Overhaulin'

police car auction/government car auction?

What's the difference between the 2? which one's better? i've heard many stories that you can get cars for dirt cheap, but there must be a catch, rite? i mean, i already know that you buy the car "as-is" no warranty, and they usually only accept cash. i've looked on a few sites and found that some ppl buy fairly new audi's and bimmers for like 5000. the site i used was http://www.gov-auctions.org/ is this legit?

Public Comments

1. Police are state government and military and us armed forces are federal government. The government beats the living hell out of the vehicles that they use but they are maintenanced on a scheduled basis so they are getting oil changes and new tires but they are ran hrd. This is why they are so cheap. My friend Alan has an old F250 that was a border patrol truck a long time ago and it runs fine. I would buy one as long as it didn't have high mileage.
2. Police and government property auctions are legitimate and are held all over the country all the time. Web sites like the one you mentioned sell directories of auctions but you can find auctions yourself with a little more work. Police and law enforcement auctions sell surplus vehicles that have been replaced by newer vehicles, as well as selling seized vehicles taken from bad guys. Government (non law enforcement) agencies (local, state, and federal) sell mainly surplus vehicles. These auctions are usually announced to the public in local or national newspapers on a certain day of the week or month. You would have to call local newspapers to find which one does the announcements -- or call the local city, county, and state police offices to find out. You take your chances like with any other type of auction. You are allowed to inspect the vehicles, but you can't drive them. So you have to have a sharp mechanical eye and be able to separate the junkers from the genuine bargains. Here is an article that has more details: http://www.leaseguide.com/Articles/carauctions.htm .
3. Police and government car auctions are both about the same. But I would say that the government auctions have better cars and deals. http://www.gov-auction.org is a legit site. You can read a review on them here: http://www.mycarauctionreview.com
4. Before to buy a car, the first thing you want to see is the inspection report. If you buy a car "as-is" without getting the car inspected, you won't be able to ask a payback if you have many problems with your car. I got some surprises from police car auction at my first purchases. But now, I'm buying cars from online car auction every month since I'm a car dealer and I didn't have any problem with these auction recently.