I sold the car for $45k at a huge profit to a guy in California who bought a 540 Touring from the store. I local guy wanted to trade me his 1996 turbo for it. At the time I passed because he was a PCA instructor and the car had a lot of track miles. Now I wish I had done it because I want a 993 turbo than anyhting on this planet and do not have money for somehting like that right now.
How about the, “I have $500 down and terrible credit but I don’t like any of the cars you have on the lot here…can you find me a low-mileage mint 1-owner 300C/CTS/Lexus at the auction and finance me on that?”
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No. Enjoy your ’01 Explorer.