[rycalshaw]

hi guys,i,m in he market for a new van and a lad on the carpet cleaning section as advised going to auction and cutting out the middle man, as anybody else had any experience with auction buying ,is it worth a punt..cheers

[wpclean]

You really have to know what you are doing, as there is a lot of rubbish goes through.

Probably best to look at auctions that sell ex fleet vans as they have been serviced well.

[Mike_G]

Problem is now even with ex fleet vans, lots of them are not well serviced at all. Most of the companies that used to employ engineers to service vans have long gone. I have an ex British Gas van and although it only had 45000 miles on the clock it still needed a new clutch not long after I got it!

[Ian101]

Apart from knowledge it depends how busy you are.

Waste a day at auction and no wages for that day.

however im perhaps well placed to answer this question as before i started window cleaning I was an auction buyer for a medium sized dealer group 

assuming you manage to find a good van ... with history ... nice condition ... no issues etc you will have to compete with everyone else wanting to buy this van .. people like me ( well used to be me ) who need to buy it for a living you will pay top dollar for it as no bargains in auctions these days as used supply in drastic shortage so prices are high ...

THEN .... you will have to pay some  charges for the pleasure of buying from the auction ... these are from memory and apply to larger auctions such as ADT ... you have log book transfer fee @ £25 then the buyers fee which on a £5000 van is £300 to £450 give or take ...

so by the time you take all this into consideration its prob not worth hassle esp as you may buy a pile of rubbish after all your time, hard work and expense.

If you dig around on autotrader you can buy same van cheaper at a dealer with all the legal come back and no hassle or try these  http://www.northgatevehiclesales.co.uk/ ... ex rental stuff but seems cheap enough.

[richard jagger]

I bought my van of e bay just by surfing and getting to know what was going on and I feel I got a good van at a good price with low mileage
.

[wpclean]

Another way of getting a cheaper van is to buy a " Cat D " insurance . . . . you can save up to 30% off list price 

[robertphil]

bought my current van of Ebay auction . nobody bid on it cos the reserve was a tad high and a few tried to bargain it down afterwards. straight after the auction ended i texted the seller and told him id pay the reserve price in cash with no haggling
  What i didnt tell him was that id be making sure he drove it   many miles before i even sat in it and i then made sure it was a good un first with a proper test drive of my own ,before i handed over a penny (and  then i paid him in full. )

 id buy on Ebay again but only after a decently long test drive of at least 20 miles etc  

[andyM]

The problem is if you buy a "dog" at an auction it will cost you more than just garage repair costs.
You will also lose working time and get behind with your round.
Usually if you buy at auction I think you get 1 hour to bring the vehicle back if there is a major problem, so you could be buggered if a fault appears after this time.
For business use it's probably safer to buy a vehicle that comes with a mechanical warranty for peace of mind.

[formb]

I go to loads of auctions, there are always vehicles I am interested in. I have bought a few with various degrees of success, from breaking down literally 50 meters from the auction house to still going 5 years on.

More often than not I can get a better deal on eBay or Gumtree with the added bonus I get to have a proper look before buying.

[davids3511]

I recently bought an 06 transit from Evans Halshaw. It was serviced and MOT'ed before I bought it. However, something he said made me very wary of ever buying at auction. He said that if it failed the mot on anything major they would withdraw it from sale and bung it in an auction and not bother fixing it.

[Tony Edwards]

Just brought a 2007 Vivaro on ebay today didnt reach the reserve. I called him straight after and brought it with Full service History and mint condition

You will get a bargain on there just gotta keep looking