I have never bought from a auction before but when I looked up the New Jersey State Auto auctions website they seemed like any other auto dealer. One can buy of the lot and they have prices advertised.
How is this any different from than buying from a used car dealer. One can arrange a test drive, the cars come with full carfax report etc
This is their website:http://www.njcarbuyer.com/
Please advise: should I consider this option?
Tags: auction, auto auctions, auto dealer, car dealer, carfax report, cars, new jersey state, state auto, test drive
I think that is not a good idea to buy a car from any auction.
Don’t forget that on top of your winning bid at the auto auction, there is usually a buyer’s premium.
Sometimes the premium is only a few hundred dollars, sometimes it’s 5% of the winning bid, sometimes it’s 10% of the winning bid.
This means if there is a 5% buyer’s premium and you just won the $20,000 bidding war on a used Lexus, you now have to pay $1,000 on top of that to the auction house running this car auction.
When you’re caught up in a bidding war, it’s easy to forget that you have a buyers premium to pay also, and when you’re done, the addition of the buyers premium takes the car over fair market value. Oops!
The whole idea of an auto auction is to buy a used car at a significant savings below fair market value, otherwise you could just go buy that same car from a private seller, take your time, and do it right.
Thousands of cars were damaged in New York City on 9/11/2001 when terrorists brought down the World Trade Center towers by crashing hijacked planes into them.
It’s a prime example of disasters having long term effects other than the initial death and destruction. These cars will no doubt be salvaged, rebuilt, sold at car auctions and have their titles rebuilt, most likely out of state.
The only way to catch these cars is by running an AutoCheck Vehicle History Report on every used car before you buy.
Lastly, what you buy is what you get, all sales are final.