the undutchables

Hi.

Arriving in Calgary about the second week in July, one of the first things we need to sort out is a car. Will rent to start, and once we have some credit rating will get finance.

Has anyone bought a car from auction in Canada? Do they operate the same way as UK auctions? IE, newish cars over a certain value in UK actions are sometimes sold with a 24 hr warranty, any major faults and it can be returned.

I have bought most of my cars at auction in the UK, so I know what to look out for, anyone's experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Surrey Expat

Buying a used car in Canada is buyer beware, even from a dealer. The only warranty you get is what you pay extra for. Personally I would not touch an auction car unless you know exactly what you are buying. There are brokers who could do this for.

Piff Poff

We have bought from auction - twice and both times from Michener Allen on the outskirts of Calgary. We bought a '98 Ford Expedition and a much older Mercury Zephyr (Michener Allen also hold a classic car aution once a year).

So you goes in, shows your driver licence to get a bidders card and then if you want you wave your flappy bit of paper a few times and if your lucky you win a prize. You can then go and pay for said prize - we paid both times by debit card, you can get a in transit permit on the premises and then you can drive your winnings home

There is a wide variety of vehicles, from ex rental, ex lease - quite often with a warranty on it. You can also buy boats/campers/bikes and quad bikes if you wish as well as the old beaters and cars that people just want shot of. They get through a hell of a lot of cars in one day (can be a long day as the car that's usually wanted is typically one of the last to go through) and there is something like 6 lanes of auction. There is food and drink available to buy on the premises.

the undutchables

Thanks for the replys.

Piff Poff, if you don't mind me asking, what sort of price range was the 98' Expedition in, ie over $5k or under? I have seen at a few of them and GMC Yukons for about $5k on kijiji and craigs lists, which is the sort of thing I am looking for. I also saw a Toyota Four runner for just under $5k, it was a 2001 and looked tidy in the pictures. Are there bargains to be had at the auction? Is this where the dealers get their stock? or punt their older trade ins?

iaink

The thing with Kijjiji and Craigslist is if it looks too good to be true, then it is. Lots of scam artists selling non exisitent bargains, with sob stories about cars in storage or out of the country.

At least the vehicles in the Autotrader (www.trader.ca) tend to be real...


Even with the current gas price crunch there is no way a legitimate recent Yukon is going for $5k, and if its an old one, you dont want it anyway

mandymoochops

I would wonder at that for that price - that seems too cheap. Remember 2nd hand cars are expensive here auction or no auction.

We've been to the one that PP has (I was more interested in the food - good smokies there!) the only things we saw going for a song were the old police cars less than $2k for a 2004.

Your 4wd you are looking at a minimum of $3k but then you will not get anything less than 15 years old. Go to 1995 and you will see $5 to $8 and for anything 2000 and above then look at $10k and above

Piff Poff

We bought our Expedition 2.5 years ago and it cost over $10k (FIL may log on you never know we sold the car to him) with the tax and commissions. At the time second hand ones were advertised 2-7k over that price. It was one for the last few to go through (always seems the way with us). I wouldn't like to think of the condition if one was under $5k, pretty scary methinks!

We have trawled Alberta looking at cars based on the 'looks good in the pictures and the bloke says there is no rust' Only to find there is no rust because the panels have rusted through in places. Beleive me we have looked at cars We have already bought around 18 since we moved here, so you can imagine how many we looked at to get the good ones.

One thing we have learned is the second hand market works completely different here to the UK and you have to be prepared to sit on a vehicle you want to sell and also some people do think that because they bought their car for $10k 15 years ago and it had a service 5 years ago they should be able to get at leat $9k back for it even with the holes where the rust used to be

mcurtis_1999

Thanks for the great information in this thread - You guys have certainly given me something to think long and hard about before making any decisions!

Danny B

I almost bought a truck from these people at their Vancouver location, not an auction but you can still pick up a bargain.

http://calgary.repo.com/

MB-Realtor

Auctions seem to work differently here.

1st pick is the Franchised Dealers (Ford, Chevy etc).

then what they don't want goes to

Other Licensed Car Dealers.

and then the dregs go to

The general public.

Nikki Ian

I am also on a off road forum, i got lots of good advise from the members,

main bits, they have no MOT type tests in alberta so only by second hand if you really know all the faults to look for on each model,

also do not by home grown cars as they are well known as being prone to breakdowns, thirsty and expensive to run and lose the most value,

inports are the most sort after,

also note if the vin number starts with a 1 or 2 it was made in canada or the US, a 3 means made in mexico,

all imports built in japan will have a J at the start, beware not all japanese cars are built in japan some are kits put together when they arrive which means build quality not so good and they can not put a J on the vin number

Nikki Ian

just to let you know, we looked at second hand, In the end we brought new, we paid a deposit and got interest free credit for five years, this will help us build up a credit rating,

we did all this in our first 4 weeks of landing, we are on a 2yr TWP with a one year min employment contract, we are also only renting. it is not as hard to build a credit rating as most people believe

if anybody is going to edmonton area i will pass on our contacts details at the dealers if you PM us.