How to source trade cars & BCA Buyers fees

[SpikieMikie]

Hi,

Couple of questions for any motor traders out there...

Firstly, anyone know or have a list of the current buyers fees at British Car Auctions ? Cost for �4k, �5k and �6k would be great.

Secondly, I've recently 'dabbled' in selling a couple of cars but I'm not keen on auctions. How do you go about about sourcing stock; I've approached a couple of main dealership who don't seem keen on giving me an opportunity on any part exchanges; how do you build up relationships with these guys...

Cheers.

[Buenchico]

I'm sorry that I can't answer all of your questions directly, but I used to work as a 'trade plater' (mainly delivering vehicles to and from auction houses), so I might be able to give you a few 'pointers'.

First of all, I'd never consider buying a car from BCA. They always seemed to me to be a totally 'shambolic' organisation. They seemed to get very few good quality ex-fleet cars to sell. Most of what I took to their sites was barely driveable.

In my opinion, nearly all of the good quality ex-fleet stock is sold through the giant (American-owned) Manheim network:
http://www.manheim.co.uk
Unlike BCA they've actually got a website which is helpful to new buyers:
http://www.manheim.co.uk/find_buy/guide.html#6

Even better still is to buy directly from the fleet owners. The biggest company vehicle fleet in the UK, with over 75,000 vehicles is BT. Obviously many of those vehicles are vans and lorries, but they've also got thousands of company cars on the road. They're all maintained to incredibly high standards (even higher than, say, most police cars) but, unlike many other ex-fleet vehicles, they don't get sent to auction. You can buy directly from BT Fleet:
http://www.btfleet.com/sales/cars-commercial-v ehicles.aspx
(If you get to know the manager at your local BT Fleet service centre, he'll probably keep an eye out for any particular vehicles he knows that you're interested in. Those managers receive frequent lists of what's available throughout the country, with many vehicles selling within hours of first appearing in the listings).

Chris

[SpikieMikie]

Cheers Buenchico.... I'm just looking at the BTfleet website...could be helpful !

I'd agree with you on the whole; BCA appear to get a lot of junk - ex fleeters, many without top notch service histories or body damage, poor quality ex daily rentals or part exchange left-overs.

The few exceptions seem to be VAG and BMW finance stock, which are clearly prepared to higher standards than most of what else BCA have.

Its that that made me wonder how the trade get their hands on the decent cars before they go to auction.

I'd heard of Mainheim but the premises seem tiny compared to BCA and they seem to have a lot fewer cars looking at their website, especially at Mansfield, which is the closest to me.

Ideally, its slightly older Japanese makes I'm most interested in - 52 plate Civic's with 50k on clock etc... unfortunately most these go straight back to the main dealer..