Looking to go searching for a car, never been to car auction but wanting to try it to see what’s on offer, anyone know any worth while ones going to in the North West??
bamber bridge ■■? years since ive been so i no longer know day/time , google■■? 
Checkout the preston Bca website. police vehicle auction once a fortnight, with a reasonable 5% buyers premium. fees on regular auction cars are extortionate. consider a private sale, at least you’ll get chance to drive it, and have a bit of a haggle.
Kevwall:
Looking to go searching for a car, never been to car auction but wanting to try it to see what’s on offer, anyone know any worth while ones going to in the North West??
Blackburn aint bad,Loads of our Asian tyre kicker friends there but you can pick up some bargains if you know what your looking at.
If your going to the trucknet charity do and go early on saturday morning theres a car auction directly behind (just really watch what your buying from there) BCA and manheim charge a stupid amount as an indeminty fee on top of the auction price IE bid £500 for a banger and youve got to pay another £200 on top as well
Mike-C:
Kevwall:
Looking to go searching for a car, never been to car auction but wanting to try it to see what’s on offer, anyone know any worth while ones going to in the North West??
Bought a MK3 Golf diesel from there for £700 years ago. I did over 50k miles in it 
Ive been to a few auctions, and, imo, your better off buying private, more time to look at the car and drive it.
What he said ^^^^
You never know what your getting half the time, unless you go to a fleet sales auction. Most of them will be backed up with comprehensive service histories.
Having bought both my and my wife’s last car at auction, when it was time to get another one for me I turned again to the local auctions. I was looking for a 3 year old, low mileage car in the Citroen C3 picasso, Nissan Note category. My local BCA site (Bridgwater) hold both Motorbility and Citroen direct sales, so plenty of choice in what I was looking for. However, by the time you add the “buyer premium” and that other iniquitous charge of £22 for them to change the owners name in the log book to yours, you are looking at VERY near to the price you can find one elsewhere. I went to about 5 Motorbility auctions, and whilst most cars were low mileage they were invariably covered in dings, dents and scrapes which would have been expensive to rectify. The Citroen direct sales had better condition cars, but the prices being paid by the trade were crazily high if they thoight that a private buyer was interested. (They pay very little buyers premium!)
I went to the local Citroen dealer to show my wife what the C3 Picasso was like in the flesh and managed to negotiate a very good deal on a one owner, low mileage, perfect body condition car with a 12 month manufacturers warranty to back up any potential problems. I paid slightly less for this car than any I had seen pass through the auction hall when the total price was added up.
I think that unless you can find an auction where they don’t charge the large buyer’s premium which BCA, Manheim etc charge then you are better to look elsewhere, especially where most dealers seem to be overflowing with stock and are usually open to serious reductions from the sticker price. I offered a cheekily low price for the one I was looking at and was surprised when the salesman came back from a discussion with his boss and accepted my offer!
This is just my recent experience, others may have found different.
It depends on how much you’re wanting to spend.
people go to ADT at bamber bridge to spend serious money on quality, so you can get a cheap car very cheap.
people go to west coast motor auctions poulton-le-fylde to buy cheap cars, so you can get a quality car cheap.
some say it’s a bad idea to buy from auctions as you don’t knwo what you’re getting. very true in some ways.
but if you pay £1000 for something that would fetch £3500 on a forcourt and it needs £500 spending on it, then you’ve still got a good deal.
i go to car auctions 2 times a aweek the fees are normally £55 for a private buyer for a vehicle less than a grand and £60 for over a grand i bought a 54 reg mondeo tdci 130bhp for £525 with mot and tax with fees it was £585 cant find one on ebay or autotrader that wasnt buggered for that money basically take a mechanic with you or someone clued up its not often a car will reach its true value at auction i would advise gouin to auction but not buyong so u can see what goes on then go back and buy summit some auctions offer end of sale trial where u have a hour to test it or get it tested and if your not happy u get your money back
ive never bought from an auction but i have been a few times just to see whats on offer.
I found nearly all the car very high mileage 100,000miles and more even up to 150,000miles.
The cars were very tatty with dints,scratches broken this and broken that.
Most of these cars have been sent by main dealers just to get rid of them,these cars would have been part ex trade in’s.
My advice would be to buy privately,lots of bargins out there and you can always haggle.
TTX boy:
ive never bought from an auction but i have been a few times just to see whats on offer.
I found nearly all the car very high mileage 100,000miles and more even up to 150,000miles.
The cars were very tatty with dints,scratches broken this and broken that.
Most of these cars have been sent by main dealers just to get rid of them,these cars would have been part ex trade in’s.
My advice would be to buy privately,lots of bargins out there and you can always haggle.
each auction is different i have seen some rough pieces of cack and next auction day have seen some nice clean presentable i currently work for a car dealership in salisbury and all our trade ins go to auction and most have less than 100k on them and are clean what u need to remember is main dealers have a criteria for there cars a main dealer like ford aint gonna stick a spotless 1.6 astra on a 51 plate for example on there forecourt not even a vauxhall dealer would auctions are like any other car its luck of the draw i would rather buy from auction because im payin less than i would private and i know the car is legit not a cut and shut and if its a right off its on the entry sheet
Working for a fleet hire company we turn over motors of all kinds all the time. Most of the stuff going through the auction sites are either
ex rental from the likes of north gate or its ex leasing stuff. It all depends what you want if your after nearly new, and i mean weeks old with less than 2000 miles on the clock or up to 3 year old with 70 to 80k on the clock. You can save a fotune by going direct to the rental companys. They have disposal sites all over the country and have lists ready for whats for sale at what price and millage. Most of the stuff still has a waranty from the factory you just mite have to travel a bit to get what you want. Buying like this is a lot better than going to auctions its saves loads and your buying direct from the seller and i know it works as this how we buy most of are fleet.
Try the rental sites like this: hertzcarsales.co.uk/