Car auctions: I’m not that keen really. I used to live within walking distance of Wembley Car Auctions, a fairly terrifying place to visit, which I did very often.
It taught me a lot, which was mainly to avoid buying from them. I’ve bid, bought and survived, but the experience isn’t especially enjoyable. You are in the hands of the auctioneer and, apart from kicking the tyres, there isn’t much you can do to check what you are buying. It is always a gamble. That’s probably why I don’t talk about auctions much in this space.
However, a reader called Nick got in touch, who experienced firsthand the ‘leftovers’, which went for hundreds and looked in a fairly shocking state. I think, like most of us, he was amazed that anyone would deliberately run their cars into the ground before seemingly part-exchanging them. According to Nick, there were hundreds of bread-and-butter motors that were filthy inside and out, with scratches, cracked bumpers and windows, poor tyres and wheels that often smoked their way into the hall.
This is nothing unusual and, for the purposes of research, I popped into a bitterly cold evening event, post-work at 6.30pm, where the emphasis really is on what has been left at the bottom of the part-exchange barrel. There weren’t too many traders present, but there may well have been people who trade.
Rather worryingly, there were families with buggies looking for a people-carrier or a stopgap hatch. All they were going to find was some trouble. Mind you, a ferociously ugly 2004 Fiat Doblo 1.2 Active with not a lot of miles relative to the year, 50k, has colossal amounts of room for a growing family willing to bid £350 for it. A £600 bid for a 2006 Chrysler Voyager, even with what seemed to be a low, 80k mileage, might suit someone after seven seats.
The cheap tiny shoppers were the worry, as they are in demand. These cars hold their value and go upwards as the unwanted bigengined executives go the other way. So a 2007 Citroën C1 Vibe with over 100k miles and lots of obvious issues – tyres, short MOT and a blowing exhaust – went for £250.
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Surely some mistake?
£6K for a 28 year old Lada?
Blue328 wrote:
Must be a typo...it looks ok condition as well
Over £4.5k for a 20 year old
Over £4.5k for a 20 year old Skoda pick up looks like a lot of money too.
BradP wrote:
Not a typo! I’ve had a look previously for old Ladas as a bit of fun and they are genuinely expensive, not many left in the country now
Jimbbobw1977 wrote:
Ok...fair play. Dont look that great. A lot in germany and russia and places
That's what I thought!
Old Landies hold their price but to that extent? Bet the repo company sliced about £350 off the poor buggers debt for this one!