I was looking at the wholesale auction results from yesterday, and there are some great deals on used Audi’s and MB’s.
Manheim is the main auction for Lease-end used cars (if dealer doesn’t want the car for their inventory). A dropbox link to results is below for FYI:
You need a dealers license or know someone who has one. There are guys on Craigslist with licenses, willing to take people to the auctions to inspect the cars and bid on them. They charge anywhere from $200-500 per transaction.
If you take this route, make sure you do all of the due diligence yourself. Even though most of these cars are “Guaranteed,” they still might be lemons or have undisclosed issues. And even through there’s Arbitration through Mannheim, if the car has problems, no dealer/broker will go through the hassle of Are for a mere $500 - so you may be stuck with the car. MAKE SURE YOU DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE.
And, even though most of these auctions are on consignment for the dealer. You’ll need to have cash to pay. If he trusts you, he may give you a day or arrange financing himself. NEVER PAY HIM UPFRONT. If you need to finance the buy, get pre-approved with your credit union and be ready to close after the auction.
Also, auction houses are small communities, everyone knows each other, so when newbies come to bid on cars they usually get suckered into over bidding. These folks are sharks, evaluate the landscape before committing to bids.
As far as I know, a dealer can bring guests to Mannheim auctions. Unless things have changed within the last few years. Do you have a statute, code or regulation you can cite? Illegal means criminal, so let’s be sure we’re accurate in our statements.
It’s not public auction, so they can’t bring non- dealers. But they present you as a driver, trainee and such.
Yeah, not allowed by Manheim rules, if you like.
BTW, are you a dealer? How did you get access to Manheim?
I use to buy my cars from here before we started leasing. Every Craigslist dealer who takes you, will not allow you to use their account to research the cars that are going up. You have to spot the car you like from far away before it even enters a lane.
If a shark sees you inspecting a car while it’s in a lane, they know that they can pressure you into overbidding. So you literally have less than 60 seconds to check the mileage, general condition inside and out, pop the hood, check tire wear, leaks, and smoke color. All of that just barely indicates that the car is drivable and might be able to take you home (This is how I use to do my diligence).
Once the car hits the auctioneer, the lights don’t tell you anything useful other than totaled title (red), yellow (owner defaulted on the car), or green light (drives and has a clean title).
I bought four cars from Manheim. I drove 3 for six months carefree and managed to turn a profit. One had a fucked up tranny but I managed to hold take a couple of hundred hit on it and I bet I would have lost way more if I was outside NYC at the time.
Yes, things have changed. Dealers are not allowed to bring guests. They can only bring “a driver” and that driver has to wait until halfway through the auction to enter. The first half is dealer only.
I bought in the past quite a few cars at Manheim, PA with a dealer I know very well. I never bought a lemon but two times I bade and bought cars I just didn’t like. Both times I traded them in for even more money I bought them for. All cars I bought were still under warranty.
I haven’t bought at an auction in years. I used to buy porsche’s and bimmer at vegas manheim, drive for a few months and sell.
i would look through the pre-sale list and pick 3-4 cars. run carfax and dealer service records before auction. at the auction i’d check all the things you mentioned plus, check for prior paint, and i’d connect odb-2 to check for prior messages, mileage correction and engine hours, to see if the numbers add up. i’d never touch salvage or lemon buy backs, because i never planned to keep them. At times i’d do all this before the auction and bid by phone/online.
