Want to Buy a UX at auction/trade for personal use

[VSR]

Hi all, I'm looking to purchase a UX, I don't want to buy from a dealer (MD or Supermarket) I don't want to buy privately either, I want to ideally by from an auction. my budget is 15k-20k if buying at an auction. I fully understand that buying at a dealer has its perks, I understand this car will be just like the prev owner traded it in,,, the risk,,,, however I wanted to ask what % you think I would save by buying at an auction, at what discount would It make sense in ur opinions. I may take it for a service at lexus if its covered under warranty or relax, just to make sure inherited problems are dealt with, but I won't take it there for subsequent services and will take it to an independent. the reason why im not doing the whole main dealer thing, is number 1 cost, number 2 in recent years they have started being very mean with warranty, we have nx bought new from MD, serviced at same MD, but the MD now advises even if the car is 1 mile or 1 day past due service they won't pay warranty, it used to be 14D/1k miles, therefore I just don't want to pay for a potential warranty with so many silly stipulations. I also don't want to pay market, as I am quite frugal with money and want to flip this car off in a year or 2 and source an (>18 month old) BMW i4 e drive 40 M sport hopefully at auction too. please advice. 

[NemesisUK]

You have to ask yourself, why do cars end up going to auction? 

 

[Linas.P]

It never works out cheaper buying at auction, especially as private person. The only way it is done - a VAT registered business buys from auction, so they write-off the cost of purchase from their VAT, then they fix the car in the dirtiest possible way and sell it for minimal profit, but they make their money back on the VAT. Also what kills many savings are extortionate fees. Savings are not great to begin with, cars have plenty of issues that you can't know before buying and then you also end-up paying like £1,500 auction fees. Needless to say - you have no recourse if you buy lemon and they all are lemons. 

All cars in auctions in my experience are worst examples imaginable of said vehicle. Just think about the car that is in horrible shape, scratched, dirty, not serviced... so it will be twice as bad. No car that can be sold at dealer lot ends up in auction, certainly not fairly recent car like UX.

At least this is my experience with Copart.

[Tickedon]

Auctions don’t work anymore for private buyers. The fees (which trade buyers pay only a fraction of) wipe out most of the savings. Ending up saving a few hundred quid won’t feel so smart and smug when it’s a lemon with a long list of flaws.

Note that any Relax warranty starts after a service - any issues identified at that first service will be for you to pay to fix and won’t be covered (unless car is under 3 years old at that time with the original warranty).

[Malc1]

As a former car dealer in times past I would advise against buying a modern car at auction 

They're there, I’m thinking, almost 100% coz there’s trouble brewing with it 

It hopefully drives there dropped off the trailer, drives around into the auction itself and then out again and it’s YOURS ……all yours . warts and all 🥵

Unless you know an awful lot about the specific car you’re thinking to buy and you’re happy with it …….. then don’t buy it 

But it’s your money and then your car and your stuffed and stuck with it, good or nay 

Malc 

[J Henderson]

Would a UX300e be suitable? They seem very cheap, even from main dealer.

[Linas.P]

7 minutes ago, J Henderson said:

Would a UX300e be suitable? They seem very cheap, even from main dealer.

This is probably much better idea than using the auctions, it is generally good time to buy used BEV, there is oversupply in the market meaning they really hard to sell, so they are depreciating.

Of course - UX is probably not the best BEV even at that price.

For OP - there are "occasional" good car in auctions and by good I mean cars that are there not because they were neglected, stolen/recovered are often not neglected cars, but for the same reason they sell for more and even light damage can turn out to be £10k worth of small bits that were cut and broken. Cat-S is often cheaper, because nobody buys those cars for repairing, but for parts only, that said that is why they are Cat-S to begin with and that is why they are cheaper, bringing them back on the road is often uneconomical. I doubt that is what you looking for?

Otherwise I have bid on several cars that were simply used or sometimes with light Cat-N damage, where with my specific knowledge I know car "only" needs new bumper, and explosive hinges for example... however I could never win them for market price, I can't even understand how somebody could turn the profit/save money on them. For example I was bidding on RC300h, I think 78k miles... that car in good condition, not Cat-N, with that mileage is probably £16-18k, the auction car had relatively small damage, dent in the door that could be PDR'ed, crack in front bumper and aforementioned exploded hinges, just the very edge of bonnet was bent (like 5mm bent for 15cm of the front) and side mirror broken. All things considered  (door £300, explosive hinges delete £20, used mirror housing £150, new front bumper + painting £600, £600 for full 80k miles service and -20% of the value for Cat-N) my limit on the car was ~11-12k... I think I even bid little bit higher (because I am fool) and the my last bid was something like £13.6k, the car was sold for £15.8k and there would have been something like £1.2k auctions fees on top. So some muppet bought crashed RC300h for £17k when car without category and in good condition is £16k! Later on I have seen same car being sold, with poorly PDR'ed (or maybe even poorly painted door and bumper) and even same bent edge on the bonnet for £16.5k. So at very least this person lost £500 on the car, not sure how much it costed to fix the car but even the crap job that was done probably was another £1k, so £1.5k loss. On top of that doing it properly would be a lot more and car value is limited by being written off. Just the exploding hinges are like £1800 and requires dealer to remove the fault from ECU (requires unlock code), it basically needs new bonnet, because even being just a small edge it can't really be repaired because it is aluminium, then good paint job with proper blending on metallic blue car is like £3000. Mirror is closer to £600. So where is the savings?

Other two cars I actually won, IS250 which probably was worth £3000 in good condition, I bought for £1650 and it ended-up closer to £2000 with fees. Turned out to have electrical problem which I could not resolve for a year and spent probably £500 and now I am replacing the engine on it. So with the engine replaced and fixed that car is closer to £4000. Then I also bought parts car IS250, my bid was only £275 and nobody else bid on it, but all in with fees whole day work dismantling it the car ended-up costing me about £1000. 

And I have multiple examples like that. No savings to be made in actions. 

[omegatt]

42 minutes ago, J Henderson said:

Would a UX300e be suitable? They seem very cheap, even from main dealer.

Quite.  We just got a UXe takumi with the bigger Battery 6 months old £26k ish, Bolton Lexus who were ace.

[RONNIE W HODGEKINSON]

19 hours ago, NemesisUK said:

You have to ask yourself, why do cars end up going to auction? 

 

Exactly...I would be VERY Careful Buying a Second Hand Lexus Car At An Auction...!!!

[Malc1]

VISHI hi,  thinking the upshot of all our thoughts might be …… don’t buy a modern Lexus ( or any modern car ) at auction ……. for all sorts of valid reasons 

Malc