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Flipping Cars company

IBrows89

I'm currently looking at buying a car (preferably from the UK) and a friend mentioned Flipping Cars.The name alone sounds bad but looked at the website and it seems to be fairly well reviewed and a good concept. They have an Irish address and can ship to car over from the UK for around £300.

Has anyone used these before? I don't know anyone first hand that have used them so am still a bit wary.

Sorry if there is already a thread on this I must have missed it...

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vicM

krissovo wrote: »

Payment terms are to complete payment within 24hrs of a successful auction otherwise there are additional fees.

I completed my payment over about a week using revolut. There was no extra charges

vicM

krissovo wrote: »

No, I don’t think he does finance

Think he can arrange finance. Doubt for customers out of the UK though

iPhone.

Anyone got any idea why the flippingcars uk website is down?

EDIT****** Just read the following on his facebook page**** --

FlippingCars.co.uk
Yesterday at 5:17 AM ·
WEBSITE OUTAGE: Updated 10th Nov 2019 7:36am

SUPPORT EMAIL: support@mail.flippingcars.ladesk.com

If you need to email us please use the email above for the time being. We have been told our site may be down for 24 to 48 hours.

We currently have a website outage whilst the servers and site is upgraded. Please bear with us over the weekend. Emails arent working currently so please send all emails to the support ticketing system here support@mail.flippingcars.ladesk.com

LillySV

Lads what if u order car and when u see it , it’s covered in scratches and bumps ?

colm_mcm

LillySV wrote: »

Lads what if u order car and when u see it , it’s covered in scratches and bumps ?

Pretty much tough luck. You’ll have already paid the auction house for it.
That said the auction reports are usually very detailed, and somewhat over harsh if you were to take them literally.
Mate bought a car from auction in a similar manner, and we were expecting it to be a little on the rough side. In reality the marks they highlighted were tiny and most buffed out.
As far as I know, flipping cars don’t actually inspect the car in person before bidding.

User1998

Ive bought a few cars through Flipping Cars and they had significantly more damage than in the condition reports. Nothing major just scratches and that. I think they were Grade 3/4. Stick with Grade 1/2 if you want a clean car.

Colm is right that the conditions reports seem overly harsh but the cars I got had significant marks that weren’t noted on the reports.

LillySV

Anyone any experience of these?

https://ukcarimports.ie/

Seem to be more detailed

User1998

They buy the car from auction add a big margin and rip you off. The “trade prices” they advertise are a lot more than the cars actually sell for and they pocket the rest

point2176

That’s interesting because I looked at flipping cars prices and the prices on ukcarimports are the same if not lower and there’s plenty more choice too.
Ukcarimports has more cars, has the VRT and the NOx.
I plan to use them myself when I get my head around the NOx

User1998

The few that I looked at today had much higher prices than flipping cars. I’ve seen other posters here say that their margins were big and that it took all the value out of importing. What fee do they charge?

Also with flipping cars its best to look on BCA and just send him a link or the reg of the cars your interested in. His new website isn’t the best

point2176

I’ve spent quite a while looking into the process as you would with such a big purchase and flipping cars don’t seem to include their fee in the price on their site, which for the car I’m interested in would be €400 extra and that doesn’t include the transport either. When I added everything up they were more or less the same but ukcarimports offer a guarantee on the condition of the car matching the reports with the car so to me it’s a no brainer
Their VRT service is appealing to me as well as I’ve heard it can be a pain.

crystalbrite

Just found an interesting example comparing the same car on flipping cars, ukimports, and a local garage who also sent me pictures for the same car today.
Flipping cars seems to be ~€2000 cheaper

Totals including transport, VRT, Nox, Fees:
Flipping Cars: €16332
UK Imports: €18390 (€2058 more expensive)
Local Garage = €19000 (€610 more expensive)

Flipping cars:
Guide Price = £9850 +-10% = €11672 +-10%
Auction Fee: ? £340 = €403
Our Fee = £295 = €350
Delivery: £295+VAT = €350+VAT =~ 500€
Total: 11672+403+350+500 = €12925

VRT: €3227
NoX: €180
Final = €16332

https://flippingbuddy.co.uk/cars/audi-a4-14-tfsi-150-sport-2016-66-reg-sb66-ydt

UK Imports:
Trade Price: €14588 +-5%
Delivery: €395
Total = €14983

VRT: €3227
NoX: €180
Final = €18390

https://ukcarimports.ie/vehicle/25142834-c8ff-4d3c-9c35-796b6b09c85a/

Local garage was expecting ~€19000

LillySV

From a lot of the cars I’m looking at, I’m starting to wonder if haggling here might be nearly as good for half the options ... euro to sterling is ****... nox is **** for at least half the cars I’m interested in... I’m saving hundreds at most and end up with a car with no warranty

For fun

I looked in to that this morning as I am interested myself in UK vehicle despite the NOx- it still looks cheaper than here and for me choice is important too. There's so few options here in the XC90 which I'm after in the hybrid
That A4 is selling for between £13-14K on Autotrader, with my BCA account that A4 is listed at £10,600, Flipping cars don't seem to list condition or mechanical reports - not sure why but on BCA the car looks good. From this thread and others its unlikely the car will sell at auction for £10,600 lets allow 10% as they suggest that brings it to £11,660 plus fees and transport - say €850 then with VRT Nox etc you are looking at €18,000 to have that car here and registered

Sorry forgot auction fee - which is say €450? - brings it to €18,450 on flipping cars

Not sure if you are aware of all that, worth knowing auction prices are not fixed and I don't think the price on flipping cars is representative, least not on that A4

colm_mcm

Once you pay the fee, he will give you more accurate prices.

crystalbrite

For fun wrote: »

I looked in to that this morning as I am interested myself in UK vehicle despite the NOx- it still looks cheaper than here and for me choice is important too. There's so few options here in the XC90 which I'm after in the hybrid
That A4 is selling for between £13-14K on Autotrader, with my BCA account that A4 is listed at £10,600, Flipping cars don't seem to list condition or mechanical reports - not sure why but on BCA the car looks good. From this thread and others its unlikely the car will sell at auction for £10,600 lets allow 10% as they suggest that brings it to £11,660 plus fees and transport - say €850 then with VRT Nox etc you are looking at €18,000 to have that car here and registered

Not sure if you are aware of all that, worth knowing auction prices are not fixed and I don't think the price on flipping cars is representative, least not on that A4

Based on that then there's not much difference between flipping cars, uk imports, and local garage then. Not actually planning on buying this car, looking for a higher spec.

I was thinking of searching for cars on ukimports to read the reports and then jumping back over to flipping cars when I want to try purchase it for a cheaper price.

User1998

Flipping cars is definitely the cheapest way to import a car theres no doubt about it. Adding 10% to the price wouldn’t be correct. Its plus or minus 10%. I’ve bought cars from flipping cars that have been 10% less than the guide price.

For fun

That maybe true but I note from your posts that you repeatedly espouse flipping cars, which makes me sceptical, and the facts are that auction cars often sell for more than 10% over the CAP price, especially if they are Grade 1 or 2. If you are from Flipping cars you should be aware it is against the rules to post on your own company

The fact is I don't think there is any real benefit going to auction on luxury vehicles in the better condition grades and from what I can see in this thread if you do have an issue if you buy through flipping cars then the buyer is on their own afterwards

I don't see they offer a warranty either

Better choice and similar prices elsewhere IMO

ps - just noticed flipping cars charge a fee ahead of purchase, so even if you don't get a car they get their fee, seems it might suit them to advertise cars cheaper than they sell for?

User1998

Yeah I work for flipping cars alright, cop on. I’ve imported several cars some with flipping cars and some myself and I’m just giving my honest advice that Flipping cars is the cheapest way to do it. Yeah its not perfect, if you use his shipping service it will take a month to get here. (Better to arrange transport with an Irish company.) And one of the cars I bought had a dead battery and a broken door handle. And I said above that they can have some minor damage that isn’t noted on the condition reports.

Just because some cars sell over 10% of the guide price doesn’t mean you have to pay it? You set your budget and if a car sells over your budget then its on to the next one. He does offer a warranty on the cars and also offers finance (uk customers only for finance I think). Regardless of warranty, if you bought a car from a dealer in the uk and something went wrong with it what are you going to do? Get a ferry over to the UK with a car that won’t drive? Obviously not, your on your own.

If you feel there is no value in buying from auction then do what most people do which is buy from a dealer in the UK (Who will have bought the car from auction a week earlier). You’ll pay a bit more that way but if the dealer is decent you’ll have a a clean car with hopefully no issues. Obviously a step up from that is buying from a main dealer. More expensive but more peace of mind.

My current car probably would have been more expensive to buy from auction, it was the cheapest one on Auto-trader at the time. The garage had about 6 of the same model similar mileage so probably purchased directly from a leasing company, not from auction.

You pay the fee and you can bid on as many cars as you like. For example I paid a fee 6 months ago and emailed them last week and they were happy to continue bidding on cars for me. From my experience of bidding on the cars they don’t advertise lower prices than what the cars actually sell for. Obviously some go for over guide price and some go for less. He openly admits that the likes of an M Sport BMW is going to attract more buyers and thus increase the hammer price

For fun

Thanks. If you are not being paid then you certainly are very keen to promote them! I have found that myself there are better deals to be had outside of auction and like you say you can be lucky with a dead battery but I have read alot of stories about replacement clutches and gearboxes being required for auction vehicles on Google Reviews for the various BCA sites. Its ugly reading and if you don't draw attention to it before you remove the car from the auction site then there is no comeback
On top of that they don't offer an Irish warranty or finance and waiting for a car for a month is a bit of a joke unless they are looking after the registration too? which I can't see they offer on their site. From what I can gather UK garages do offer to cover issues after purchase and ukcarimports offer a guarantee the car will arrive as described in the reports. At least they have a warranty option
The fact you paid for a car 6 months ago and have been trying to buy since says it all - clearly the prices on flipping cars are not representative or I am sure you would have bought something months ago. Don't forget 6 months ago sterling was 0.89p in the euro - he doesn't refund that fee - how you are so positive is odd as you haven't got a car from them yet!
I would definitely take any advice from you with a major pinch of salt

User1998

No thats not the case. I was selling cars at the time but my circumstances changed and I didn’t bid on any cars for 6 months after paying the fee. Generally I set my budget at the guide price or maybe £100 more and I’d usually win first time. I’ve gotten a few cars through flipping cars all of which were perfect, one had a dead battery and a broken door handle. (A dead battery that required a jump start, big deal)

Yeah UK garages do offer warranties, but that wasn’t my point. My point was how are you going to get the car fixed if something goes wrong? Are you going to get the car transported back to the UK to get it fixed? And then transported back to Ireland? Its not going to happen. My current car had issues that I bought from a UK dealer and they wouldn’t return my calls. The only way of getting a real warranty from the UK is from buying from a main dealer who will honour the warranty in Ireland.

Yeah sterling was better 6 months ago, but exchange rates applies to any uk purchase not just flipping cars so that point doesn’t really make sense.

Well good luck with your purchase. Buying from auction isn’t for everyone

For fun

Thanks Flipping cars - you should sack your marketing manager and develop a new cover story - your current one is full of holes

You paid for a car 6 months ago but you weren't in a rush to buy? More likely you saw a price you liked on their site (if any of this story is true), paid the fee but prices have been nowhere near that quoted price since.

On a £12,000 car the difference between 0.845p in the € and 0.89p in the € is €750! If you had bought when you made the payment of their fee you would now have pocketed that saving. Chasing ghosts can be costly! That's another reason i don't believe your spiel

No worries though for them (or you who knows!) though as they get to keep the fee - wink, wink!

I know for a fact that if a car is decent then 10% over cap is common not rare, and I know they often go for more again if they are in special sales like BMW Open or Mercedes. Lex Autolease command high prices too. This is obviously why you are waiting 6 months if your story is true

You shouldn't be trying to rope buyers in with unrealistic prices

I have no problem with buying from auctions but if i want something decent, like the XC90 I'm after with some guarantee that when I get it the clutch isn't hanging out, that there is some comeback and that I only pay a fee when I get a service then I'll pick a garage or ukcarimports. Real prices are the same. They offer a warranty and I won't be waiting 6 months to buy a car and another month to receive it

User1998

Thanks Paranoid weirdo

- I purchased a few cars from him. Paid the fee of €300, he bids on the car, if you win you transfer the balance and he arranges shipping. I won the cars every time after sticking to the guide price or slightly higher. In my case the cars usually sold for less than guide price. I then paid another fee to bid on another car and didn’t end up bidding on any cars until now because of a change in circumstances. I didn’t “Pay for a car 6 months ago” Your making it out that I’ve paid for a car 6 months ago that I still haven’t received. I used his shipping service once and the car took a month to get here, so I advised that you arrange transport yourself, which is cheaper and will only take a few days. I’m not trying to rope anyone into anything. If you stick to cars that come with an AA mechanical report and full service histories then your pretty much guaranteed to get a decent car way below prices on Auto trader. Most people including yourself would rather pay extra and buy from a garage for peace of mind. Buying from auction is more for people in the trade. As I said buying from auction isn’t for everyone but it always worked well for me and it works well for all the used car dealers importing their cars too. At this stage I really don’t care who you decide to go with. All I did was give my experience of flipping cars

Edit: I’ve just noticed you only created your account today and you seem to know so much about how bad Flipping cars is and how amazing UK Car Imports are, so I could say that your probably working for uk car imports marketing team, but I’m not a mad paranoid freak like you are

crystalbrite

User1998 wrote: »

Thanks Paranoid weirdo - I purchased a few cars from him. Paid the fee of €300, he bids on the car, if you win you transfer the balance and he arranges shipping. I won the cars every time after sticking to the guide price or slightly higher. In my case the cars usually sold for less than guide price. I then paid another fee to bid on another car and didn’t end up bidding on any cars until now because of a change in circumstances. I didn’t “Pay for a car 6 months ago” Your making it out that I’ve paid for a car 6 months ago that I still haven’t received. I used his shipping service once and the car took a month to get here, so I advised that you arrange transport yourself, which is cheaper and will only take a few days. I’m not trying to rope anyone into anything. If you stick to cars that come with an AA mechanical report and full service histories then your pretty much guaranteed to get a decent car way below prices on Auto trader. Most people including yourself would rather pay extra and buy from a garage for peace of mind. Buying from auction is more for people in the trade. As I said buying from auction isn’t for everyone but it always worked well for me and it works well for all the used car dealers importing their cars too.

Edit: I’ve just noticed you only created your account today and you seem to know so much about how bad Flipping cars is and how amazing UK Car Imports are, so I could say that your probably working for uk car imports marketing team, but I’m not a mad paranoid weirdo like you are

Haha, I was thinking the same about him working for ukcarimports. He seems really against you, and doesn't seem to be fully reading your posts, or just choosing to ignore the information.

For fun

well I was just thinking the same myself as your profile is only up since Sept 2019. Lets call it the battle of the newbies!

Every query I have raised is fair and the reports on google reviews about BCA cars are there for anyone to read. As far as I can see ukcarimports sells these cars too though they seem to have more forecourt vehicles listed. Other service providers eg UK garages offer some guarantee, you - I mean flipping cars - offers nothing just the anecdotes above - are they true? - maybe not - maybe they are - even if they are they leave me exposed if I use the flipping car service

You have explained how its been 6 months since you paid the fee - you must have missed that car and its clear your story is at least odd if not biased. Also I can't imagine any dealer being happy to wait a month for a car to arrive, time is money yeah?

I do have access to BCA prices and the A4 SB66 YDT is priced at £9,850 on flipping cars but on BCA the CAP is £10,600 (CAP clean) and if you use the other pricing they have on it its nearly £11,000. That's a clear attempt to suck people in to pay the fee and perhaps wait 6 months or maybe longer until they realise they will have to pay more than they though or lose their fee. Finally in 6 months or a year the currency has moved, they paid as much as they would elsewhere and somehow this is positive?

This is a scam in my opinion to suck money out of punters and that's how I see it

You should pay for access as I believe you are connected to flipping cars and you should at least be honest rather than say 'I won the cars every time after sticking to the guide price' that's not realistic - again it suits your goal to lure buyers in - take their money and let them sit on their hands for months or maybe years until they either give up or pay the real price

I have used Chris in Flipping Cars a few times and would recommend. A few points to consider:

- You pay his fee up front, which while some mightn't like. At the end of the day he has to run a premises, pay rent, employ staff and spend time bidding on cars. That costs money - paying a fee upfront weeds out buyers who aren't serious. The fee is there until you buy a car, so whether it takes 1 bid on a car, or bidding on 20 cars the fee remains the same. If you don't get a car through him, I know of cases where he will let you transfer the fee to someone else

- As someone else mentioned, his delivery service can be frustrating at best. Better off collecting yourself from Birmingham or getting a reputable firm to transport to Ireland.

- I haven't bought in a few months, but generally over the last year the UK market for cars has been very weak & there hasn't been a huge difference in garage prices & trade/auction prices. UK dealers have a reputation of not giving much discount, but in my opinion there is a bit more discount available now.

- Try looking at Manheim & Aston Barclay auction sites. They tend not to be as busy or have the same volume as BCA. Their cars aren't listed on Flipping Cars, but they can buy from all auctions. My last car came from Aston Barclay & was £2k cheaper than a same age/spec/mileage car that went through BCA the day before

yabadabado

I've seen it mentioned here a few times to organize your own transportation from UK if you cant go over and drive back.

What the cost to get a car transported over from UK to Dublin port or do any of the companies delivere to your address?

Just curious more than anything.

User1998

€350 to €450+vat door to door depending on where in the uk the car is

Edit: Sorry if you live far from Dublin and want door to door I’d say it would cost more

yabadabado

User1998 wrote: »

€350 to €450+vat door to door depending on where in the uk the car is

Edit: Sorry if you live far from Dublin and want door to door I’d say it would cost more

Doing it yourself will be cheaper but it's not too bad when you weight it up against getting a flight over,ferry back ,your time etc .

For fun

Its quite remarkable how many people on this thread are defending flipping cars.

User1998 is a car dealer that has spent the day and so many contributions I can't count, espousing flipping cars even though logically its hard to understand why a car dealer would be praising his competition ie flipping cars from the roof top. Surely if you are a car dealer you would be selling your cars that you buy from flipping cars into the same market as flipping cars? This guy always gets every car at auction for at or even below guide price. Anybody who has ever bought at auction knows that's cobblers -

Now bf admits there is an up front fee but sure doesn't he have bills for premises and staff? seems to me that its an online business and there is just himself and his wife - I guess bf means besty friendies with flipping cars? No comment about prices listed on flipping cars vs prices you end up paying? no comment on issues with cars from auction? No comment about a lack of guarantee or warranty

Its like one big love in

I have noted today the various videos this company makes and they all have immediate comments with likes and similar 'sales' guff that has the same cringe factor as his NOx video - 'Top o the mornin' rubbish

Well I can tell you that this is an obvious scam and it seems no one has even addressed my claim - but sure doesn't he have staff and a big car to pay for bf?