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Anyway to Find What a Dealer Paid at an Auction?

heelntoe

i wanna go fast
Location
Vancouver
Hi All,

I'm looking at a few used R's in the DFW area. The carfax shows that the current owner of one of them (a used car dealer) purchased at an auction.

Is there anyway to find a database of auction prices? Knowing thier cost is obviously very powerful for negotiating. I called a local car auction company and the lady said no, but i trust you guys WAY more...
 

vj123

Autocross Newbie
Location
The Detroit
Car(s)
19 & 16 GTI - sold
I dont think you will be able to get the exact price unless you have some inside info. If you can provide the summary and condition (also seller’s link) of a particular vehicle, people here might be able to give you a fair price for it.
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
Why do you care what he paid? You don't know what condition the car was in when he bought it or how much he paid for reconditioning.

Does it really have the balance of the factory warranty? How do you know? Only VW can verify that. I'd shop for a VW-CPO R from a VW dealer. Personally, I wouldn't pay $28K for any used car with at best a 1,000-mile warranty.
 
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heelntoe

i wanna go fast
Location
Vancouver
Why do you care what he paid? You don't know what condition the car was in when he bought it or how much he paid for reconditioning.

Does it really have the balance of the factory warranty? How do you know? Only VW can verify that. I'd shop for a VW-CPO R from a VW dealer. Personally, I wouldn't pay $28K for any used car with at best a 1,000-mile warranty.

I care what he paid so I know what he would be willing to take.
I absolutely would not pay 28k for it, hence my $25k comment in my original post. It would also be subject to me taking it to a VW dealer to have it checked.
Is $25k a bad deal if it all checks out?
 

adam1991

Banned
Location
USA
I work with a guy who, for a flat $950 fee, works with me to find cars at auction.

I know *exactly* what I'm paying if I buy a car from him.

He's a regular dealer. This is a service he offers. He finds a car that meets your specs, helps you understand if you want that specific one, and if you do you pull the trigger. It's yours. From that point on it's just another dealership sale that he works. The sales paperwork has only a few lines: auction price, transportation (if any), his fee, sales tax, title/doc fees. You know all of those going into it before you pull the trigger.

The car comes into the dealership a few days later, and you all get to look at it to make sure it's the car you pulled the trigger on. Not just the VIN; you also get to agree (or not) that it matches the auction description.

His job is to be the middleman between you and the auction--and he takes responsibility for the car meeting the auction's description. If it doesn't, he works with the auction to rectify the situation to your satisfaction--anywhere from doing reconditioning all the way up to sending it back. If it doesn't meet the auction's description, you're off the hook.

It's a nice way to buy a used car. The best way to leverage this is to buy one with factory warranty left, and then buy the factory extended warranty (if the factory offers such a thing).

This is why the CPO market came about--it helps bring people into dealers, and makes them competitive against a situation like this since the dealer can take an out of warranty car and sell it as CPO.
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
I care what he paid so I know what he would be willing to take.
I absolutely would not pay 28k for it, hence my $25k comment in my original post. It would also be subject to me taking it to a VW dealer to have it checked.
Is $25k a bad deal if it all checks out?

:sigh:
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
I work with a guy who, for a flat $950 fee, works with me to find cars at auction.

I know *exactly* what I'm paying if I buy a car from him.

He's a regular dealer. This is a service he offers. He finds a car that meets your specs, helps you understand if you want that specific one, and if you do you pull the trigger. It's yours. From that point on it's just another dealership sale that he works. The sales paperwork has only a few lines: auction price, transportation (if any), his fee, sales tax, title/doc fees. You know all of those going into it before you pull the trigger.

The car comes into the dealership a few days later, and you all get to look at it to make sure it's the car you pulled the trigger on. Not just the VIN; you also get to agree (or not) that it matches the auction description.

His job is to be the middleman between you and the auction--and he takes responsibility for the car meeting the auction's description. If it doesn't, he works with the auction to rectify the situation to your satisfaction--anywhere from doing reconditioning all the way up to sending it back. If it doesn't meet the auction's description, you're off the hook.

It's a nice way to buy a used car. The best way to leverage this is to buy one with factory warranty left, and then buy the factory extended warranty (if the factory offers such a thing).

This is why the CPO market came about--it helps bring people into dealers, and makes them competitive against a situation like this since the dealer can take an out of warranty car and sell it as CPO.

You can but it's much more expensive buying it after the car is 3 years old. I paid $1548 for the VW/Fidelity Platinum 7/70 with 0-deductible before the end of the calendar year in which I purchased my car. I'd hate to know what it costs on the car he's considering. It's old enough for the warranty to kick in.
 

vj123

Autocross Newbie
Location
The Detroit
Car(s)
19 & 16 GTI - sold
Fair enough!

https://www.safarmotorgroup.com/used-volkswagen-frisco-tx-4s

Bit of an interesting carfax. Second owner earlier this year had the radio and instrument cluster replaced while he owned it for 3 months. Then sold/traded amongst a few dealerships. Thinking of offering $25k all in but wish I knew what he got it for in the auction. I would think really cheap.


Considering the fact that it had two previous owners and certain items were replaced recently, $25-26k might be a good target. Dealer might have picked the vehicle around $22k (a couple of thousand $s less than dealer trade in) and he might be negotiable on the price based on your market demand.
 

Golfer883

Go Kart Newbie
Location
IL
Car(s)
19 GTI rabbit
I also have a guy that will purchase from the auction for you, his fee is $500. It's also wise to pay the auction fee of like 120 for their "warranty". You basically have like 2 weeks or something to make sure it meets what the auction said about it or they will take it back and refund. If you don't purchase that warranty, they don't have to take it back.
 

CosmosMpower

Ready to race!
Location
Dallas, TX
I can prob find out if he bought it at Manheim it looks like the car is gone now though. You wouldn't know how much recon the car needs though so hard to base an offer from that. All you might now is the grade assigned.
 
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