Anyone used Copart...

[rswift]

I was browsing around for another project,and came across Copart...who have an interesting selection of salvage cars for auction. I was looking for a stolen recovered or similar for a play....

I have never come across them before, prices seem good..but unlike Ebay, I can't seem to see final values of sold vehicles.

There is also a £40 registration fee, which I'm happy to pay..and must be good if it keeps idiots away.

Anyone have any experience good or bad ?

http://www.copart.co.uk/c2/home.html

BTW I tried to search the forums, but down for maintenance so apologies if this thread has been here before.

[deebow]

with the copart the only way to find out how much it went for is by watching the auction towards the end as once its sold it doesnt show how much it went for unless you saw it before it ended.

[TallPaul]

Copart, formerly know as Universal Salvage.

[eliot]

You can only buy the Cat-d's unless you have a salvage licence (or was it C&D's..)
£40 doesn't keep the idiots aways and as noted, you need to watch the auction to see the prices.
You need certain ports open on your firewall (outbound) - so may be difficult to do a sneaky bid from behind a corporate firewall.

[Viper]

one my cars just sold through copart after it was t-boned and written off by the insurance, it was classed as a Cat C it went through without a log book,spare keys,service history books etc

the damage was a lot worse than they had in their description, so a viewing would be recommended before you bid. A polish company brought it so they maybe in for a shock when they get their hands on it

the US copart website, also has some interesting cars on it

Edited by Viper on Sunday 5th September 09:01

[eliot]

My view is that all the decent / easy salvages get snapped up long before anyone gets to see them.

[TallPaul]

I used to buy & repair a lot of salvage when I was younger (about 15 years ago) but it seems to me now, the only way to make money from salvage is to be illegal. Most damaged cars sell for only silghtly less than you can buy straight high mileage ones for. Then factoring in the resale price which needs to be roughly 10-20% below undamaged stock, even repairing them yourself (so no labour costs), there's no money in it.
Most salvage companies, back in the day, used to repair the best of their stock themselves, nowadays, they make so much money selling the salvage, they dont bother repairing anything. At best (worst) they'll give some stock a sneaky pull, & remove a lot of the damaged panels, to make them look better for the punters. I'm not suggesting Copart do this, but it is rife within the trade.
Buy salvage after viewing with your eyes open.

[Thom987]

Like Tall Paul, I used to repair a lot of cars, many of them bought from Universal Services, now Copart. There are too many people doing it these days, thus forcing the prices at auction up. You are competing against some really big players for the high end stuff and at the end of the day it is always going to be a recorded damaged car. You would be better off looking for high mileage cars, which will work out a lot cheaper in the long run and be easier to sell on also.
One thing in coparts favour is what you see is what you get. The cars arent tampered with in any way i.e. pulled or part repaired, though a lot of the buyers do this before they try to sell them on.
Like any purchase, buy beware applies when dealing in salvage.

[rswift]

Thanks chaps....it was the £3000 Aston Martin Lagonda that caught my eye !!.....I'm sure that windscreen looks like a Renault Master Van ....Hmm maybe not !

[eliot]

Thom987 said:

One thing in coparts favour is what you see is what you get. The cars arent tampered with in any way i.e. pulled or part repaired,.

Do you know this for a fact. I was under the impression (as noted above) that some have been "looked at" beforehand.

[Mc lovin]

eliot said:

Thom987 said:

One thing in coparts favour is what you see is what you get. The cars arent tampered with in any way i.e. pulled or part repaired,.

Do you know this for a fact. I was under the impression (as noted above) that some have been "looked at" beforehand.

Had 3 cars from co part, sold as runs and drives, none would with out significant work, avoid.

[Thom987]

eliot said:

Thom987 said:

One thing in coparts favour is what you see is what you get. The cars arent tampered with in any way i.e. pulled or part repaired,.

Do you know this for a fact. I was under the impression (as noted above) that some have been "looked at" beforehand.

Anything we ever bought definitely hadnt been touched and we bought dozens of cars from Copart/Universal Services. Some had been partly stripped for insurance assesment, but other than that they were always as you would expect. I know one local company who are still buying plenty of their stock from Copart and pulling them before selling them on to the public.