Understanding costs, fee structures, and accurate vehicle valuation.
When purchasing a car from Auction you need to consider the price bid (the hammer price) and the auction house fees (what they charge for using their service).
Different auction houses charge different fees; some charging a flat rate no matter what the cost of the vehicle, others employing a sliding scale. Some auctions are open only to trade buyers that hold accounts with them, others have a separate range of fees for public buyers.
We pass on our preferential rate auction house fees to you, creating significant savings against the standard public rate. Typically, for any car with a hammer bid of £2,500 or over, it is cheaper to employ our services than to attend that auction and purchase the car directly as a public buyer.
We can never be entirely sure of the exact fees until we receive the final invoice (which we copy to you). We advise factoring in a 10% variance just to err on the side of caution. Furthermore, where auction houses charge the public for DVLA registration, we complete this for you free of charge.
The majority of vehicles passing through auction do so via British Car Auctions, making them our most commonly used means of sourcing cars.
Their fee structure utilizes a sliding scale based on the hammer price of the vehicle.
Although somewhat smaller than BCA, Manheim Auctions usually have approximately 6,000 vehicles on sale at any one time and are an excellent option.
Their fee structure is similarly stepped, but on more expensive vehicles is less staggered than BCA, allowing us to predict costs slightly more accurately.
CAP (Expected Car Auction Prices) gives us a good idea of the price that a car is likely to make at auction. These figures are made available to holders of trade auction buying accounts but not members of the buying public. We will always share CAP prices with you.
However, CAP is only a guide based on historical averages. When anticipating the actual price a car is likely to sell for, we must take other factors into consideration:
To give a more accurate idea of pricing, we use market-leading analysis tools to see what the cars that interest you are selling for this week and how fast they are selling. By gaining a clearer understanding of current retail trends we can make the most of your budget.
We recently sourced a Porsche 911. CAP was £40,200, with a suggested retail price of £46,600. However, current price indicators showed that a grade 1 example would fetch £58,000 retail. This particular car ultimately fetched £9,000 over CAP at auction. Because we knew the live data, we were able to pivot and purchase a better, alternative option for our customer without overpaying.