BCA - Any ltd co can register, worth it?

[RemarkLima]

Hi all,

Looking to get a new (to us) car for our ltd co - I'm thinking of registering on the BCA website and seeing if I can get something via auction. It used to be trade only but now seems to be any limited company can register to bid.

Happy to run the risk, and not have any warranty, I'm mechanically minded so happy to get things fixed if needed.

I'm assuming most cars will be end of lease, and hence on nearly bald tyres, Ginsters wrappers still in the footwell, paint that has only been cleaned with a sponge covered in gravel, and a faint whiff of photocopier toner.

Are there any other downsides? Thinking if I can get something a couple of years old, it should still be "OK", but may be very much naive here.

[tiger roll]

I'm intrigued by this also.

The website says:

'A fee of £49+VAT is payable for any Motor Trade business (Motor Trade evidence must be provided), or £99+VAT for any Non-Motor Trade business, at the point of application'

So just under £120 fee to be paid by a company that is unrelated to the motor trade.

I can't see the criteria for acceptance so presumably it is simply a matter of spending the £120 and then you're in, so that's basically in increase in the cost of buying a car?

If you're buying an off-lease EV aged 2-3 years old and still under warranty this would appear to make some sense. It might even make sense to set up a new limited company from scratch just to do this.

EDIT: To put that £120 into context...fee to buy a £20k (hammer price) car is £1,406 and fee to buy a £10k car is £993 per https://www.bca.co.uk/dam/UK/Buying/payment/BCA_Bl...

Edited by tiger roll on Friday 26th September 14:05

Edited by tiger roll on Friday 26th September 14:06

[happytobealive]

I opened an account with BCA for similar reasons. The quantity of cars they are selling each day was astonishing (to me). Higher value and newer stuff gets more information so you can buy with a reasonable level of confidence. Hard to generalise about their typical stock - from what I can see, they pretty much covered everything from bangers to Porsches.

I'd do it again and the collection process was painless, but one observation I would make, the margin on second hand cars seems quite tight, based on the examples I referenced, so you will save a few percent, but not a huge amount. And when I wanted a car for my son after passing his test, I found a better car privately on autotrader, from another dad selling a car their daughter had previously driven, so having a BCA account didn't help in that case.

[Aprisa]

happytobealive said:

I opened an account with BCA for similar reasons. The quantity of cars they are selling each day was astonishing (to me). Higher value and newer stuff gets more information so you can buy with a reasonable level of confidence. Hard to generalise about their typical stock - from what I can see, they pretty much covered everything from bangers to Porsches.

I'd do it again and the collection process was painless, but one observation I would make, the margin on second hand cars seems quite tight, based on the examples I referenced, so you will save a few percent, but not a huge amount. And when I wanted a car for my son after passing his test, I found a better car privately on autotrader, from another dad selling a car their daughter had previously driven, so having a BCA account didn't help in that case.

I agree totally, I've bought vans for the company for 20 years from BCA and will continue to do so but, recently have bought three VAG group cars around a year old from main Dealers, cheaper than they fetch on BCA before fees! That and the fact that they were warranted and serviced on delivery shows that you need to follow the auction prices closely and check before bidding.

[RemarkLima]

That's really interesting about the fine margins - I always knew they were tight but if it's only a small saving after the fees, then maybe not much in it.

I'd not be bothered about warranty, but if it's a small difference, then you may as well get the dealer perks??

[bennno]

I've got a BCA log in and used to be very close to their Blackbushe site and had about 4-5 cars from them.

Be aware as a low volume buyer you pay a higher purchase fee. Also that there are generally better bargains to be had privately.

Be very aware of who the vendor is - ive had good experience with ex bmw / mini / mercedes direct.

But WBAC don't drive the cars they buy, plus loads of dealers put problematic, or expensive fault cars in to Auction.

Volumes are still about 10% of what they were pre covid, used to be 1500-2000 cars a day going through Blackbushe alone.