Twas the night before Christmas...

[tradegirl 112]

Bought a car a month ago from Copart as stolen recovered. Taking it for a final check today, police pulled us over. Apparently still showing as stolen. Showed him proof of purchase, logbook application in our name, where we bought it from, identification etc. Still not satisfied. Held in cop car for over an hour while he "conducted investigations". Eventually let go but made to sign an Section 66 PACE saying we can't sell the car until the police authorise sale or we will face criminal charges...

Logbook arrived this afternoon...

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Have a very Merry Christmas gentlemen. I wish you all health above all else. Enjoy your families and friends.

[Arfur Dealy 823]

Why are you purchasing trouble ? Shite market for scummy buyers. Horrible game in my book. 

[EPV 631]

15 minutes ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Why are you purchasing trouble ? Shite market for scummy buyers. Horrible game in my book. 

I read the first line and thought "why?"

Merry Christmas Tradegirl, you seem to have had your fair share of bad luck this year but I do have to wonder whether some of that is self inflicted. Copart is no place for a proper dealer IMO, certainly not one that is having difficulties of varying order.

[tradegirl 112]

What's wrong with stolen recovered? No marker on the HPI once cleared...?

[EPV 631]

24 minutes ago, tradegirl said:

What's wrong with stolen recovered? No marker on the HPI once cleared...?

Nothing as long as you can avoid the police it seems. Each to their own but I wouldn’t be going anywhere near stuff like that. There are so many opportunities to buy decent stuff, from proper auctions. Why would you buy from a place like copart? I looked on there once, it was a glorified scrapyard and I haven’t been back there. 

[justina3 518]

6 hours ago, tradegirl said:

What's wrong with stolen recovered? No marker on the HPI once cleared...?

Good morning sir can I interest you in this lovely car one careful owner from new until it was stolen and red lined in every gear to within an inch of its life. 

Ok so really no one knows the history of any car you buy however the odds of something being stolen and looked after whilst in the hands of a car thief have to be slim. 

I am with everyone else on this brave brave play. 

[andymc1973 199]

hard enough selling straight cars

[Stalker 180]

9 hours ago, EPV said:

 Copart is no place for a proper dealer IMO, certainly not one that is having difficulties of varying order.

Wow! 

If you can Hear me from down here.... it’s a long way up to you on your high horse 

 

We used to buy ex motab non runners From copart. 

I can remember several late model non runners requiring very little to get them going being bought and sold with an excellent margin.

[Nick M.K. 574]

Had a stolen-recovered p/x and rang HPI to remove the marker. 

They did but the insurer was reminded of this case and slapped a Cat C marker as they had paid out because of damage during the theft. £2K (not a loss but a missed profit) down the drain because I made a single phonecall...

[metcars 395]

39 minutes ago, Nick M.K. said:

Had a stolen-recovered p/x and rang HPI to remove the marker. 

They did but the insurer was reminded of this case and slapped a Cat C marker as they had paid out because of damage during the theft. £2K (not a loss but a missed profit) down the drain because I made a single phonecall...

This is one of the big problems with write offs. Sometimes the marker is applied, sometimes it isn't. Sometimes you think you have an 'unrecorded' which eventually has a marker applied three months after you sell it! 

As far as copart is concerned - "if the devil were to cast his net what a catch he'd bring!" There are some big sharks swimming in those waters, from the insurance companies, the salvage sellers, the guy that resell salvage after they've 'improved it'; down to the guys that repair it on a budget. 

I know there are guys fixing up write offs and selling them on. I've got a guy at the end of my road doing it. But i wouldn't sleep at night!

[EPV 631]

1 hour ago, Stalker said:

Wow! 

If you can Hear me from down here.... it’s a long way up to you on your high horse 

 

We used to buy ex motab non runners From copart. 

I can remember several late model non runners requiring very little to get them going being bought and sold with an excellent margin.

Used to? Have you seen what’s on there lately? It’s a scrapyard. 

[tradegirl 112]

Copart needs a LOT of care, and I'd never buy a car from them without seeing it in person. Then again, I've viewed cars at Manheim classed as runners online, and in person the engine was noisy and no reference of that was made to online bidders. I bought a Focus from them that literally caught fire 2 miles down the road. I bought a Golf with no gears as soon as I got out the yard, and of course no refunds.

As far as I'm aware, you need to be careful at all auctions, just some more than others.

[EPV 631]

28 minutes ago, met said:

This is one of the big problems with write offs. Sometimes the marker is applied, sometimes it isn't. Sometimes you think you have an 'unrecorded' which eventually has a marker applied three months after you sell it! 

As far as copart is concerned - "if the devil were to cast his net what a catch he'd bring!" There are some big sharks swimming in those waters, from the insurance companies, the salvage sellers, the guy that resell salvage after they've 'improved it'; down to the guys that repair it on a budget. 

I know there are guys fixing up write offs and selling them on. I've got a guy at the end of my road doing it. But i wouldn't sleep at night!

Exactly. 

I didn’t mean to sound high horse at all but when someone has had enough problems dealing with straight cars, buying stuff from a place like copart is a disaster imo. 

[tradegirl 112]

39 minutes ago, EPV said:

Exactly. 

I didn’t mean to sound high horse at all but when someone has had enough problems dealing with straight cars, buying stuff from a place like copart is a disaster imo. 

James, that's part of the business though. Look at how many comebacks Mark has had lately. And he buys purely straight cars as far as I know and preps them to the max and stands by them. For the 4-5 cases I've posted on here, there are lots of other sales that you don't hear about because (touch wood) they've had no issues. Similarly, I'm sure many traders on here don't post about their misfortunes, because we all want to look like we're doing better than the other.

Any car properly checked at auction, is still always 50/50 in my opinion. Yes, Copart does have more nails than Manheim, but been bitten enough times at Manheim too and their Surecheck means jack diddly.

[EPV 631]

2 minutes ago, tradegirl said:

James, that's part of the business though. Look at how many comebacks Mark has had lately. And he buys purely straight cars as far as I know and preps them to the max and stands by them. For the 4-5 cases I've posted on here, there are lots of other sales that you don't hear about because (touch wood) they've had no issues. Similarly, I'm sure many traders on here don't post about their misfortunes, because we all want to look like we're doing better than the other.

Any car properly checked at auction, is still always 50/50 in my opinion. Yes, Copart does have more nails than Manheim, but been bitten enough times at Manheim too and their Surecheck means jack diddly.

Whatever works for you TG. Good luck to you. 

[tradegirl 112]

6 minutes ago, EPV said:

Whatever works for you TG. Good luck to you. 

Lol thanks James. Merry Christmas!

[It's me 613]

I'm sure I've posted this before but will post it again.         ,I bought a car from one of the large auction houses had the car a week had bettered it and was about to retail it when the rozzers turned up and wanted to arrest me for having a stolen car,turns out one of their preferred dealers hadn't put it through their books but the accountants turned it up and registered it on the at risk hpi alert it was the auction that gave the rozzers my details and they didn't even have the decency to advise me I was getting raided.      I got it sorted but it left a nasty taste that I never forgot,they arranged to take the car back but you can believe me or not but I swapped every piece off that car I could from tyres to battery to bumpers to the radio ,it was back on sale and as it looked now a complete shed I could have got it for nicking money but I wouldn't bid,another story is when mobiles used to be those Motorola's we all had with the rubber aerials and I rang hpi to check a private van I was buying and it came up stolen,had a few nasty words to say to the seller then it turned out I had got a digit wrong on the hpi check,so easy to do just like it is when using a small device like I am now...merry Xmas all

 

[andymc1973 199]

lad near me buys them and crosses his fingers the marker won't be applied, potentially ruinous 

[metcars 395]

7 hours ago, andymc1973 said:

lad near me buys them and crosses his fingers the marker won't be applied, potentially ruinous 

This

Also, and it's probably just my area but 'salvage' 'write off rebuilds' seem to be an Eastern European thing. Not only the guys doing the work but the buyer demographic. My local 'write off' rebuild guy is Polish, he's worked in his front garden for a couple of years. He specialises in high end cars, BMW, Mercs, Audi, 5-8yrs old. He seems to do quite major bodywork, not sure who does his paintwork. But he's usually got a few up for sale. I cannot find any of his adverts in the usual places, and on the odd occassion I see him with a punter, they're are eastern european. I assume that rebuilt cars do not carry the same stigma back in there homeland?

Edited December 25, 2018 by met

[andymc1973 199]

I think a lot of it goes abroad as it can lose its marker and get clocked 

[BHM 994]

7 hours ago, andymc1973 said:

I think a lot of it goes abroad as it can lose its marker and get clocked 

Yes it does & it doesn’t matter what state it’s in either.

As an aside, last week I also saw a totally burnt out (no paint, tyres, windows etc - just 100% rusting metal) Sprinter on the back of a Polish wagon - don’t tell me someone’s dragging that across Europe to rebuild that . They might as well just take the paperwork & leave the carcass .

 

Re: Copart write offs. At Manheim’s one day a lad made a throwaway comment to me; “At least you know they were driving at the time, which is more than can be said about half of this shit”. He may have a point!

[tradegirl 112]

2 hours ago, BHM said:

 

Re: Copart write offs. At Manheim’s one day a lad made a throwaway comment to me; “At least you know they were driving at the time, which is more than can be said about half of this shit”. He may have a point!

I've never understood traders who stood in the hall and bid on cars without seeing them first. Missing the flywheel judder, or the fact that the car had no oil or no third gear. Admittedly, most of the cars there are quite clean, but when prices go a grand above retail, what am I supposed to do with that?

[trade vet 697]

38 minutes ago, tradegirl said:

I've never understood traders who stood in the hall and bid on cars without seeing them first. Missing the flywheel judder, or the fact that the car had no oil or no third gear. Admittedly, most of the cars there are quite clean, but when prices go a grand above retail, what am I supposed to do with that?

I used to do well buying non runners at the block.If there was strong bidding from the off,it usually meant there was little wrong or they had been doctored.......Would not recomend doing that these days.!

[BHM 994]

39 minutes ago, trade vet said:

I used to do well buying non runners at the block.If there was strong bidding from the off,it usually meant there was little wrong or they had been doctored.......Would not recomend doing that these days.!

Too true! I remember years ago buying an RV8 that was coughing, farting & the ‘banging’ through the exhaust manifold pipes sounded disastrous. It was just mixed-up plug leads, no doubt by the underbidder 

Knocking & banging nowadays usually means ‘engine replacement’.

[It's me 613]

The best tool you have in this job these days is experience.    Look around you at the traders that you remember from this time last year,how many thought they could do this job but couldn't,I've seen hundreds over the years blow but when you talk to them individually a man to a boy not one will admit they were a failure,its one of the stiff upper lips bit things the British do that rattles my cage,admit you failed but you had a hoot as you burnt your savings,on the other edge of the scale there's 4traders near me working together but change their trading name every three months,I guess its to get round having stiffed their advertisers but now they have all used their names up where will they go next? sleeping partners?dodgy credit cards? I don't know,thing is why don't they just buy quality stock and stand by it rather than selling worn out shit at retail prices