Buying car with Manheim (Government Auctions)

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manheim.com.au

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  khelddar on 15/11/2013 - 13:09

  +1

  I recommend them, but there is an element of luck involved in that even if the car report is great there may be a problem or there might not be.

  I bought a 1996 Ford Fairlane NL Ghia for $1,600 and put $900 on it to get it on the road and it is great for a first car, no problems 6 months in.

  However if you are going for a ex government car the risk of problems is a lot lower but with lower risk the prices increase.

  I would only say go risky on something cheap like the cars that sell for under $2,500 otherwise play it safe. All that said you will save yourself a bit if all you do is buy a ex government car their. Also make sure you check out the car report and check the car beforehand. I can't stress enough you want a shortlist before you go, otherwise you will come home with a car that you may not want but bought in the heat of the moment.

  It's a fun day out as well, went there with my family and seeing all those cars sell and the environment is pretty cool (other then all the car fumes)

  I hope that helps.

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  nickj on 15/11/2013 - 14:44

  +4

  Yeah I bought an ex-government 2010 Hyundai i30 SLX wagon from Manheim last year, on a bid of $11,300, by the time I had paid the auction house fees of $350 odd, change of rego fees of $300-ish, and a major service was due which was ~$600, and it needed the rego renewing a few weeks later (it came with a roadworthy renewal slip, just needed to pay rego renewal and CTP green slip), which would have brought it up to around $13k all told.

  The only person I was bidding against was a dealer (they all hang out at the front, you can spot them easily after a while), so I knew they wouldn't get emotional and overbid, and they have reasonable overheads at car yards, so my bidding strategy was "I'll pay what he's willing to pay, plus $100".

  That's a good price for what it was - around $19k would have been typical price at the time - and I even had my old insurer refuse to insure it, because they considered the price I paid was too low, so there must be something wrong! (There wasn't).

  I've been very happy with it - had 3 years of manufacturer warranty still to run (a bit less than 2 years now), I've not had any significant problems with it, and it came with all the accessories (cage for the back, the good roof racks, and it was the most speced-up model), it's a much safer car than I had previously, and the old car was dying anyway and I sold it on gumtree for $800 cash to the first serious buyer, after disclosing all the problems with it (needed $2.5k of repairs and was only worth $1.5k).

  I attended one Manheim auction before buying, to see what things sold for and wrote down all the prices - turns out you can buy a catalog from their desk with past sale prices (I don't recall how much, might have been $20??), and by going there you can see what the condition of the cars was (they all seemed clean), learn the pace, see how the bidding works, etc.

  I then waited for the model I wanted to appear in an auction (the diesel variant), and went to that auction. But many other people had the same idea, and it got bid up massively (I had given myself a limit of $13k bid price for it, but it went up to $16.5k bid price). So, I'd make the following suggestions:
  * Only buy a model that has heaps being sold. This takes the scarcity emotion out of it, and gives you lots of fallback options, until you find one at a decent price. In my case, I knew that a second-hand diesel model was nowhere near worth $5k more than the petrol model, so I bought one of my petrol fallbacks instead.
  * Don't buy the very first one of that type, since people reach a stage where they are desperate to leave (it gets very boring quite quickly, most I could stand would be an hour or two, but you can stretch your legs, buy a coffee at the cafe there, etc). People fight hard for the first one, much less for the 3rd (I think I bought the 3rd petrol model).
  * Bidding against either nobody or a dealer is ideal. If it's nobody the price may be too low and it might get relisted the following week (although they really do want to sell everything if possible).
  * Check the log books of all your preferreds and fallbacks, before you bid on anything, especially if they are still under warranty. These let you know the car has been serviced as specified by the manufacturer. Golden rule: No up-to-date log books, no bid.
  * If you do end up buying a car, it will take the whole day. You have to get there, register, look at the cars, look at the log books, go to the auction room, wait for relevant car to come up, usually several times, until the price is okay, the bidding will be a rushed blur, then pay $500 cash deposit, then get the shuttle bus to the bank (they prefer bank cheques, everything else, including paying by cash, has fees), faff about at bank, get the bus back to Manheim, pay at the cashier, go to the car collection point, queue, they clean the markings off the car, and you check it has everything including log books and manual, call insurer to arrange insurance so it's drivable, go to the RTA to transfer the rego, wait wait wait at RTA, then drive to petrol station to fill up tank since usually it's low, then drive to mechanic to get them to check it over (mine needed wheel alignment since they had fitted new tires at the auction house to get it past rego check, but had not aligned them). It is a long day with a lot of faffing about - but, if it all goes well, at the end of it you have a new-ish car at much less than you pay privately or at a dealership.
  * I'd certainly do it again - in fact I was chatting to a nice elderly gentleman at the auction, who was onto his 3rd ex-government car, it was how it got all his cars now, drove them for 5 or so years, sold them, and then got a replacement at the auction house, and it made a lot of sense to me. Personally I'm intending to keep driving this car until the cost of repairs exceeds 2/3rds of its value, then I'll be off the ex-govt auctions.

  Anyway, long long long answer, hope it helps!

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  cannedhams on 15/11/2013 - 15:18

  +2

  I also bought an ex qfleet car at mannheim.

  You won't get a bargain, but you will get a car at a fair price without all the faffing about you would have to go through with gumtree, etc.

  Personally I prefer mannheim to pickles. Pickles can get a bit feral. Just IMO.

  I echo the post above re bidding on the right car. Ive seen a couple of people pay quite silly prices for European sedans. They roll those things out onto the floor and the blood goes to some people's heads.

  I was bidding against an online bidder (who are usually car dealers) for a 2010 Yaris YR auto. He went up to 9500 and I bid 9600. I wouldnt have pushed it any further but luckily neither did he.

  The same car would have been about 10750 from the fixed listings section of mannheim. That is basically the rule of thumb, you will pay about a thousand dollars less than what their fixed price will be.

  My tips:-

  You will need to come up with the cash by cob the next business day. So make sure you have it ready to go otherwise you will lose your 10% deposit and the car goes back on the floor.

  Mannheim will offer to register the car for $50 more than what Transport would charge. If not, ask for the roadworthy and register it yourself. Make sure they give you all the roadworthy forms, they can be pretty dumb there sometimes and only give you the blue placard bit.

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  pianissimo on 16/11/2013 - 12:09

  +1

  I have also bought an ex-government fleet car from the Manheim auction (Perth). I have had no problems with it at all - it was a few years ago now. I think at the time it had a couple of months left on the manufacturer's warranty.

  Like anything, you need to do your research beforehand so you know what a decent price is. Then fix your limit and don't go over that at the auction. I agree that you probably won't get a bargain, but if you stick to your limit, you should pay less than what you'd pay at a dealership.

  The only negative for me is that you can't test drive the cars beforehand. I had test driven other examples of the make/model I bought, but I was sweating a bit on whether my purchase would be OK. It turned out fine, but YMMV :)

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  zenzeninbox on 16/11/2013 - 22:11

  +1

  Good advice above; If the car is a recent model ex govt car they are usually a great buy much cheaper than a dealer though you are taking a small calculated risk.. They should have a full service history as the servicing is prepaid for the first 50000km.
  One other tip; if you go for a higher spec model it will probably have been a one user manager's car rather than a fleet/pool car. I bought a near new VS berlina 15 years ago and it's still going great now hardly any problems.
  In Melbourne pickles is much more civilized; only about 100 people go there compared to mannheim/fowles which has thousands!

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  2ndeffort on 18/11/2013 - 14:17

  I bought one in Canberra a couple of years ago, echo the sentiments of those above. Maybe because it was a smaller crown in Canberra I noticed that for the first 10 - 15 cars there was a load of bidding as eager folks had $$ burning a hole in their pocket or they were desperate to get on and do other things with their day. Then there was a bit of a lull in bidding around the middle (where I bought my car) followed by crazed bidding at the end as people scared of missing out pushed prices up.

  For the auction I bought at they had an inspection day the week before. I went along and had a look at the cars. One that looked great and I was keen on I managed to get a close look at, when I opened the glove box to see the logbook the glovebox fell off and there was a crash repair receipt in with the log books!! I avoided bidding on that car!!

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  k on 19/11/2013 - 18:26

  My family have bought a car from Manheim, good experience. I agree Manheim have generally cleaner cars compared to Pickles.

  You can't test drive the cars but based on physical condition and service history, you should be able to tell how the car has been treated. They are only usually one or two year old cars so you should be fine. Look out for scratches, wear and tear on the interior, stains, smells… all the usual stuff.

  Don't get caught in the heat of the moment "trying to win" the car. Keep your options open, have multiple cars you are willing to bid on and set your budget and don't go above it. There will always be cars next week and the week after.

  Make sure you get a REVs check and ask for the log book to see who has owned the car. Personally I found company (fleet) vehicles to be much cleaner than those ex-government.

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  zenzeninbox on 19/11/2013 - 19:45

  +1

  Is a revs check nessecary? I'm pretty sure when I bought mine the title was guaranteed (but it was at Jupps Vic, 15 years ago).

  • 

    cannedhams on 19/11/2013 - 21:34

    ppsr check now. Just do one anyway, they're pretty cheap.

  • 

    bigsarg7 on 22/11/2013 - 22:05

    You would be wasting your money. They have to sell with clear title

    • 

      cannedhams on 25/11/2013 - 12:56

      Yeah but you'd want to check the written-off status. Just do a check is my motto.

      • 

        Steptoe on 05/12/2013 - 16:11

        They must disclose WOVR status now too.

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  clubhonda on 01/01/2014 - 23:23

  I've bought a lot of cars from Manheim (6-7 cars) before and the are my last choice nowadays. They seem to have succumbed to vendor pressures and include less and less details about the cars on auction. They used to provide full condition reports on every car, then only cars less than 10 years old. Now even that's optional. Its really buyer beware.

  A lot more people are now aware of their auctions too so the chances of getting a good deal is greatly reduced. I've seen many cars go above what the average carsales price would go for the same model, which is crazy since the majority of the cars going into Manheim outside of the ex-govt lane nowadays seem to be those with traits which makes them unsellable in the open market - eg abused cars to the point where seats are abraded with holes, broken plastics etc or high mileage cars. Ex-govt isn't great either. You can generally find the same cars on the open market with similar service history and mileage for a lot less.

  It was great a few years back, but less and less attractive now as more general public shows up, and more dealers offload unsellable cars there.

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  ausginnygin on 28/03/2014 - 16:34

  Bought a Corolla from them last year. It was 2009 model @ 12.5K which has a odometer reading of just 18500kms.
  If you are just after a normal Joe's car and less than 3-4 year old and less mileage, you are good.

  I didn't had any regrets after buying from manheim. Most importantly there is no dealer agent to look over your shoulder every time.

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  r3ckless on 19/02/2016 - 21:15

  bump, any more feedback?

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  Storm on 31/10/2017 - 17:41

  Great info above.

  I'm interested in a Prius, but they won't let you plug in an OBD2 to check the hybrid battery condition. Also, the pics are hard to tell from, but the front/rear bumpers might be a slightly different colour to the rest of the car.

  I'm wondering if it's worth registering for an online bid ($175), then just putting in a $1000 or $1,500 bid.

  If the battery does turn out crap, then it would cost $2k to replace.