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Bit of a strange one this, bought a little Fiat 500 multijet from Manheim B'ham on jan 4th.Sorted quite a few jobs,seat repair,clutch master cylinder,hatch handle etc. Car at auction was declared not on Vcar. Now its got a fresh clean ticket I put it into AT portal for a price guide, todays retail is around £3600. Once i click next, up pops Cat N! I have had a good look around the car and there is nothing obvious with the panels as to why its Cat N,every panel looks original and there is no filler in them. Called Manheim yesterday and they see it is on their Experian as Cat N and they will look into it and call me back. Well they have rang today to say it was entered into their auction on the 3rd and was not on Vcar then,I bought it on the 4th. The car was entered on the Vcar on the 11th of Jan. They are going to get back to me tomorrow when they have had a chat with the vendor. To be fair to Manheim B'ham the girls in the office are really good. As it stands the car plus tip was nearly £2200 and I have spent around £200 prepping it. I was going to retail it for around £3300 for a quick sale and have a margin of about £900. But as its Cat N that's kind of out the window now. So I assume that they are going to offer to buy back the car, or give a discount off the car tomorrow. I just wondered what would you guys do in this situation? My thoughts are ..... 1) just hand the car back as its Cat N and may be tricky to sell. Would they then give me my money back for parts/mot as I have upgraded it? 2) Ask for a hefty discount as its a Cat N, maybe 1/2 cap clean valuation and sell it as a Cat N. If i got it for say £1400 with tip plus £200 refurb I am in it for £1600 total and selling it for £2500 would give me a similar margin as if it wasn't a Cat N car, i.e. £900. Any help/ideas appreciated.

So, bid on a car at Manheim B'ham today. Nice Fiat 500 Lounge 2013 low miles and grade 2 for £3400. Marked sold on Simulcast as i was the highest bidder.Thought i might make £400-£500 from it as the cheapest on Autoraper is £4200. get a call shortly after i bought it,Manheim lady said a girl on the rostrum had pressed sold instead of provisional, and there was an issue with wrong cap figures and they were waiting to speak to Listers after the auction. Later a manager calls.Said figure does need to be 3950. Asked the lady if i overbid on a car would i be expected to honour it,she said yes. She said the cap figures were incorrect and apologised but still said i could have it for 3950 or it would go back through the block. With fees it just wasnt realistic to buy it at 3950 so i declined.The manager said she appreciated where u are coming from,mentioning something about no invoice being raised ,like thats a reason to deny a sale when your bid has been accepted. I was offered free online bidding fees next time i get anything,but really Manheim should have allowed me to buy the car at £3400 if they have sold it at that. One rule for one eh....... Might look into an account at BCA Wolverhampton after this and as Manheim B'ham is absolutely chock full of traders and prices are sky high,anyone know if BCA Wolv's is any good?

How many of you guys on here are part time home dealers? Maybe holding stock from, lets say 1 to 5. And the burning question is do you sell? How many a month? Does it vary depending on time of the year. Are there months you don't sell anything? Oh also, I have applied for a trade account at Manheim with all the correct documentation and have payed. Just wondering if any of you guys know how long they take to process it? I applied last Wed hoping 24-48 hours and it would be sorted as I want to attend my first buying auction next Tue. Been to a couple to suss things out. Cheers, Nick.

Just wondered what you guys would do as this is the first time I have questioned a car bought at the auction. Bought a Mazda2 on the friday and collected it today, grade 2 so reasonably clean and the small items mentioned were no surprise. What was a surprise though was the cigarette burn in the drivers seat. This was not on the inspection report and as I bought it online I didnt know about it till pick up. Would have bid less if I would have noticed it, instead it was at the top of my bid anyway. Spoke to Manheim B'ham and they said what do I want them to do about it and half suggested a refund. I asked if they could cover the cost of the repair as its a repair which I wasn't expecting. They said someone would call me back........... So what would you expect Manheim to do in this situation if you have had something similar, and does anyone know of a cheap fix to sort the burn out? Thanks. And another thing, does anyone think the auction houses take deliberately dark/low resolution pics as a way of disguising issues as lots of the pictures seem such low resolution when you zoom in its hard to make out any damage which is there. (case in point my dodgy U grade Corsa but thats another story!) And another thing!.... seems when i bid on items online and set my max I have had 'hall bidders' keep bidding against me until i get to my max bid.Then a hall bidder bids above my max bid, and then somehow the last hall bid was cancelled as my internet bid has reached its limit so I then win the auction. Would the auctioneer run up the bids off the wall to my max bid and then retract the last one over my max so that i pay my max bid?