Liquidation Auction - Why do people bid so high??

ninty9er

I went down this morning to have a look at what was on offer from Irish Car Rentals in their surplus stock from restructuring (They have closed Motorzone on the Dock Road) and had 2 cars in mind heading in.

Both the same spec and year with similar odo readings, one manual, one easytronic.

I looked at the condition of both and the bits and pieces that needed doing and thought of what would be a fair price if I were to go to a dealer and get them fixed up with a warranty. I settled on about €6k for that calculation. Then I looked at the bumps, the fact I'd be getting no warranty, the fact that neither appeared to be serviced for about 20k kms, and the fact that neither had the service history to hand. I settled that with a buyers premium of 5% that €4k/€4,250 would be a fair hammer price but that I would go €3,750 for a total of €4k incl expenses as both needed a bit of work.

I went along halfway through and there was a deluge of Astra 1.4 Life (06) sold for the €5k/€6k ballpark. I thought I'd stick around just in case as the 2 Astra Design I was looking at were estates and the market might not be there. The Easytronic with lower odo reading and much better bodywork sold at the hammer for €5,250 and the beat up manual fetched €5.5k.

Is it just me or is that a ridiculous price, even more so for the Lifes as the spec is completely ****e.

I thought it was a liquidation of surplus assets (i.e excess supply over demand = lower equilibrium, simple economics). Why do idiots insist on going to these things and paying near retail prices for a car they have no comeback on and depriving the rest of us of a (relatively) good deal?

/rant

mickdw

The auctions have gone mad in fairness. ITs happening everywhere. People paying pretty much retail & no good reason for it. Just too many non dealers thinking they are getting a bargain.

mathepac

A condition known as "auction fever" - an inability to stop bidding up a piece of tat to an astronomical price.

kildare.17hmr

People have come into me with cars they bought at auction after paying more than i could have sold them the same car for fully serviced with warranty ect.... its crazy carry on at the moment

Berty

I think a big issue could be people not understanding there are different specs of cars. I was speaking to a guy yesterday about him 318ES and I said I would prefer a minimum spec of an SE.

He had no clue there were different models of cars. He assumed BMW had a 1 series, 3 series, 5 series etc etc but only one type of car in each range with only a difference of engine sizes / fuels.

I have an SXi Sport Hatch Astra(09) outside the door right now and I said to somebody with a 5 door hatch design parked right next to us that I prefer the better spec. He couldn't understand that there was a difference. He eventually settled that there were 3 doors instead of 5 but didn't appreciate the alloys, air con, obc etc.

An auctioneers dream.

-Corkie-

Berty wrote: »

I think a big issue could be people not understanding there are different specs of cars. I was speaking to a guy yesterday about him 318ES and I said I would prefer a minimum spec of an SE.

He had no clue there were different models of cars. He assumed BMW had a 1 series, 3 series, 5 series etc etc but only one type of car in each range with only a difference of engine sizes / fuels.

I have an SXi Sport Hatch Astra(09) outside the door right now and I said to somebody with a 5 door hatch design parked right next to us that I prefer the better spec. He couldn't understand that there was a difference. He eventually settled that there were 3 doors instead of 5 but didn't appreciate the alloys, air con, obc etc.

An auctioneers dream.

I agree there. The missus has a passat Hi line with a good few extras. I know a guy with the base model and he thinks they are the same cars...:mad:

bazz26

Not everyone is savy on cars the same way to most every 40" tv is the same.

Unfortunately these same people end up paying huge money at auctions because they know someone who got a "great bargin" at auction once or they seen it on the tv but have done no homework or are not streetwise to how auctions work. Auctions are full of novices with more money than sense, I've been to a few with experienced buyers, to get a look at how they work, the amount of shilling going on at some of these places is a real eye opener.

Berty

bazz26 wrote: »

Auctions are full of novices with more money than sense, I've been to a few with experienced buyers, to get a look at how they work, the amount of shilling going on at some of these places is a real eye opener.

Do you mean through bid inflating?

bazz26

Berty wrote: »

Do you mean through bid inflating?

Yep.

Barr

Is it the public or the trade bidding for these cars ?

djimi

Berty wrote: »

I think a big issue could be people not understanding there are different specs of cars. I was speaking to a guy yesterday about him 318ES and I said I would prefer a minimum spec of an SE.

He had no clue there were different models of cars. He assumed BMW had a 1 series, 3 series, 5 series etc etc but only one type of car in each range with only a difference of engine sizes / fuels.

I have an SXi Sport Hatch Astra(09) outside the door right now and I said to somebody with a 5 door hatch design parked right next to us that I prefer the better spec. He couldn't understand that there was a difference. He eventually settled that there were 3 doors instead of 5 but didn't appreciate the alloys, air con, obc etc.

An auctioneers dream.

Surely concept of spec isnt that hard to understand? Car 1 has X, car 2 has X, Y and Z therefore car 2 is higher spec. If someone cant grasp that concept then id be seriously worried for them...

Our man in Havana

Barr wrote: »

Is it the public or the trade bidding for these cars ?

It would be a mixture of trade and public. There is no way trade bidders would bid the crazy prices quoted.

djimi wrote: »

Surely concept of spec isnt that hard to understand? Car 1 has X, car 2 has X, Y and Z therefore car 2 is higher spec. If someone cant grasp that concept then id be seriously worried for them...

Some bidders are seriously thick as this thread illustrates.

Berty

djimi wrote: »

Surely concept of spec isnt that hard to understand? Car 1 has X, car 2 has X, Y and Z therefore car 2 is higher spec. If someone cant grasp that concept then id be seriously worried for them...

To be fair, other than people who peruse this forum, people are by in large see cars as A-B vehicles. I was reading a Car For Sale thing on a "car" today and was thinking of being overly pedantic if the driver arrived by informing him that his "car" was in fact an SUV.

My brother has a Style Mondeo(08) and my Father has a Zetec(08). Neither one of them were aware when buying the car or are now aware of differences if any(as far as they are concerned) that are between the cars. They can spot things like alloys and fog lights but after that they have to be sat down with a powerpoint presentation to show them the cruise control, climate control, mfsw etc etc.

I was selling a car and eluded in the advert of it having alloys, spoiler, leather seats, all elecs etc etc and a guy rang me to see if it was a boy racer car. It was the top range laguna but he thought that all those extras were added afterwards because his wife used to have a laguna and it had none of those. Why he rang me I will never know.

frank gooding

On 2 points

The prices at some auctions are crazy, you need a good discount to justify no test drive or good opp for a decent check over by your mechanic.

On the spec level thing. something I am very concious of, I am suprised people are not more clued in.

If I am buying a car I tend to read up a lot and will wait for higher power higher spec model.

langdang

Berty wrote: »

It was the top range laguna but he thought that all those extras were added afterwards because his wife used to have a laguna and it had none of those. Why he rang me I will never know.

A) Do they ever wonder what all the blanks are for?
They have obviously never ever looked at the manual! I just can't imagine someone who wouldn't pull out the manual to at least see what oil and what bulbs/how to change them? And if you did pull out the manual you'd surely flick through it (and get depressed thinking about all the things you didn't miss until you knew about them)?

There's a lot of people who think they are more cleverer than the rest of us fuls, and would hate if someone beat them to a "bargain"

-Corkie-

langdang wrote: »

A) Do they ever wonder what all the blanks are for?
They have obviously never ever looked at the manual! I just can't imagine someone who wouldn't pull out the manual to at least see what oil and what bulbs/how to change them? And if you did pull out the manual you'd surely flick through it (and get depressed thinking about all the things you didn't miss until you knew about them)?

There's a lot of people who think they are more cleverer than the rest of us fuls, and would hate if someone beat them to a "bargain"

Its ok for the likes of us who have a good knowledge of cars. However some people have no clue what so ever of cars etc. I mean men now!!!!!.
As Berty said above about his laguna. Just goes to show you some dealers make a fortune on Mr x trading in the base model passat and the sales man tells him its worth fcuk all because its the base model etc etc. Then Mr y comes in with not a clue and sales man convinces him to buy this great passat with a huge profit. Fair play to the dealer though....:)

Eric Cartman

langdang wrote: »

And if you did pull out the manual you'd surely flick through it (and get depressed thinking about all the things you didn't miss until you knew about them)?

I despise cars that arent full spec, id rather a slightly older/slower car with all the toys than a newer/faster one in bog spec , looking at manuals and seeing options that arent installed is depressing , but some people just dont care about that for some reason

djimi

Eric Cartman wrote: »

I despise cars that arent full spec, id rather a slightly older/slower car with all the toys than a newer/faster one in bog spec , looking at manuals and seeing options that arent installed is depressing , but some people just dont care about that for some reason

I feel the same now. The thing I loved about my Accord was that there wasnt a single dummy button on the dashboard; it had every feature it should have had. Now when I see cars with dummy buttons on the dash I cant help think that something is missing. Id sooner drop a couple of years and get all the features rather than spend the same money on a newer car with less features just because its newer. For example Id now find it very hard to own a car that doesnt have air con (it was hard enough not having a sunroof in my ITR!).

BigEejit

djimi wrote: »

I feel the same now. The thing I loved about my Accord was that there wasnt a single dummy button on the dashboard; it had every feature it should have had. Now when I see cars with dummy buttons on the dash I cant help think that something is missing. Id sooner drop a couple of years and get all the features rather than spend the same money on a newer car with less features just because its newer. For example Id now find it very hard to own a car that doesnt have air con (it was hard enough not having a sunroof in my ITR!).

Hehe, I bought an older model Accord for that exact reason

My very first car had probably 1 in 3 of the buttons that actually did something, the rest were blanks and it has always bugged me since that the majority of cars in Ireland were small engined, low spec and overpriced :mad:

As for people bidding stupid prices for cars without warranty, its a kind of darwin thing ... by the time they fixed everything thats wrong with them etc and then they try to sell them they find out that they are €000's out of pocket ....
That and people not knowing when to flipping stop bidding


/edit
I stopped buying computer stuff of ebay because of this, how many times did I see the used item I was hoping to get cheap sell for close to or more than new price

Eric Cartman

djimi wrote: »

I feel the same now. The thing I loved about my Accord was that there wasnt a single dummy button on the dashboard; it had every feature it should have had. Now when I see cars with dummy buttons on the dash I cant help think that something is missing. Id sooner drop a couple of years and get all the features rather than spend the same money on a newer car with less features just because its newer. For example Id now find it very hard to own a car that doesnt have air con (it was hard enough not having a sunroof in my ITR!).

Air Con, Leather Seats and Cruise Control , three things i can no longer live without , blank buttons actually make me angry , doesnt matter how pointless the feature , My Kia sorento only had 1, headlight washers, not essential but i bought the kit and fitted them just to have it full spec (needless to say it was a UK import, nobody in ireland dared to pay for any option on them)

djimi

I can live without leather seats as I dont actually like them (much prefer Recaros tbh!) but Im with you on air con and cruise control (another thing I miss from my Accord). Whatever about in the car Im driving at the moment, I dont expect or want that kind of thing, if Im ever driving a saloon type car again (as Im sure to be in the future) its going to have to have air con, a sunroof and cruise control.

BenEadir

Hi all,

I'm looking to spend a max of €13,000 on a car with the following spec's.

- Diesel
- Max 2.5 Litre engine (maybe up to 3.0L for a 4x4)
- 2005 or younger
- Air con, Cruise, Leather etc

I'm veering towards BMW 5 Series, Audi A6, Jeep Grand Cherokee or a well spec'd VW Passat.

What are the auctions like for these models? I'm based in South Dublin so I guess the auctions on the Naas Road are the ones to watch?

Would anyone recommend any other models which meet my criteria?

Ben

drver1

merlin auctions

belgard auctions

wilson auctions

john.mcmahon

Does anybody know what price the Opel Zafira's sold for? 2 x 05 and 1 x 06. I was going to go down and have a look but couldn't make it in the end.