1991 Old Top Gear - Car Auctions

[Music] one bit over the last 10 years car auctions have found a new respectability like a sort of used car stock exchange not only have they become the ultimate barometer for prices but a source of many of the cars that end up in the dealer's showroom there's no mystery to it the motor trade simply gives them a good wash and brush-up and wax a bit more money on the screen it's easy honestly so some car auctions can indeed be dumping grounds for the most appalling scrap ever to disgrace tarmac but go to one of the bigger sites and you stand a very good chance of buying a perfectly respectable car that's as much as 40% less than you'd pay in a showroom what you don't get at auctions are part exchanges finance facilities test drives or blowdried salesmen what you do get our bargain basement prices like this eighteen grand Porsche 911 or if impressing the neighbours isn't your bag then just 3,700 buys this Jay played Lada Samara while the cynical eyes of the dealer can spot a good car at 200 yards you'll have to be a shade more careful don't just go looking for any old motor but have a specific model in mind and don't get distracted by all those cheap cars arrive with an hour or so in hand before the hurly-burly begins and you've got other buyers breathing down your neck now don't forget to carefully read the windscreen ticket not all auction companies use these but the more open and helpful ones do it can tell you vital information like is the mileage warranted has the vehicle ever been a total loss or has it been seriously damaged and it can tell you whether it's with a warranty or not now don't put too much store by the warranty because that only lasts an hour after the end of the sale and covers the major mechanical bits like the engine and gearbox and back axle so if you get it home and you'll find your aerials broken off that's just tough nor should you be afraid to ask for the keys so you can crawl all over your prospect just like the dealers do you may not be able to move the car but you can start it so try the usual test for blue smoke from the exhaust this one seems okay it's just got a light haze of blue smoke which is permissible any more than that and obviously it suggests engine problems next port of call is the glovebox to see if we've got a service history full dealer service history can tell us a great deal and we haven't got one here at all just handbooks which is a point against the car cars like this need to have a nice parade of rubber stamps in the service history next is the bodywork let's just take a quick tour and on a near edge car like this we're looking not so much for rust but for accident damage and before I've even so much has got out of the car I've spotted some paint overspray here which means at the front of the cars have an accident if we look a bit closer this bonnet is actually touching the wing which means that this cars had a punch on the front so we walk away you might reckon this Jeep late 25,000 mile Peugeot 205 GTI is a snip at a smidgen under six grand but if we look very carefully we can see that the bonnet is a very slightly different shade of paint from the front wing which alerts my suspicions look even closer and I can just see white overspray on this indicator lens and this headlamp here which means that the cars seen some action so there's really no art or magic to it it's just the question of beady-eyed observation some cars you can virtually buy with your eyes shut like these ex rental Vauxhall's say ex rental to most people and there's a sharp intake of breath but these nearly new tiny mileage cars are probably the best value even after this unique form of interior washing by this h plate cavalier for seven grand here or pay nine on a dealer's forecourt or twelve thousand new your only worries with ex rentals are the odd cigarette burn and in service books that haven't been stamped up do make sure that the security code for the radio is still there - and you needn't worry about having the stigma of a rental car company name in the logbook the rental boys quite properly realize that having names like foot to the floor renter car in the registration document won't help the value of their used cars so instead they register them with corporate sounding names like provincial securities limited or BTI UK plc and auction however the signs are obvious key fobs and rental litter abound if the back registration plate shows a small numbered sticker this was once an Avis car another auction car which is more sinned against than sinning is the ex company car or fleet car listen for the auctioneer to say the words direct direct cars are good news because they come directly from the last owner and are usually well maintained and well serviced and that way there's no shadowy middlemen involved to lower the mileage and up the price this Ciera may have some leg on it dealer slang bhai mileage but at 2400 it'll make someone a very cheap family Hank try and avoid the traders cars entered specifically for a profit by small and motor traders and dealers you can recognize these by the the beauty products they're over prepared notice the very glossy tires and bumpers an artfully positioned service book on the dashboard to tell us what a really good car this one is at auction you want to be buying a car at rock-bottom money and not paying someone else's wages for the week a sexy-looking Cosworth engine Mercedes 190 email oook very tempting at 10 grand but tread carefully prestige cars like Mercedes need to be mint with perfect paintwork and full dealer histories to make their money but this one is what we call a repo or repossession snatched back by the finance company from its owner because he couldn't afford the payments repos all too often lead hard lives so you've got to ask yourself if the previous incumbent couldn't afford to keep the payments up what hate for the servicing don't bother with snorers like these but this sort of scrap the auction Hall is the last stop before the claws of the crusher so much for what to look for what about the bidding all cars have a reserved price set by the seller and the auctioneer has to coax as much money as he can from it sometimes modded by the audience when the trade isn't in the mood to buy some auctioneers will invent false bids or even announce a car sold when there hasn't been a bid in the place but this one found a buyer well it's not a practice that we encourage at our company however it does it does go on at other auctions and we've got to face up to it speaking on their behalf they would bring the Vig that the hammer down on a vehicle that is unsold as sold merely just to create the impression that the bid sell are flowing the sell is much livelier than often people anticipated if the bidding doesn't reach the reserve price the car will be sold provisionally to the highest bidder this means the auction company will ring up the seller given the bad news and ask him if he'll take the lower bid the old hens use signals to bid often the slightest touch of an eyebrow is enough you being a novice let's make your bids obvious and keep eye contact with the auctioneer at all times we would advise them to make their bidding clear make it quick decide on what they're going to give and don't give a penny more than that don't get carried away with the bidding fever as such and decide that no I will give a little bit more after all not the time in that 60 seconds that's not the time to decide that so much for the theory let's do it for real I'm drawn to this F registration Peugeot 405 because it's obviously a direct car it's come straight from a company with no attempt being made to tart it up it's a genuine 45,000 milah with the desirable automatic gearbox and 1.9 engine it's got all the right bits and bobs an electric sunroof electric windows electric mirrors the very necessary power steering and most important a service history okay it needs a service a valid it's got a cracked head lamp and a thumbnail sized dent in the boot lid but that's the total of the bad news 31 32 50 33 in front of an hour 3350 may be 350 bb4 bid 50 in front 3450 34 55 3550 35 and a half six bit 36 in front of me now it sells it goes down to me at 3600 payment is the easy bit blokes like me usually have account facilities so we can pay by cheque but you'll need a 200 pound deposit and to settle the balance where the bankers draft or Building Society check I've added 25 quid on to the cost of the pair show to cover the indemnity which is a sort of insurance policy against the car being stolen on outstanding hire-purchase written off or clocked hour per show had a warranties that we were quick to test it within the magic hour but don't forget to arrange insurance before you leave the site so here we are in our optional Peugeot and it feels fine the major mechanicals are fit it's a proper car and it looks and dry as well as far as money is concerned we've had a right result at 3,600 pounds two and a half grand less than some of my more rapacious brethren would charge from the showroom so back to my first question our car auctions the motoring slaughterhouses that people think not from where I'm sitting good hunting

Channel: Vanquisher191

Views: 66,269

Rating: 4.8026905 out of 5

Keywords: vauxhall, astra, cavalier, mercedes, peugeot, 205, car, auctions, quentin, willson, 1991, old, top, gear

Id: UbgwZbghMxQ

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 07 2012