# Key Post: Used cars at a bargain?



## SharpBlade (12 Jul 2004)

Has anybody ever bought a car from Merlin Car Auctions (www.merlincarauctions.ie)?  Can you get good deals?  I suppose you can get vehicles at a discount of the going rate.  I have a tight budget and I wonder if it is worth travelling to county Meath.


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## zag (12 Jul 2004)

*Re: Merlin Car Auctions / used cars at a bargain?*

I have no experience of auctions here, but in New Zealand they were pretty common place.  I was there checking out likely prices for selling my car, but I did note that there was a mix of dealers and public.

It seemed that the dealers (obviously) knew exactly which cars they were after, so that if you were up against a dealer they would have the effect of bidding the price up a good bit, thus knocking out the bargain aspect.  If the dealers weren't interested then it seemed to indicate that the car wasn't in any sort of good condition - so you could get a cheap car, but whether it was a bargain or not was debatable.

I'm not sure if the auctions here have the same dealer/public profile.

z


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## okidoki987 (12 Jul 2004)

*Re: Merlin Car Auctions / used cars at a bargain?*

Good place to buy but not to sell!
If you know your cars, you will pick up a very cheap car!
Make sure if you don't, to bring somebody who knows (ideally a mechanic).
Go to the auction and look around see the dealers, watch what they do.
Go early to check out the cars, pick one or two, decide your limit and stick to it.
If you stick to these rules you should get a cheap car.
Best auctions are the Lease/company cars.
All would be serviced and should have no dodgy history attached.


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## Fleet Manager (13 Jul 2004)

*Auctions*

BEWARE!

The trade only sell their seconds at the auction.  However, there are some bargains to be had!

I advise going a few times before making a purchase.

Also sit at the back so you can see who is bidding.  There is usually an invisible man at the back bidding against you - not!


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## SharpBlade (13 Jul 2004)

*Re: Auctions*

I think I am going to stick with dealers and Buy And Sell as auctions seem too risky a business :b 
Thanks all for your input.


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## Irldigi (13 Jul 2004)

*Re: Auctions*

You should be very careful buying private through Buy and Sell. Make sure you have somone who knows about cars if you are going to check one out !!!

That said there are some great private bargains.... just be cautious.

Good Luck and Happy Motoring !!

Digi


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## okidoki987 (13 Jul 2004)

*Re: Auctions*

Why would you go to a dealer and pay top whack when you can get the same car at a big discount at the auctions.
Most of the car dealerships sell trade in's at auctions if they can't shift them on the forecourts (for various reasons).
Some also buy them there as well!
Garages make a fortune by selling cars so why would line their pockets instead of your own.
I have bought many cars at auctions and have had problems with no more then 10% of them (that was from not being able to test drive the cars properly and faults appearing).
I would buy from an auction way before buying from the B+S.
You have NO comeback from the B+S if the car is stolen etc, you do from the auctions as you pay an insurance bond to cover you in case the car was stolen.
Go up to the auction, have a look and check the prices before making a decision!
The money you can save will pay for a good holiday.


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## cushtie (13 Jul 2004)

*Re: Merlin Car Auctions / used cars at a bargain?*



> Go up to the auction, have a look and check the prices before making a decision



okidoki987
Are Merlin the only crowd in Ireland that have auctions. I did a quick google but could not come up with any more.


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## zag (13 Jul 2004)

*Re: Auctions*

okidoki - sounds strange that you have only had problems with 10% . . . how many have you bought ?  How many cars do you need, or do you resell them ?


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## fatherdougalmaguire (13 Jul 2004)

*Re: Auctions*

cushtie,
Wilsons


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## okidoki987 (13 Jul 2004)

*Re: Auctions*

I used to buy and sell cars (many years ago) but also bought some as a private punter.
In total I bought about 30 and had problems with 3 of them (10%).
Mind you that was when Merlin was called Windsor Car Auctions and was located up in Belgard Road.
I haven't bought or sold any since they became Merlin (no reason).
I get a list every month of the cars going for auction there with Model, Age and they Grade each car from 0 to 5 so you have some idea of what sort of condition the car is.
Auctions are a good palce to Buy if you KNOW what you are doing. This applies for car auctions, house, furniture, antiques etc.


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## Natchessmen (16 Jul 2004)

*Auctions*

I have sold 2 cars using Merlin and found them to be excellent.  Got as good a deal as I could expect, accepting that cars depreciate like bejayus


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## paddywiskey (23 Jul 2004)

*Car Auctions*

Car Auctions, Buyer beware, I to have bought cars at auctions and have got badly stung, but then I have only myself to blame, for not examining the car throughly. One car I bought at Merlin said slight rear body damage, saw the bumper was slightly out of line and thought yes thats not to bad, bought the car, only to find that when I opened the booth, the floor was so badly damaged you could not get the spare wheel out. I went back and complained that the description of slight damage was totally inaccurate, the attitude was I should have checked it out fully, I lost a lot of money on that car. I would advise anyone thinking of buying at any of these auctions to be very very very cautious, after all if garages are selling them at auctions its because they don't want people coming back to them with their complaints


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## Slim (23 Jul 2004)

*Re: Car Auctions*

As a result of reading this thread, I signed up for the monthly snapshot from Merlin. Interesting but I noticed that most of their cars were rated(by them, to be fair) as 1 -3, meaning varying degrees of damage/faults. Very few cars fell into the 4-5 category, a few faults to nearly new condition. It put me off going to a car auction.

Slim 8)


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## dawnsurprise (9 Aug 2007)

how old are the cars that are auctioned off?
would you get a 2006 car there?


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## runner (9 Aug 2007)

Note that previous posts on this thread are 3 years old, so info probably out of date.


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