Seen a car on Copart...is it so likely that it's a POS?
Discussion
So I've seen a car I really like the look of on Copart. It's a category N. The primary damage is listed as 'SIDE' and secondary 'MINOR DENTS/SCRATCHES'.
When I look at the pictures I'm REALLY struggling to see any problems at all.
You can't go down there and inspect yourself at the moment due to Covid.
It's a PURE SALE meaning there's no reserves/minimums.
There's a fair bit of interest from other bidders so the price is going up.
At the moment it's at about 36% of the value on a market like eBay or AutoTrader.
I've asked around and people seem convinced there's no way the car isn't more damaged than I can see. They're suggesting flood damage or electrical gremlins...
I've looked at the MOT history and this car has only ever failed twice...for parking brake efficiency problems.
Is it possible to grab a bargain on Copart?! So many people seem to think it's pure madness to think you can escape getting stung.
That in order for it to be a Copart in the first place it's an uneconomical repair. But that makes sense to me that this car which would sell for about £5k on eBay has possibly suffered nearly £5k of main dealer damage and therefore it's been sold by the insurance co to Copart.
I'm more than happy with a dent and a few scratches....
Help!! Thank you
When I look at the pictures I'm REALLY struggling to see any problems at all.
You can't go down there and inspect yourself at the moment due to Covid.
It's a PURE SALE meaning there's no reserves/minimums.
There's a fair bit of interest from other bidders so the price is going up.
At the moment it's at about 36% of the value on a market like eBay or AutoTrader.
I've asked around and people seem convinced there's no way the car isn't more damaged than I can see. They're suggesting flood damage or electrical gremlins...
I've looked at the MOT history and this car has only ever failed twice...for parking brake efficiency problems.
Is it possible to grab a bargain on Copart?! So many people seem to think it's pure madness to think you can escape getting stung.
That in order for it to be a Copart in the first place it's an uneconomical repair. But that makes sense to me that this car which would sell for about £5k on eBay has possibly suffered nearly £5k of main dealer damage and therefore it's been sold by the insurance co to Copart.
I'm more than happy with a dent and a few scratches....
Help!! Thank you
Might not be a POS, we have a huge fleet at work and one of my colleagues had a minor bump in a 330e a few years back, he literally tapped the back of a truck at a junction, no airbags or any significant damage, car was 6 months old and they wrote it off, he bought it back from copart for his brother / brother in law cant remember which but it had done 4 miles from when he had seen it last.
Not sure on how much it cost to repair as he left the company not long after but seems some insurance companies or lease firms write them off on a whim at times.
Not sure on how much it cost to repair as he left the company not long after but seems some insurance companies or lease firms write them off on a whim at times.
There doesn't seem to be a gaping chasm between the prices of 'undamaged' cars and those sold at salvage. Copart seems to be doing a roaring trade.
Makes me wonder whether its now a cheaper option for insurers just to write a vehicle off and pay the customer, rather than to repair (along with all the additional costs)
Makes me wonder whether its now a cheaper option for insurers just to write a vehicle off and pay the customer, rather than to repair (along with all the additional costs)
Watching the 'salvage rebuild' chaps on Youtube, they 'only' make £500-1000 on the cars they fix up using mostly used parts - which is fine if you are turning round a car every couple of days but surely not worth the saving as a one off (unless you want the enjoyment of the project) versus the risk of buying a duffer.
Does it show the type of seller on the CoPart website, not a name specifically but where it has come from i.e insurance company, private seller etc?
My only experience of this is from watching people on YouTube who do this for a living so make of that what you will but it is not unheard of for a buyer to buy a really nasty car from Co-Part, dos some minor exterior cosmetic repairs with slightly damaged panels to cover up bigger nasties and throw them back to auction to target a buyer who thinks as in the OP's case the damage isn't that bad.
I would be very cautious unless you are experienced in this field and/or you can go and view it in person
My only experience of this is from watching people on YouTube who do this for a living so make of that what you will but it is not unheard of for a buyer to buy a really nasty car from Co-Part, dos some minor exterior cosmetic repairs with slightly damaged panels to cover up bigger nasties and throw them back to auction to target a buyer who thinks as in the OP's case the damage isn't that bad.
I would be very cautious unless you are experienced in this field and/or you can go and view it in person
CoPart can be a tricky field to navigate. But for the most part, it requires going to see the vehicle, but, even then. There is no guarantee what you see on the outside is whats wrong on the underneath.
I have seen cars bought with minor body damage to a corner panel and it was a write off as it had shifted the whole chassis too far out to be repaired but on the surface it was driveable and easy to repair. I have seen flood damged cars that are sold as complete write off's need nothing more than a new battery, coils and a code reader and they've been perfectly fine after a bloody good clean.
I would say if you aren't spending too much and the damage doesn't appear that bad then as long as you go in eyes open and you aren't spending all your budget just on the car (unless its a car specifically you want) then you can't lose that much. As long as you plan for that and have space and time to break them etc.
If this is a car you are looking at buying as you want just that one and you aren't buying for stock or to repair and pass on for a profit then just be mindful of your budget. Make sure you add min 20% for stuff you didn't think of needing etc. And be open to the possibility it could be worse than it appears.
Alot of the yards i've had dealings with (copart and others). Have been happy for appointments before hand, even during COVID - though that will no doubt have changed now. But usually they are happy for you to make an appointment and go and see their vehicles. Deal directly not via the site though i find is more useful. Not sure if it works for everybody but i've done it 6 or 7 times over the three or four years i've been looking at cars on CoPart and other such places.
I have seen cars bought with minor body damage to a corner panel and it was a write off as it had shifted the whole chassis too far out to be repaired but on the surface it was driveable and easy to repair. I have seen flood damged cars that are sold as complete write off's need nothing more than a new battery, coils and a code reader and they've been perfectly fine after a bloody good clean.
I would say if you aren't spending too much and the damage doesn't appear that bad then as long as you go in eyes open and you aren't spending all your budget just on the car (unless its a car specifically you want) then you can't lose that much. As long as you plan for that and have space and time to break them etc.
If this is a car you are looking at buying as you want just that one and you aren't buying for stock or to repair and pass on for a profit then just be mindful of your budget. Make sure you add min 20% for stuff you didn't think of needing etc. And be open to the possibility it could be worse than it appears.
Alot of the yards i've had dealings with (copart and others). Have been happy for appointments before hand, even during COVID - though that will no doubt have changed now. But usually they are happy for you to make an appointment and go and see their vehicles. Deal directly not via the site though i find is more useful. Not sure if it works for everybody but i've done it 6 or 7 times over the three or four years i've been looking at cars on CoPart and other such places.
boombox said:
That in order for it to be a Copart in the first place it's an uneconomical repair. But that makes sense to me that this car which would sell for about £5k on eBay has possibly suffered nearly £5k of main dealer damage and therefore it's been sold by the insurance co to Copart.
Daughter's Golf Twist was worth around £5K when it was written off after being rear-ended by a van. Really, the only visible damage was the rear hatch - and it didn't even break the lamp units set into the hatch door. However the upper hinges had absorbed some impact and transferred that via the rear structural hoop to put the slightest kinks into the C posts, so it was written off.Someone on here who is in the trade wanted the car but the insurance company and the repairer got very vague about where the car was and I suspected someone had grabbed it as, ignoring the kinks, it would have been a cheap and simple repair using a used hatch.
However several weeks later it did eventually appear on Copart and I followed the auction as it went up in price but then you can't see the final price unless a member. The guy on here who wanted it reckoned it would have gone for around £2500.
Whether it's a good idea to drive around in car that's suffered some level of damage to its structural integrity, I'm not sure. But no way would I want my daughter and granddaughter to be doing that.
Buying a car from Copart is no different from buying from anywhere else in essence. Some things will go cheaper than expected, other things will go for more than expected, most will be par for the course.
Firstly, Copart's fees are very reasonable compared to a lot of other places. Some people who want to buy something from Copart as a one-off include their membership fee. So for a one-off, that does bump the cost up a bit, but for an annual membership it's ok. Obviously they do have their fees as every auction house does, but they're on their website for all to see.
Copart sell thousands of vehicles every day. Most customers will be satisfied, so there's no reason why anyone should get "stung". Obviously, some cars will cause more problems that what is initially accounted for, but that goes for buying from a "regular" car auction, from a dealer, privately or any other medium.
If you buy a car that's worth £5000, then it's fair to assume that the cost of repair has been assessed by the insurance company as being in excess of £2500. Now, every insurance company operates slightly differently, but in every case that will be allowing for a "worst case" scenario and replacing any damaged parts with new, genuine parts. It is also likely to include any storage costs between repair work being carried out, courtesy car hire and any other transport costs incurred. In reality, in most cases, £2500 worth of "repairs" can be carried out to a perfectly good standard for £1000 or less.
Another thing to bare in mind is that most vehicles on Copart receive little to no bidding prior to the moment they go through the auction, so prices days or even hours beforehand are very little guide. Also, Copart in the UK attracts buyers from all over the world. Many cars end up in Eastern Europe and some even end up in Asia and Africa. If you bid at Copart online, the country of origin of every bid flashes up on screen. The UK is the cheapest place in the world to buy most used cars and exported to those countries it's highly unlikely that anyone will trace that it's been written off and no one would really care anyway. All this means is that it makes it harder to grab a bargain as bids from abroad may often take the price of the car above what it is realistically worth to anyone in the UK.
You can grab a serious bargain, but it's all about what happens on the day. My best buy ever from Copart was a 55 Plate KA about 6 years ago with 30k-odd on the clock. I bought it blind hoping that it would be OK as I wanted a little runabout.courtesy car for our workshop. I got it for £70 on the hammer (about £117 or something with all fees), went to pick it up, drove it back, booked it in for an MOT and it flew through (needed a rear number plate light only). It was a mint car, rust free. Cat C for rear impact, but it showed no sign whatsoever of damage on the outside as the bumper had sprung back into shape. As said, there was only a number plate light broken and the boot floor was slightly kinked underneath, but didn't really affect the car in anyway and was soon thrashed out anyway.
Kept the car for a couple of years and a customer who drove it a few times liked it so much they offered £1000 and I took it as we'd upgraded to an Audi A1 and A2 as our fleet of courtesy cars by then anyway!
Firstly, Copart's fees are very reasonable compared to a lot of other places. Some people who want to buy something from Copart as a one-off include their membership fee. So for a one-off, that does bump the cost up a bit, but for an annual membership it's ok. Obviously they do have their fees as every auction house does, but they're on their website for all to see.
Copart sell thousands of vehicles every day. Most customers will be satisfied, so there's no reason why anyone should get "stung". Obviously, some cars will cause more problems that what is initially accounted for, but that goes for buying from a "regular" car auction, from a dealer, privately or any other medium.
If you buy a car that's worth £5000, then it's fair to assume that the cost of repair has been assessed by the insurance company as being in excess of £2500. Now, every insurance company operates slightly differently, but in every case that will be allowing for a "worst case" scenario and replacing any damaged parts with new, genuine parts. It is also likely to include any storage costs between repair work being carried out, courtesy car hire and any other transport costs incurred. In reality, in most cases, £2500 worth of "repairs" can be carried out to a perfectly good standard for £1000 or less.
Another thing to bare in mind is that most vehicles on Copart receive little to no bidding prior to the moment they go through the auction, so prices days or even hours beforehand are very little guide. Also, Copart in the UK attracts buyers from all over the world. Many cars end up in Eastern Europe and some even end up in Asia and Africa. If you bid at Copart online, the country of origin of every bid flashes up on screen. The UK is the cheapest place in the world to buy most used cars and exported to those countries it's highly unlikely that anyone will trace that it's been written off and no one would really care anyway. All this means is that it makes it harder to grab a bargain as bids from abroad may often take the price of the car above what it is realistically worth to anyone in the UK.
You can grab a serious bargain, but it's all about what happens on the day. My best buy ever from Copart was a 55 Plate KA about 6 years ago with 30k-odd on the clock. I bought it blind hoping that it would be OK as I wanted a little runabout.courtesy car for our workshop. I got it for £70 on the hammer (about £117 or something with all fees), went to pick it up, drove it back, booked it in for an MOT and it flew through (needed a rear number plate light only). It was a mint car, rust free. Cat C for rear impact, but it showed no sign whatsoever of damage on the outside as the bumper had sprung back into shape. As said, there was only a number plate light broken and the boot floor was slightly kinked underneath, but didn't really affect the car in anyway and was soon thrashed out anyway.
Kept the car for a couple of years and a customer who drove it a few times liked it so much they offered £1000 and I took it as we'd upgraded to an Audi A1 and A2 as our fleet of courtesy cars by then anyway!
I just had a look on there and some 1 series on 20 plates seem lightly damaged to be written off, I do wander how much the pedestrian restrains systems cost to replace as 2 have the bonnet up ended so may be a big cost?
Saw this 4 series on there
https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/56844600/clean-title-...
Saw this 4 series on there
https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/56844600/clean-title-...
jonwm said:
I just had a look on there and some 1 series on 20 plates seem lightly damaged to be written off, I do wander how much the pedestrian restrains systems cost to replace as 2 have the bonnet up ended so may be a big cost?
Saw this 4 series on there
https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/56844600/clean-title-...
T-Cut and good to go Saw this 4 series on there
https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/56844600/clean-title-...
The 4 Series parts will be from a stolen car that has been stripped but the ID confirmed and the parts then become property if the insurance company of they paid out.
As for buying from CoPart, it is buyer beware but some cars do end up there with minimal damage. I know of lots of cars, especially more premium brands that are written off due to the cost of new parts (£1000 for a headlight when it’s only a broken bracket etc) and potential 3rd party hire charges mean it’s easier just to pay out.
One thing to watch is some vehicles are moved by forklift.
As for buying from CoPart, it is buyer beware but some cars do end up there with minimal damage. I know of lots of cars, especially more premium brands that are written off due to the cost of new parts (£1000 for a headlight when it’s only a broken bracket etc) and potential 3rd party hire charges mean it’s easier just to pay out.
One thing to watch is some vehicles are moved by forklift.
Go on Salvage Rebuilds Youtube channel.
He gets a few of his cars from Copart and there are videos showing the process and fees etc..
They still get stung occasionally and they've been doing it for years so it can be a gamble even for the experienced people.
He's mainly looking at small hatches but he has just bought a GLA I think which is his most expensive project to date.
He gets a few of his cars from Copart and there are videos showing the process and fees etc..
They still get stung occasionally and they've been doing it for years so it can be a gamble even for the experienced people.
He's mainly looking at small hatches but he has just bought a GLA I think which is his most expensive project to date.
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