Auctions

Anonymous · February 5, 2004, 17:23

Hi all, this is my first post although ive been hangin around here for a few months now.
I have decided that my next car is going to be an MR2 roadster, however money is a bit of an issue (student) so i was thinking of maybe buying a 2 from an auction s:?: :?: s:?: Has anyone had any past experience with auctions that they could share?

One more thing, ive heard a lot of talk on here about pre-cats failing (im guessing this is part of the exhaust?) what do i look out for before buying?

Cheers

Liz · February 6, 2004, 01:21

How about ebay, few on there at the moment? Leave it to the last minute and strike! either that or there is one on autotrader at the moment in the South East :

2000 TOYOTA Mr2 roadster 1.8V VTi, 2000, Y reg. 21000 miles, Immac condition, tax, MoT, pas, full electrics, a/c, r/cl, stereo, alloys, hard top, alarm/immobiliser, catD repair, red interior, full service history. . . . . . (private)
£8,750

Cheap as chips!!

Tell I have got nothing to do at work at this time in the morning s:| :| s:|

Slacey · February 6, 2004, 08:22

Quote from: "Tomr2"One more thing, ive heard a lot of talk on here about pre-cats failing (im guessing this is part of the exhaust?) what do i look out for before buying?

Auctions can be a cheap source of cars, but it's not as good as it used to be, more people are giving it a go and are bidding the cars up to silly prices, negating any real savings.

As for the pre-cat problem, there isn't much you can do to check, unless the auction house are happy for you to remove one of the O2 sensors to check; most won't allow this.

Personally, I would say if you are not sure of what you are doing, try to buy one privately or from a dealer that has some warranty left on it.

Anonymous · February 6, 2004, 09:33

Liz wrote:

QuoteHow about ebay, few on there at the moment? Leave it to the last minute and strike! either that or there is one on autotrader at the moment in the South East :

2000 TOYOTA Mr2 roadster 1.8V VTi, 2000, Y reg. 21000 miles, Immac condition, tax, MoT, pas, full electrics, a/c, r/cl, stereo, alloys, hard top, alarm/immobiliser, catD repair, red interior, full service history. . . . . . (private)
£8,750

Cheap as chips!!

OH MY GOD!!! That is scary! Pretty much exactly the same spec as mine (except the red s:roll: :roll: s:roll: ) and I don't have the hardtop. I was hoping that the car was worth a couple more grand than that!!! Sheesh.......thats a little disapointing to see that......bugger......

Anonymous · February 6, 2004, 11:27

2000 TOYOTA Mr2 roadster 1.8V VTi, 2000, Y reg. 21000 miles, Immac condition, tax, MoT, pas, full electrics, a/c, r/cl, stereo, alloys, hard top, alarm/immobiliser, catD repair, red interior, full service history. . . . . . (private)
£8,750

Cheap as chips!!

'CatD repair' - not sure what this means? is that why its going so cheap?

filcee · February 6, 2004, 11:30

Quote from: "Tomr2"'CatD repair' - not sure what this means? is that why its going so cheap?

Perhaps it's a repaired insurance job? IMHO, your worst nightmare would be that it was written off and put back together again.

Is this the sort of thing that an HPI check would highlight? If it is, then it's probably worth the 100-or-so quid to make doubly sure, rather than buying a (nearly) 9-grand lemon.

Anonymous · February 6, 2004, 11:33

Quote from: "filcee"
Quote from: "Tomr2"'CatD repair' - not sure what this means? is that why its going so cheap?

Perhaps it's a repaired insurance job?

http://www.motuk.com/next.asp?ID=9

It was a write-off.

filcee · February 6, 2004, 11:41

Good find!

GSB · February 6, 2004, 11:44

My old car was a cat D. I was hit from behind and rather than repair it which, due to the bodyshop (Toyota Chelmsford funnily enough!) wanting to make as much money as possible, was priced at £1500, the insurance company wrote it off and gave me the value of the car instead (£1200).

There was nothing wrong with the car, which I bought back for £20, and carried on driving for another 18 months. I never touched a single nut or bolt on it, and it looked fine and passed 2 MOT's.

For the price of the repair to be in excess of c.£10k which is what this car would have needed to have been deemed a wite off, it must have been bent like a banana... Avoid like the plague...

Anonymous · February 6, 2004, 11:47

Sheesh!! Knowing that makes me feel a whole lot better now.......Damn I thought that was cheap!

Anonymous · February 6, 2004, 13:05

...also watch out for 'cheap' cars which have outstanding finance on them.

The only way to be sure is to get it HPI checked fully, and if it does turn out to have finance outstanding, speak to the finance company and get back in writing exactly how much is owed on the vehicle.

With the '2 being such a beautiful car, a lot of people buy it new but then struggle to pay off the finance. As I understand it, if you buy car with finance outstanding then *you* become liable to pay off the debt as soon as the vehicle is registered in your name.

So be careful, pop pickers...

Sundance s8)

s8)

Anonymous · February 6, 2004, 13:15

Quote from: "Sundance"...also watch out for 'cheap' cars which have outstanding finance on them.

Very true.. I bought my previous car with finance outstanding, the previous owner had got himself into just the pickle you dscribe and couldn't afford the finance.
I got in touch with the finance company direct though, and ended up sending them a Bankers Draft for about £9k, and he got the remainder of £2k!

A great deal for me, but not so for him.. considering he'd paid £16k for the car just 6 months earlier! s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

Tim

aaronjb · February 6, 2004, 13:19

You may also find that insuring a CatD car is virtually impossible these days, if the fact that it has been written off has been recorded in the DVLA / Insurance databases..

Anonymous · February 6, 2004, 17:54

Yeah - its only worth getting a Cat-D if you're going to run the car into the ground - i.e. keep the car until its resale value is 0p - forget selling it on - no-one in their right mind will want to buy it.

When I was in the market for a '2 there was this guy who advertised his car, but neglected to tell me (until the last minute) that there was 9 grand owed on the car. I was obviously reluctant to buy it once I found out but thought I would go down and check it out anway.

Things got worse when I set off on the journey to Basingstoke (where the guy lived) as he phoned to say that he could not find any of the servicing documents from Toyota... He had earlier told me that the car had a FSH. So I said, have you at least got some receipts to prove the servicing fi you've lost the service book with the apparent servicing stamps in it, I asked.

"No" he said I can't find that either. he also said that car had only 25k on the clock. but in an earlier conversation he let it slip that he worked at Heathrow airport and used to drive the car there and back between Basingstoke every day. And this was over 2.5 years.

At this point the stench of bullsh*t was overpowering and I nearly passed out. Needless to say I rang him up told him where to go and looked elsewhere.

Then when I got home I had a look on the Exchange & Mart website and saw there was a gorgeous '2 for sale with only 5k miles on the clock. I rang the guy up and this guy really seemed genuine - he was a rich guy who had bought the '2 for his wife as a 'birthday present' but because of the kids in the house, the wife never used to get a chance to drive it.

It sounded ideal and I arranged to visit the car after having done an HPI to confirm mileage etc. When i got there I scanned the documentation and test drove the car.

I thought to myself 'this car is immaculate and a genuine 5k miler' and pulled out 11 grand in cash and put it on his kitchen table.

He nearly fainted at this point as the smell of those fresh notes was clearly too much for him to take... s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

The keys were handed over and the approapriate documentation filled in.

A win-win situation all round; and the rest is history s:D

s:D

Sundance s8)

s8)

markiii · February 6, 2004, 18:34

do you normally travel with 11grand in cash. No reason for asking, honest s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Liz · February 6, 2004, 19:41

Bugger, sorry, didn't realise that a Cat D was a write off s:oops: :oops: s:oops: Must admit that I was worried about the price as the spec is nearly the same as mine, feel a bit better now, hope that you find a good price 2 soon.

Anonymous · February 6, 2004, 20:40

Guys & Gals,

FWIW just thought I'd drop my two penneth worth in re. insurance write-off categories:

When you do an HPI check it reads (amongst other things) what's called the MIAFTR register (Motor Insurance Anti Fraud/Theft Register). This is where information on insurance write-offs is stored. If a car appears on MIAFTR it's definitely been written off and the salvage category (A thru to D) denotes the level of damage. A rough guide (in ascending order) is as follows:

Category D - Uneconomical to repair. If the repair estimate is more than circa 60% of the market value (Glass's Guide) of the car then it will often be a Cat D write-off. There are 2 points to consider though:

1) insurance estimates are nearly always on the high side and the final repair bills from bodyshops invariably come in higher than the first estimate. The insurance company is basically cutting their losses and treating the car as a total loss.
2) Seldom does an insurance estimate resemble the sort of price you would get from a bodyshop if you told them it was a cash / self-pay job.

A Cat D write off doesnt necessarily mean horrendous damage and the car can normally be put back on cover with a new MOT

Category C - Also uneconomical to repair but more serious than a Cat D. In order to put it back on the road you would require permission from the DVLA (who would usually ask for a comprehensive engineers report and a new MOT)

Category B - Basically unrepairable but still has an element of salvage value (eg spares). These cars will not go back on the road

Category A - Unrepairable and no salvage value. (eg burned out cars)

HTH

Ray[/b]

Anonymous · February 6, 2004, 21:03

Quote from: "markiii"do you normally travel with 11grand in cash. No reason for asking, honest s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Hopefully he is coming to the next meet?

Imaging the cool tent I can get for your lawn mark.

P.S Those flipping squirrels are annoying me now - hey Kris, can I come back to yours.

Anonymous · February 6, 2004, 21:33

Quote from: "markiii"do you normally travel with 11grand in cash. No reason for asking, honest s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

...only if I'm about to buy a cracking motor.... s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Sundance s8)

s8)

Darth Paul · February 6, 2004, 21:42

Quote from: "Tomr2"Hi all, this is my first post although ive been hangin around here for a few months now.
I have decided that my next car is going to be an MR2 roadster, however money is a bit of an issue (student) so i was thinking of maybe buying a 2 from an auction s:?: :?: s:?: Has anyone had any past experience with auctions that they could share?

One more thing, ive heard a lot of talk on here about pre-cats failing (im guessing this is part of the exhaust?) what do i look out for before buying?

Cheers

Mine's for sale... s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

DP

Anonymous · February 6, 2004, 23:30

is it black? havnt really made my mind up about the 2 in black. Im really after a silver one - saw a brand spanking new one in my local toyota showroom the other week in silver - DROOL! - how much does this car look like a boxter! my girlfriend geniunley thought it was!

heathstimpson · February 7, 2004, 07:59

Quote from: "Tomr2"is it black? havnt really made my mind up about the 2 in black. Im really after a silver one - saw a brand spanking new one in my local toyota showroom the other week in silver - DROOL! - how much does this car look like a boxter! my girlfriend geniunley thought it was!

Don't slate the 2 with comparisons now with inferior opposition s:lol: :lol: s:lol: s:lol: :lol: s:lol: s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

Anonymous · February 7, 2004, 10:07

Would you rather have an MR2 over a Porsche Boxster? s:? :? s:? I hate to say this, but I think I'd have the keys to the Porsche if my budget could stretch that far... s:cry: :cry: s:cry:

Don't get me wrong, the '2 is a fantastic car, but the Boxster also kicks ass (particularly the Boxster 'S'!)...

Sundance s8)

s8)

Darth Paul · February 7, 2004, 16:15

Quote from: "Tomr2"is it black? havnt really made my mind up about the 2 in black. Im really after a silver one - saw a brand spanking new one in my local toyota showroom the other week in silver - DROOL! - how much does this car look like a boxter! my girlfriend geniunley thought it was!

Yeah, I suppose in a silver one you'll blend in more with all the other silver cars out there. s:wink: :wink: s:wink: s:lol: :lol: s:lol: Black stands out. Looks mean and menacing.

DP

Anonymous · February 7, 2004, 17:00

my current car is black and it needs cleaning every bloody day!! s:evil: :evil: s:evil: Black just seems to show the dirt too well, this is one of the main reasons i think im going to go for a silver 2

Auctions

Darth Paul

Darth Paul