Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Autowirral Dont buy a car from an auctions

Just a warning for anyone thinking about going to this place in ellesmere port.
Bought a car (laguna dci 120 on a 52 plate) from there yesterday, had a good look over the car before auction started and everythink looked good, had a listen to the engine as it was started and as it was driven to the auctioneer - everything seemed fine so i decided to bid and won.
Paid in cash as soon as i won and decided to pick the car up the next day to give me enough time to sort out insurance.
Next day i picked up the car and as soon as i drove off i realised the turbo was completely nackard (loads of smoke and no power what so ever).
I imediatly turned around and drove the car back to tell him that the car is faulty. In the end after a few choice words i was kicked off the site.
Ended up havig to drive the car back home along the motorway doing no more than 50mph due to no power. Evetualy made it home and as soon as i pulled up on my drive the car decides to throw another tantrum and rev to the red line, turned the ignition off right away but it carried on revving for about 2-3 seconds then died.
Got out the car to be greeted by a puddle of oil on the floor
Absolutely fuming at this point.
To top it all off the car dont lock, apparently a £150 fix for new key/card.
Dont think there is anything i can do appart from have a good rant on here. Shafted good and proper

Thats the chance you take at auctions,most cars have faults at auctions thats why they are very cheap.

yes i understand that but no known faults where listed. First and last time ever at an auction. The previous owner will have known about the nackard turbo

Much as I feel for you, that's the danger/risk of buying at auctions, and that's why the cars go through there so cheaply.

Different auctions have different policies, most sell "As Is", on the windows of all the cars at EPMA they have "Spares or Repair", that should tell you where you stand.

You notice a big difference in who bids at which point, the first cars to go through are always (usually) REALLY cheap, and the traders are more interested in the Main Dealer p/x's than those entered by Private Sellers (Private Sellers will get less for their car in auction than listing it in the paper, they have to pay to put it through the auction and pay if it sells, and after all that it takes a week or so for your payment to arrive, so for someone to put one through you have to ask why).

It's up to you what you do now, spend the amount you saved buying it at the auction on getting the car done, or take it back and try and sell it yourself.

I like the auction at Ewloe (although I have bought pigs from there as well) as the auctioneer will give a warranty on certain parts of the car (useful on autoboxes) so if something is wrong you can take it back (listen to what is said, or not said).

There are a few on here that work with cars (Mr Gilly), maybe one of them can help you out if you decide to keep it.

Thanks Dr, need to get an estimate on the car for the repairs but i dont think i can drive it any more so would need someone to come out and have a look.
Agree with you about Ewloe auctions, i know a few people that have never had a problem with them and use them all the time. Why oh why didnt i go there lol.

Abbot son, I broke down in a transit van on the m53 at 5:30pm, towed it back to work (interrupted my bosses important meal) only to find it had thrown a piston through the block.
That was from Queensferry, I'm not gonna start blaming them, they don't know what faults are with the vehicles, that's why you private buyers should stay away from the auctions and stop messing\bumping the prices up for the traders, that's the chance you take, you need a backup plan when buying from an auction or your wasting your time.
Next time ask someone trustworthy to get you a car and let them take the crap\repair bills.

I will blame them, i am absolutely fuming. They knowingly ripped me off so why shouldnt i blame them

oh and another thing, i have every right to be at an auction, they are not just for traders so please dont assume i am messing/bumping up the prices as the auction was open to the public.

You (hopefully) knowingly bought the item "as seen, without warranty" the terms and conditions for auctions are plastered all over the place. Hence they did not rip you off at all, you bought exactly what you got.

There is a risk at auctions, that is why the prices are cheaper, you don't get something for nothing.

Sorry abbot, got to agree with ste here, they dont care what condition the car is in and they shouldn't have to. The idea of an auction is that you buy at your own risk in hope of saving a few knicker. Also he is right about one time buyers bumping up the cost of cars for thosevwho actually make a living out of it, but thats not to say you dont have the right to be there, but you wont get the respect of staff there in a hurry especially if your upset about a car you bought that broke, spouting out your basically unhappy with the rules.

Sit bk abit bud and just ride it out.

Rideing it out now. Just needed to get it off my chest as all my savings are now gone and i have no chance of getting to work as that is the reason why i bought it. You live and learn.






Still fuming though

is it still the fat bingo caller up there? had a look up there years ago when i used to buy and sell a bit. 99% of the stuff up there was junk and most of them were the guys own cars!!

Yeah still the fat bingo caller there. Wouldnt be surprised if the guy i was bidding against was his own car

What was the full reg on the car? Sounds like one my mate used to have.

PM me the reg and i will let you know if its the same one

the invisible man and a couple of his mates always used to be there bidding

sounds likt the turbo seals have gone, and the reason its been redlining is its been sucking all the oil out of the sump from the blown seals and then when its ran out its killed the engine, the only ideal repair would be to fit a s/h engine

Auctions are a bit like freecycle only difference is you part with money there its a place to OFFLOAD in this case vehicles the auctioneers push the cars thru as quick as possible and don't have the time to read every problem as they themselves don't know whats wrong they go by the info submitted by the seller, one phrase thats always sticks in my mind in relation to auctions like EPMA . EBAY and MAD BID.com
you pays your money you takes a chance.
It's a lucky bag on wheels

Has anyone bought any decent cars from an auction? I was thinking of going to EPMA this week. Ive had a few decent one off Ebay. But the stigma of the auctions is still there I see.

my mates mum won an mx5 for £700 and is thriled to pieces.

over the many many yrs I have been driving Ive had a few cars from auctions and am glad to say only had one that was a let down that was a mini on an F plate fair enough I had a moan bout it being a pig in a poke but all I did was placed into another auction and wahay made more than what I paid for it happy days

was that on mad bid Sanchez?

Hi mate, how much did you pay for it, i know you may have no money to fix it but say it was 1k 1500 under book price a mechanic on this forum might take it off you so you are not out of pocket.

Anyone wanting to make an offer on it or come over and have a look is more than welcome.
Mrhanky - there was only a few people there, on some cars the auctioneer was taking bids from people that where not there. I had me dad stand at the other side of the room to see if we could spot anyone that was bidding but no one was bidding at all

I bought a Mark I Ford Fiesta, after I passed my drving test from the old New Ferry Auctions...paid £350 for it. Drove it out of the place and tried to get it to change up to 3rd gear, no it wasn't having it...I phoned my Dad and he came and rescued me, drove back to his house in Tranmere in 2nd gear...LOL!!
My brother came home from work got in it drove it round the block and it turns out it was gear selector?? and worked loose and just needed tightnening up, 2 minute job.
That car I had for 2 years, and I loved it...it sadly ended up in Neptune Scrappy!!!

Unless you can actually drive test drive them before you bid on them at auctions, you can't really tell what's wrong with them.

But saying that not everyone has a bad experience at an auction. I consider myself lucky with what I got, I got 2 years out of that car.

I think anyone considering going to a car auction, needs to be aware that "auction" is actually an anagram of "CAUTION"...need I say anymore

Is the car black?

sounds all too familiar.
how much did you pay by the way? i broke a 2001 laguna estate and got a hell of a lot more breaking it than i would of selling it as a complete car.



steer clear of the small privately run auctions. i've bought loads from queensferry over the last 10 years or so. try to stick to the main dealer part ex cars or very low mileage private ones.

try to get an idea of what you want before you go and get an idea of price and stick to your price. don't bid against young people there with what looks like their parents and people with a parkers guide in hand.

Most cars that are in the auction have a reserve on them (if not you'll hear him say that it's in to sell) and he has to get a price either above, or very close to that reserve or it's a no sale.

If the car had a reserve of (for example) £700, and you were willing to pay that, but the only other bidders dropped out at £500, then the auctioneer could make those blind bids so you bid up to the reserve he has, otherwise even if you wanted it you couldn't bid any higher without someone to go against. It sounds dodgy, but they will only bid up to the reserve as if they go way above it and you drop out they have no sale, and no comission.

I bought a car from Ewloe last year, a late Peugeot 806, started and drove lovely around the auction, sounded good, and broke down on the way home, several times. RAC guy put it on his machine to try and pull an error but nothing showed, luckily I have one of the Snap-On Solus units, and that showed me a variance in the sensors, new cam and crank sensor (and a cambelt whilst it was being done) and ran absolutely fine.

I contacted the previous owner just to find out if he knew anything about it, he knew all about the fault (cuts out after a few miles then wont start again for half an hour), and the garage he traded it into knew as well, they just didn't want to fix it, or didn't know what it was, so pushed it through the auctions. I was a bit peeved when it happened (moreso because it was raining when I broke down), but even after the repair it still worked out to be a bargain. If you buy a car at auction, don't spend all you have, make sure you allow for the possibilty of it all going wrong.

I've bought good and bad cars from auctions, my last five cars have come via ebay however, You can have a look and most people will let you have a go, its up to you to then decide if you want to bid, most (not all) cars at auction are there for a reason, if the trade doesn't want them its because they cant shift them, anything over 7 years are hard to finance or the cars have inherent issues.

Lagunas are renowned for having a host of problems and the trade knows this (the turbo being just one of them). If you must buy at auction then go for Toyotas old german stuff or anything VAG. (Skoda Seat VW)

Feel for you mate, hope you get sorted, you can still get cheap wheels though.

I bought a two owner 20 year old Merc last week off Ebay (unseen) as a run around, it cost me less than a weeks wages, full history and I get classic insurance on it. I look like a Latvian gangster in it, but hey cheap wheels!

K

It was from the ellesmereport on bud, I've bought a rover 275 from there which turned out to be a pig, but it was my own fault for not buying a program for a few £££ that would have told be if it had mot tax etc etc...

I used to go to the Ellesmere Port auction around Xmas, I was looking for a cheap Peugeot 306. To be honest I thought the whole place and the cars were shabby.

The second hand car market is terrible at the moment. You can get a great bargain if you look around and you shouldn't have to resort to an auction. You can't test drive the cars which always sets alarm bells ringing for me. A car needs to be started from cold, examined, driven for 20 minutes at all speeds, and checked again.

Auctions are only good for traders who want cheap cars they can quickly tart up and sell on. I saw one "S" reg Pug 306 estate go through for £300. A month later it was on Autotrader for £650 and had nothing done to it!

My personal advice is check Ebay first, localise your search to within 25 miles . Listing a car on there is far cheaper than in Autotrader so most people will do that.

If you are buying from auctions you got to expect these things to happen I've bought plenty of cars from ellesmere port and most of them have been great everyone buys a lemon now and again,you've just got to be a man and get on with it!!!

Don't agree with you,you can get stung just bad on eBay as you can in an auction,I'd advise anyone to go to auctions the atmospheres are great especially at ellesmere port the auctioneer is fab??

How much did you pay for it sounds like this auctioneer stitched you good and proper????

You couldn't of been very good at it then or you would still be doing it?I'm in the trade and most of the cars I see at ellesmere port are garages or main agents! I know the lads down there aswell and they have always been polite to me you 25 years they've been there they must be doin something right???

All the cars I've had from there have been absolute gems apart from 1 which needed a clutch, £80 for a clutch kit and fitted it myself, what a gem.
Like I said earlier sod off private buyers and leave the auctions to the traders!!!

Either that or stop wining about broken turbos or bald tyres or your keyfobs requiring batteries, traders hAve the contacts and the dollar to repair any faults, private buyers should stick to the globe/auto trader

ROFLMAO at Magic999

Just joined and only four posts, all saying how brilliant EPMA is and how bad everyone else must be, I wonder where you might be from ?

I quite like EPMA, but lets not make it out to be something it's not, it may have been running for 25 years, but the owners were declared bankrupt last year and passed on the trading to their son, who is now the main auctioneer.

Some of the cars they get through there are their own cars, even their own personal cars (their names are on the log books) so lets not pretend.

The lads who work their are great, and if you know them they'll very often give you the heads up on what to avoid, but they're paid a pittance to put the cars through and if anyone spoke to me even approaching the way the owners speak to them I'd put the next car through the rostrum.

The place has been "moving to a new site" for more years than I care to remember, it just doesn't happen, it's meant to be a new unit on the Rossmore, I'm sure one day it'll come through.

They took over Chester Auctions, then let it go as they couldn't make it pay, pity really as the building was better, the facillities were better and the whole place brighter and cleaner.

In the months leading up to the bankruptcy the owners were stopped at the traffic lights leaving the place and robbed of some of the proceeds of the sale, one of the drivers caused a smash in the yard (with one of their own cars that they hadn't been able to sell), and there was a theft (or damage/fire I forget which) of a car at their home. Some people are very unlucky.

EPMA (NW) Ltd is a new business, it trades exactly the same as before, same place, same people, same everything, tonight they had some interesting cars through (and quite a lot of them for a change), but as usual they had a lot of junk, some stuff that went through with a "sold price" that no-one would ever pay and The Invisible Man was in attendance with his Shy brother, who bid on everything.

Auctions are good places, know what your getting and accept it, if you want a debate on it no problem, but don't try and make it out to be something it's not, because there is always someone out there who knows just a little bit more than you think they do.

Gibbo you sound like one of them really annoying time-wasters that would get cracked accross the back of the skull with a tire-iron. 20 minute test drives at all speeds? Are you for real pal? On an old piece of shite?
I mean I could understand if you were spending a few grand like!



Don't listen to gibbos advice, it will more than likely land you in hospital.
Gibbo are you one of those that buy 1st and look after on eBay? You know the type that buy a car then start lookin over it and slating it.

Its a case of "you pays your money and takes your chance".

I would try to avoid buying a car without a test drive first and one where I can use ALL the gears including reverse.

Even on ebay most sellers state viewing recommended.

A reputable car auction can be a place for a bargain but you must do your homework first or take someone in the know.

What's with the attitude?

Sounds to me like you WANT people to get ripped off.

Lol, sorry mate didn't mean it to sound nasty, just I wouldn't have the cheek to test drive anything under a grand the way you have described unless it was a rare and expensive to fix car

No offence

I agree. A £300 shed, you get what you pay for and I wouldn't quibble with anything not right on something for that price. If you want quality and reliability and FSH and 12 months test you have to pay for the privilege!

I was talking more about more expensive cars with parts that can be expensive to repair.