Have you ever been to a car auction? Wanted to grab a bargain while you were there and wondering if buying a car at an auction is a good idea? We have! Car auctions are exciting places to be and if you know your cars, they are great places to pick up a bargain too.
Join us as our auto loans team explains whether or not you should buy a car at an auction.
Can You Finance a Car at an Auction?
When we talk car auctions, we’re talking the big room with hundreds of people and hundreds of cars going under the hammer. We’re not talking eBay or other auction sites.
Car auctions are typically cash only. You can pay with a card, cheque or bank transfer but you need to have the funds available in cash to buy the car. No credit is allowed.
You could use a personal loan as long as you have the cash in the bank but a traditional auto loan would not be accepted as a form of payment.
So, while you cannot use finance for an auction car, if you have the spare cash, it can be an exciting place to spend money.
Buying a Car at an Auction
Public car auctions are where some leasing companies and fleet management companies dispose of used cars. Before the used car market exploded, some dealerships would sell part exchanged cars at auction too. That now happens rarely thanks to changes in the used car market.
Prices can be cheap but the buyer had better beware.
All sales are final. All vehicle inspections need to be carried out before bidding starts and once that hammer goes down, if your number is up, you have to buy the car.
You can pick up some genuine bargains at auction but they are all sold as seen and all sales are final. If you miss a defect or something is wrong with the car when you come to collect it, that’s on you.
So, while auctions are places to grab a bargain, they aren’t places for the unwary or those who don’t know one end of a spanner from the other.
You could grab a 100%, fully functional car for very little money. Or you could buy a lemon with a multitude of faults under the hood.
The reward is low prices but the risk is spending many times more than the purchase price on repairs.
It’s both good and bad that you cannot use an auto loan for car auctions. Good in that auctions are not for the unwary or average car buyer and bad because they can be a great place to pick up a cheap car.
There are plenty of other places you can buy cheap cars though so it isn’t as if you’re out of options!
For those of you who know that you have a challenging credit situation, please visit Dixie Auto Loans where we have a team of credit specialists ready to help you get approved for a car loan today!