When buying a car at any of the several Brisbane car auctions available, it pays to remember the following 5 tips, which have been proved again and again. These tips have not just been proved in Brisbane but on the Gold Coast, in Sydney and all over Australia!
No test driving for you! You may be accustomed to taking a car you’re considering buying for a drive before you make the final purchasing decision, but this luxury is not available at car auctions anywhere (think about how difficult it would be in terms of practicality for the auctioneer to manage). Title passes to you once you have decided to purchase, so you’re going to have to rely on other decision making techniques other than feeling the car on the road.
Have a budget. As the old saying goes, if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything. You absolutely must have a line you will not, under any circumstances (even competing with a buff dude in the corner of the room), cross. If your budget is $10,000 for a car, do not pay $10,050. Seriously – $50 can easily increase to $100 and from $100 it’s a short journey to $500 and so on. We’ve seen it happen so don’t let it happen to you!
Don’t judge a book by its cover. And don’t judge a car by its polish! Some of the worst cars I’ve ever seen have been spectacular to look at and have the best labels in history (Mercedes, Jaguar etc). Since you can’t test drive the car, you’re going to have to have some background knowledge of what mileage tends to do to certain brands. For example, don’t buy a highly electronic Honda if it has 400,000km on the clock, as electrical components tend to deteriorate quite swiftly.
Check out the Vehicle Identification Number. If the VIN on the engine doesn’t match the VIN on the door or in the boot (or wherever it may appear on that particular car), alarm bells should start ringing (or perhaps police sirens). If you’re at a government auction this isn’t so much of a big deal, but otherwise definitely conduct these checks manually before you consider entering the bidding war.
Listen carefully to what the auctioneer is saying. What was that? Hail damage or “all hail the mighty car”? If you miss a vital piece of information, whether it’s about the car’s history, defects or the price itself, you have no one to blame but yourself if you end up saddled with a dodgy chunk of metal. It is critical to go to the auction in the right state of mind to make a conscious and smart buying decision.
There are other things you can do to make your vehicle experience more pleasurable and to find out what they are, simply repeat over and over again that the reason you’re likely to get a good deal is because risk is being passed from the seller to you (remember, no cooling off period or other protections you may get from a dealership… and on test drive!). Nothing in life comes free, but sometimes the extra risk amounts to naught and in those cases you will win at the auction game.
The reason you are likely to get a reduced price at a vehicle auction is because much of the risk has been shifted from the seller / auctioneer to you, the buyer. As mentioned above you don’t get the protections that private and dealership buyers get, but you do get lower prices. Make sure you recognise the situation you are in, play by the rules and keep your eyes open.
Looking to find the best Brisbane car auctions, then visit www.brisbanecarauctions.net to find the best advice on auctions and ex government cars for you.
