usedtobefast
Well-known member
I assume you are going for "cheap car at an auction" approach?
It seems this only works well for someone that is good at fixing cars themselves fairly cheaply.
For a car to end up at auction, it has to be very undesirable ... either the brand, high mileage, or issues.
A nice used car traded in will be sold at the dealer that took it on trade. Like a 3 yr old car with < 36,000 miles.
And you can see the trickle down, like a crappy used car lot with 10+ year old cars with 150+K miles. If the car is at an auction, that means the crappy used car lot didn't even want it!
I've gone with some friends before to look over pre-auction cars and they really were all junk.
The nicer "auction" places seem to just be a different type of used car selling approach ... there is some place in Pleasanton that acts like they are an auction place ... you can go there when they are open and see cars and even test drive them and buy them on the spot. A typical example might be: a $15K car on CL that is a reasonable used car ... at this "auction" place it would be $12K and have either some body damage or mechanical damage. So by the time you buy it and pay to have it fixed you are pretty close to that $15K number.
It seems this only works well for someone that is good at fixing cars themselves fairly cheaply.
For a car to end up at auction, it has to be very undesirable ... either the brand, high mileage, or issues.
A nice used car traded in will be sold at the dealer that took it on trade. Like a 3 yr old car with < 36,000 miles.
And you can see the trickle down, like a crappy used car lot with 10+ year old cars with 150+K miles. If the car is at an auction, that means the crappy used car lot didn't even want it!
I've gone with some friends before to look over pre-auction cars and they really were all junk.
The nicer "auction" places seem to just be a different type of used car selling approach ... there is some place in Pleasanton that acts like they are an auction place ... you can go there when they are open and see cars and even test drive them and buy them on the spot. A typical example might be: a $15K car on CL that is a reasonable used car ... at this "auction" place it would be $12K and have either some body damage or mechanical damage. So by the time you buy it and pay to have it fixed you are pretty close to that $15K number.