Buying 6-12 month old cars from auction - worth it???

[ItsTony]

Just wanted to quickly ask anyone who knows better I've been looking at cars that are less than 6-12 months old and considering if its worth going to have a look at any auction houses?

We've been looking at BMW 318d / 320d Msports. They're listing on Autotrader around 23/24 and are all from dealers as ex-demonstrator models with low mileage.

What kind of price is realistic at places like Brighouse etc?

(and if anyone can recommend which auction houses have the most stock like what I am looking at?)

Thanks

[Andy665]

Depends to a degree on whether you are looking to fund the purchase in some way - if you are deals on new ones are so good that buying ex-demo may not be the best route.

The reason why so many dealers have a glut of ex-demos that they can't sell from the forecourt is because of precisely this - its often cheaper to buy new

[kiethton]

if your private beware of the buyers fee, can be steep for a private purchaser at that cost...include this within your bid limit and compare with whats available privately.

Also if they are 6 months old beware. Ask why they are necessarily being replaced - last thing you want is a rejected lemon that the dealer couldn't fix (despite it being in warranty)

Finally have you checked the normal drive the deal/broadspeed etc? - may be able to go new?

[ItsTony]

I've seen pre registered cars for £25,990 compared with a 6 month model with 3000 miles for £22,500. The lowest end of the spectrum is £20-21k but with 10-20k miles. I just thought a used demo was a good compromise for the price and depreciation on what is a £31-32k new car.

Haven't bought a car this new before so not sure what the concensus is.

[AudiWurst]

ItsTony said:

I've seen pre registered cars for £25,990 compared with a 6 month model with 3000 miles for £22,500. The lowest end of the spectrum is £20-21k but with 10-20k miles. I just thought a used demo was a good compromise for the price and depreciation on what is a £31-32k new car.

Haven't bought a car this new before so not sure what the concensus is.

As others have said, there are good discounts to be had when buying brand new. Don't labour under the misconception that these are £31-32k cars.

http://www.broadspeed.com/CarView/BMW/3-Series/340...

Broadspeed says £26,700 for a brand new 318d M Sport.

Having said all of that, our last two cars (2007 320d and 2013 A4 2.0T) have both been bought as ex-demos, and the deals worked out well for us (good P/X price etc).

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Agree with this comment. If you're intending to sell after a couple of years, the depreciation could hurt.

We kept our last 3-series for 5 years, and this spread the cost out much better, without taking us into the age/mileage danger zone where all** modern diesels suffer catastrophic failure of the DMF/EGR/OMG/WTF.


** may not actually be true, but if you listen to everything you hear on PH, you could be forgiven for thinking that all diesel cars suffer instant death after 5 years or 60,000 miles

[va1o]

Its certainly quite a safe way of buying from auction as its guaranteed to be free of finance etc and you'll have the balance of manufacturers warranty. Just need to make sure you don't pay over the odds, but in theory it's an opportunity to beat the dealers at their own game as most of these cars will end up on the forecourts with a nice margin added to the price.