BCA car auction delivery charges

[Benji55]

Hi. Has anyone had much experience with bca’s deliver services? I am registered with them and bought a couple of cars over last few years but only from the most local site at Blackbush. I’m looking for a Vauxhall Corsa E for my daughter but nothing suitable locally but plenty at other locations. Just wondering if their delivery service is any good and how much should I factor in for delivery.

[GeniusOfLove]

They're usually as cheap as you'll get it anywhere but they turn up whenever they feel like it often with no warning. The website has nonsense dates on it and the first you know is when the man turns up or if you're lucky calls to say he's 5 minutes away.

That aside it's fine. Their pricing seems plucked from the air but I've only ever got decent 3rd parties to match it, not better it.

[Benji55]

Thanks for that. I had seen a few post on here complaining about their delivery customer services / communication. How do you estimate what to allow when bidding? Is there a rule of thumb like £1 a mile type of thing. I live in Berkshire and only ever bought from blackbush auction so always got someone to drop me off and i drive the car back. Im only looking for a Corsa maybe £4-5k so didn’t want to pay hundreds in delivery on top if that makes sense.

[GeniusOfLove]

It's about £1 a mile for the round trip, roughly I think

[wicksta]

How weird, I just Google searched this because I wanted to know roughly how much it would be from Manchester to Berks/Bucks M4 area as I'm new to BCA.

This week I won a car from Bedford and it unfortunately wasn't a pound a mile to deliver it, it was 146 quid. But maybe it gets better the further away you get.

Also a bit worrying hearing about the lack of comms around delivery, as I'm getting it delivered to a friends unit who wasn't listed in the address picker, so I just put a business in the same road. I did put in the info to call me first and that it wasn't the actual address, so hopefully they will call me.

[SuperPav]

I’ve had a handful delivered. Works out approximately £2 a mile (one way). Suspect it might be minimum of £150 or so if close, but mine always worked out roughly as above.

Some other trade sources are cheaper for delivery of their stock but I’ve never found 3rd party delivery companies that significantly undercut BCA delivery.

[wicksta]

SuperPav said:

I ve had a handful delivered. Works out approximately £2 a mile (one way). Suspect it might be minimum of £150 or so if close, but mine always worked out roughly as above.

Some other trade sources are cheaper for delivery of their stock but I ve never found 3rd party delivery companies that significantly undercut BCA delivery.

Did BCA turn up on the right day? I can't see how they'd be able to run an effective delivery service if they just turned up willy nilly on the wrong day without calling and expecting someone to be there. A car isn't exactly something they'd want to have to come back again for if they came on the wrong date, it's not an Amazon parcel they can just lob back in the van.

[SuperPav]

No it arrives completely at random and with no relation to any date that might show on the website. Sometimes quickly sometimes less so. But I’ll say no better or worse than other trade sources.

[GeniusOfLove]

SuperPav said:

No it arrives completely at random and with no relation to any date that might show on the website. Sometimes quickly sometimes less so. But I ll say no better or worse than other trade sources.

This.

I've got a couple of guys that work locally to the BCA auction sites that will deliver them for me cash in hand but I do that to know when the car will turn up not to save money.

[Benji55]

SuperPav said:

No it arrives completely at random and with no relation to any date that might show on the website. Sometimes quickly sometimes less so. But I ll say no better or worse than other trade sources.

That seems a common complaint with them. As delivery would be to my home address that shouldn’t be an issue there’s usually someone here. I say that assuming they won’t charge storage fees if they take 10 days to deliver the car.

[Jamescrs]

They are clearly geared up for dealing with dealers where they will (generally) be open Monday-Sunday 8-5 and will just accept a delivery when they arrive, not for private buyers who dare I say will be more demanding.

Hopefully they improve but I have always had the feeling BCA aren't too fussed about dealing with private buyers

[paul_c123]

Jamescrs said:

They are clearly geared up for dealing with dealers where they will (generally) be open Monday-Sunday 8-5 and will just accept a delivery when they arrive, not for private buyers who dare I say will be more demanding.

Hopefully they improve but I have always had the feeling BCA aren't too fussed about dealing with private buyers

This!

I didn't realise they even had any private buyers any more, I was under the impression that post-covid, they basically closed that side of the business. What you might also find is that being an electric, only a handful of their trade plate drivers want anything to do with it (they are a complete PITA for trade plate drivers, what with needing to be charged on a long drive, etc) so it might wait and wait for maybe up to 6 weeks or so.

You're better off going to get it yourself, or getting a friend to get it. That way you can also thoroughly check it before you leave site, because a number of issues that might crop up with a car (for example, missing electric charge leads, toolkit, spare wheel, parcel shelf; accident damage after the pics were taken; wrong or wildly inaccurate grading, non-runner when advertised as a runner; EML on; etc etc) can only be contested before it leaves site. There's a grace for if its delivered but obviously its much more hassle.