Turners car auctions in Auckland...

[marshanite]

We are going tomorrow - any tips anyone?

Thanks, Fi.

[lockstock]

Sit on your hands

[Jennispink]

We bought a car there 6 years ago while travelling. Spent all of $900 and managed to sell it on 10 weeks later for $1000. Nelly did us proud

Seriously though, stick to a budget, know how much you want to spend and don't bid over it.
Good Luck

[cappuccino]

We bought a car at Turner's Auction in Auckland . It was a popular car and attracted lots of interest. We paid for the 'independent' on site inspection who gave it the thumbs up but said it needed 2 new tyres and a WOF certificate. We won the auction, took the car round to a nearby garage to get the work done and left it there overnight. Following morning we get a call to say that the car we had bought was a 'lemon'. On inspection, the mechanic had found that
a) car had been in an accident (onsite inspection said it hadn't)
b) airbags had been disconnected and removed
c) odometer had been tampered with and not correctly aligned (onsite inspector should have noticed this).

We drove the car back to Turners, had a word with the salesman who said basically "tough!" but I insisted on speaking the Manager and after staying calm and explaining the situation he agreed that we could have our money back including the cost of the new tyres/mechanics time and that we could also have the option of taking another car but not go through the auction process as long as we paid the 'reserve price'. Bit of a dilema as you can imagine but we agreed to look at a couple of his cars in the yard and narrowed it down to one which looked a good deal. I then asked for an independent inspection that we didnt have to pay for and that wasn't to be conducted by the 'onsite' inspection company that we had initially used.

They agreed and we all drove round the corner to another garage who put it through an inspection and gave it the all clear (apart from telling us there was a very slight oil leak but don't ask me to get technical cos all I know is that it wasn't serious!)

Drove the new car away happily and had 7500 trouble free kms driving around North Island for 7 weeks (oh and 3 speeding tickets, but that's another story ;-)

[speckythecky]

Depends on what you are looking for and how much you want to spend. if you have the money, try for a non import (ie bought new in NZ) or an ex lease car. These tend to be well looked after and have been inspected before the sale. Plus the lease company will cover you if you have the problems like cappacino

[Nick88]

I agree. The Japanese tend to treat their cars like a disposable appliance (and they all seem to smoke!) They will have been serviced, but they will need tyres and probably a major service and fanbelts pretty soon. They are not always the bargain that they appear to be at first.

Ex-lease cars can be a bit more expensive, but at least they will have a comprehensive service history (that is written in English).

[marshanite]

We went yesterday & sat on our hands! We are going again tomorrow & may actually buy something - I'll let you know .

Best Wishes, Fi.

[JandM]

Good hunting, and take care.