Overhaulin'

How do you go about getting a car from an auction?

i am planning on buying a vehicle next month, but i dont have a lot to spend. People keep telling me to go to an auction because you can get a nice car for really cheap but no one knows how to get involved in an auction...anyone here know???

Public Comments

1. Ebay motors is a good auction. I like it bc it's mostly ok cars sold by your average person (most sellers are not dealers). Some of the local car auctions have a lot of cars that dealers took as trade-ins but don't want because they need a lot of repair. I'd suggest that you get a car with less than 100K miles on it. You can have the car transported if it's far away (look in the yellow pages for automobile transporters). Or ask the seller for delivery or pick up options.
2. I bought a car from a car auction once. I got an 89 Honda Prelude for $500. I had to do some work on it... though. I eventually sold it for $2500. But I think I was lucky. If you know someone who's a mechanic or is REALLY good with cars, take them with you. You'll have a chance to look the car exterior over before the auction. Usually you can walk around the lot and get a good feel for the ones you want to check out. Once the car is driven or pulled (the pulled ones usually need a lot of work cause they don't run) into the line to be auctioned that's when they open the doors and hood for you to check out the car. Get in there with your mechanic friend and check it out as good as you can. If you want it start bidding, but don't go over your set amount. Once the bidding is done, if you've won the bid... the seller can actually not accept the bid if they think it's too low. They may try to get more from you. You can deside if you want to spend more or not. My seller tried to get an extra $200 dollars out of me... but I only offered $100 and they accepted. Good luck, just remember... you will most likely need to put in some money to fix the car up, take that into account when figuring out what you want to bid. Hope this helps... some places might be different than the place I went to, but that's the general idea.
3. Yes you can get a car really cheap at an auction, before you invest your money please read this webpage http://www.usedcartips.org/AUCTIONS.html and then you decide