Wilsons Auctions - Anyone any experience?

Colonel Sanders

Was out at a car auction in Lucan last night wher cars are auctioned with no reserve and are bought as you see it with no guarantee. Some of them were selling for ridiculously cheap prices. I know you'd need someone to give under the bonnet the once over for you and to find out there was nothing wrong with it but some of the prices seemed outrageous to someone who's considering buying his first car.

Has anyone ever bought a car or had any experience dealing with them?

www.wilsonsauctions.com

Jakey

I bought a BMW off them some time ago it was down on the catalouge as a 318 and with no badge on the back. When I got it home it was actually a 316. It had been in a relatively big accident a lot of the back suspension was rebuilt (not perfectly) and there was a few problems with the MAF sensor.

Obviously the crash damage and engine problems were my business as it was sold as seen but I wasnt pleased with their attitude to the car being described incorrectly in the catalouge basically they couldnt care less and didnt return my calls.

From my experience a lot of cars in there are taken in by dealers as trade in's and then they realise there's something wrong with them and dump them into the auction. They are a lot cheaper but its hard to get a good look at the car time is tight in there.

To save money your often better off going to the UK and you can give the car a proper test drive and going over.

There is some good cars like repo's ect.. but you really need to be very very weary.

Colonel Sanders

thanks for the advice jakey, I wouldn't know muh about cars and engines etc so there's no way I'd go and buy one without having someone give it a through going over.

Dades

Sounds to me like you shouldn't part with more cash than you are prepared to lose.

Would love to go along to one though.

Colonel Sanders

the car i was interested in last night only went for 650, was a 97 rover 214and had an NCT til september 2008. Didn't look under the bonnet but the body and interior were both in impeccible condition. Even if you got 6 months out of it trouble free at that I'd be happy!!!!

patrickc

i bought a 00 astra off merlin quiet reasonable a couple of years ago, apart from the normal problems i put 55000 miles on it and no problems and the girlfriend has it now going grand, only one issue bonnet was resprayed which i didnt notice and was apoor job and since that the bonnet flaked, but for what i paid for car and for what it's done I'm not complaining

Jakey

Those rovers have a bit of a reputation for not being very reliable and go for small money in the trade, dont forget you have auction fee's on top of the €650 cant remember them but im sure their on Wilsons website, If your spending that kind of money (and you can afford to loose it!) you shouldnt go too wrong ,

I've bought a good few cars in auctions over the years, and to be honest everyone of them had 'something' wrong with it, but you'll see plenty of threads on here from people who dealt with main dealers and had plenty of issues, As long as your getting it cheap enough in the auction to deal with the inevitable problems your alright!

I seen a saxo in Merlin once which was modified (badly) with the windscreen smashed out where the drives head impacted it and there was a large sign wrote onto the windscreen 'Brakes faulty'

Do-more

Jakey wrote:

dont forget you have auction fee's on top of the €650 cant remember them but im sure their on Wilsons website,

I've bought from Wilsons in Portadown previously and found them very good to deal with and in the North they have no buyers fees. It's a different story in Dublin, couldn't find any mention of fees on the website and assumed it was the same story as up north. I was doing a deal on a car which hadn't sold at the previous days and had my bid accepted with the vendor, they were then adding a whole pile of fees on top, had a stand up row with them, but they wouldn't budge on the amount of fees. I was dealing directly with the bossman Ricky Wilson and found him very arrogant.

I have avoided the place ever since....