Car Auctions

[sertac]

Is there anyone have experience about car auctions in UAE? From the day i came to this country i am always following them but never get courage to get a car from there. In my country people generally following to rental car firms auctions for get a cheap car for selling. In here is this can be a good way to get a profit? I am planing to follow cars like lancer, camry, altima, easy to fix, easy to sell. 

[Gaurav]

To be honest now auction game has matured quite a lot in Dubai and I know many people who got a good deal from such auctions. I tried once my hand in the online bid and didn't win the auction so got the refund of minimum amount blocked on the card.

[desertdude]

I've been to auctions and seem people pay stupid money for stupid cars, people get carried away and overbid or turn into somekind of ego issue, even online auctions, close to ending time 90% of the cars prices go above market current value.

Also beware, one friend bought a Toyota from a known auction house, paid cash and was told would get the papers in a couple of days, turned out to be a big legal mess with the guy never seeing his money back or being able to use the car as it was without papers,

Another one bought it from another well known online auction house, nothing wrong with it but the process was so slow that it took over a month for all the paperwork to finish and him getting possession of the car, think it was a bank repossesion or court impounded.

A funny car auction story is I just went with a friend to an auction at Aweer used car complex. Sat through the whole thing nothing good was on offer or prices went high, so getting bored my friend decided to fool around. A RTA Taxi Ford Mondeo with 450k kkms came up as one of the last cars for sale.

A sudanese gentle man, bid 2500, my friend said watch this he bid 3000, then the other guy went 3500.
Friend : 4000, smirking thinking he was driving the price high for the poor dude.
4000  any more offers

Going once ---- friends face turning pale

Going twice --- paler

SOLD!   Almost about to cry face!

So he ended with a beige Ford Mondeo station wagon with almost half a million miles on it.

But it does end well, he sold it year down the line for 10k and I must say even with that much mileage and a trough taxi life it drove pretty well and solid, as I had it for a week when my car was in the shop.
 

[Barry]

I used to mess with guys at auctions like that. A few times they paid extra and couldn't afford more so left the good cars for me. A few times it backfired and I got stuck with the shite.

I haven't bought anything in an auction in UAE but I know some people who have. Some got out ok, some got balls of dung. I am repairing one of those balls of dung now and it would have been cheaper to buy a working example through dubizzle.

Used to be a buyer for a company in Ireland so I went to a lot of live auctions. The good thing was you could walk around the car park and look at the cars beforehand. Then you went inside and sat in a mini grandstand. The cars were driven in, people bidded, then the cars were driven out. At least you could see the cars were drivable and there was no plumes of smoke coming from the exhaust. But, you didn't get a test drive. If you won the bid, the car was yours. You pay the money, put it on the truck and take it home. 7 times out of 10 I got a good car but that also means 3 times out of 10 you're buying a POS. Maybe it has no brakes, maybe the suspension is banjaxed. You don't know until you win the auction. No pay, no play. 

I made a big mistake once. My cousin asked me to buy her a small car so I did. I brought it on a trailer straight from the auction house to her house. She drove it a mile up the road and the engine seized. I had to fit a new engine out of my own pocket to get her on the road and ended up losing money. Family eh?

Then a company called Copart started buying out all the small auction houses. You could go and look at the cars but you didn't see them running. Most were damaged repairables but a few scrappers in the mix. The auctions went real time online only. Luckily with the UK classification system for insurance claims, A, B, C, D etc you could make an educated guess. But here's the throw, Copart are owned by the Italian mafia. I won't get into too much detail but now you know, you can check it out for yourself. I was buying like 10-15 cars at a time. Random stuff nobody would ever bid on kept showing up on my bid list. Who the hell wants an 8v Vauxhall Calibra? Had many arguments with them. Their answer was always ok, if you don't want this one, you lose the 15 you won and you're barred from the auctions for life. So I just had to accept it. Thank god for dismantling cars and eBay to cover the costs.

Anyway, TL:DR why is the car going through auction instead of private sale? There must be something wrong with it.

[Srikumar]

25 minutes ago, Barry said:

Anyway, TL:DR why is the car going through auction instead of private sale? There must be something wrong with it.

I guess in this country you also have a lot of cars that are auctioned due to loan defaults. Banks uptill a while back were willing to fund anyone and everyone without checking any credentials. So the guy is unable to pay and the bank siezes the vehicle.

Edited April 10, 2018 by skumar83

[Ren13]

Buying auction cars depends on your luck and also how good you are to figure out what would be the refurbishment cost on the vehicle and bid accordingly.

i have a friend who is in to it and the best car to buy is a Mitsubishi lancer and Nissan sunny. they 2 sell fast like hot cakes and no holding cost.

 

[Danny]

49 minutes ago, Barry said:

Anyway, TL:DR why is the car going through auction instead of private sale? There must be something wrong with it.

3

That's a million dollars observation mate

[sertac]

Good ideas guys thanks