photo credit: The Talented Mr. Nimo/On Vacation

If you are interested in purchasing a car at a government or other auction, hopefully you’ve done your homework about how the auction process works, the terms of sales, and arranging for full payment after you’ve put down a deposit on a bid you’ve won. Here are ten tips for buying a car at an auction. Some apply more to online auctions and some apply to live auctions, but you should be prepared either way.

1.    Don’t bid against a seasoned car collector unless you happen to be very wealthy. Collectors can be doggedly determined to get a certain car, and are sometimes willing to bid more than the car’s original value. Of course, if it ends up being priceless, they’ve still made a good investment. Seriously, experienced car collectors play hardball, and you don’t want to bid against them unless you have plenty of money and know what you’re doing.

2.    Get a report on the car’s history. Sometimes auctions will provide these, but sometimes you have to get the information yourself. If you look over cars at a government auction a couple of days before the actual bidding, you’ll have time to do this. If not, perhaps you could have someone at home who can go online and check a VIN for you. It may be $30 or so, but it could save you major headaches if a car has been flood damaged or rebuilt.

3.    Check out auction sites to see how much cars you’re interested in generally go for. You won’t get a car from a government auction for as little as you would for a wholesale auction, but you can still get a good deal.

4.    Make sure you have enough money to bid. This seems blindingly obvious, but people do get caught up in the bidding process. You’ll have to put down a cash deposit the day of the auction, and then you’ll have a day or two to come back and pay the rest. Make sure you have the money at hand to do this.

5.    Retiring government vehicles have generally been well maintained, serviced, and cleaned. In fact, you may be able to get a copy of the maintenance history.

6.    Repossessed vehicles or vehicles confiscated over drug or tax matters could have rough histories. You definitely want to run a VIN check for a car that was seized in this way.

7.    Determine to the best of your ability whether an auction has run a thorough title check on a car. You do not want to buy a car at any price when you don’t know if it has a clean title.

8.    Factor in other costs when determining how high you will bid. There may be a “buyer’s premium” of 5 to 10%. If so, be sure to calculate this in when deciding your highest bid.

9.    Cars from rental agencies are usually maintained, clean, and only a couple of years old. These can be great choices, but you probably won’t get a former rental car dirt cheap.

10.    If you get a bad feeling from an auction, or about a particular car, listen to your gut. You have very little recourse if you buy a car at auction and it breaks down the next day.

If you do some research up front, know your bidding limits, have the necessary funding, and are able to keep a cool head in a fast-paced situation, you could do quite well buying a car at an auction.