• Does anyone have any experience buying from auction, or though auctions brokers? I'm looking for a van through Manheim and BCA but they are only running online auctions at the moment for motor traders and not lowly self employed people like me.

  • My advice would be check out the fee on top of buying and what indemnity you get.

    Are you paying vat? Might be worth a wander round the van sales places as there used to be commercial auctions where 5/10/15/20 fleet vans were sold off as one lot, bought by the van sales places and then sold on individually and prices could be lower than auction prices for individual vans.

    If buying a fleet van be aware that some fleet people such as BT do things to the ECU to limit speed.

    Does it need to be cosmetically perfect? As have bought vans that were beyond economic repair but could be repaired cheaply with second hand parts or left cosmetically challenged. But then you need to view to see the damage.

  • Thanks bud -- the one that comes up the highest on Google is called 'flipping cars' (which is really not a company name that imbue's trust!) The fees seem quite fair (£395 for up to £20k), the reviews are all extremely positive (which feels dodgy), and all of the literature that they put out comes across quite agro and badly written. So in short I'm a bit worried about handing them £15k to go do some bidding for me! It will be going through a VAT registered company so that's not really an issue.

    It doesn't need to be perfect condition, but I want something that will last. Really good point on the ECU -- will make sure to check that.

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