Would you get a car from an auto auction?

[Nanusia & Lukaszek 0]

My hubby wants to get a car, and we've been looking online and found a car auto auction near us. It says you can't test drive the car, just view & bid. What do you think? Anyone have any experience with this?

We saw a couple cars:

1997 Audi A4 1.8t for $1900

1998 Acura 2.3CL for $2900

1997 Honda Civic $2200

2000 Honda Civic $2000

So these are the options. What do you guys think?

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Take the 2000 Civic!

I actually went to Loganville, GA in 1995 to bid on some cars; tried (and lost) on a nice Passat.

[Niels Bohr 72]

GOOD PRICE! I did a search on vehix.com for the lowest priced Honda Civic, and it revealed 4k. Not bad at the auction. LUCKY! The Audi A4 is not a bad price.

[almaty 19]

yes, my friend is a car dealer and guarantees his cars for 6 months..all come from there and he reports, he ahs few complaints

[Robor007 0]

GOOD PRICE! I did a search on vehix.com for the lowest priced Honda Civic, and it revealed 4k. Not bad at the auction. LUCKY! The Audi A4 is not a bad price.

Stay away from a German car unless you enjoy expensive repairs.

<=== VW owner

My neighbor buys all of his cars from auctions. He's got a friend who buys and sells them and when he's ready to move into another car he has his friend start scouting. No problems so far.

[Nanusia & Lukaszek 0]

What do you think of the quality of these cars? I mean I expect them to have 160,000+ mileage?

Hubby wants to pimp around in the Audi A4, I say the civic is better. Whose side are you on?

Edited May 11, 2007 by Nanusia & Lukaszek

[Niels Bohr 72]

Get the Civic. There's more custom parts that you can purchase from eBay. Back in the days, the Civic is known as drag racer cars. They have many handmade custom parts to tweak the performance.

Plus, all you need to do with it is change the timing belt, tire rotations, oil change. That's pretty much all you need to do.

Edited May 11, 2007 by consolemaster

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Agreeing with consolemaster, and repeating my earlier suggestion of taking the 2000 Civic.

[Emancipation 2]

Do you know the history of these cars? can you at least get a VIN # so you can run a check and know they are some flooded out wrecks from Katrina days? (just a thought i had)

[Nanusia & Lukaszek 0]

I was thinking of running the carfax reports on them (I do have vin#s), butI remember a friend once pulling the report, and it didnt list even half of what happened to his car. He had like 4-5 accidents (it listed 1), and he had a couple recalls (it listed none). So how reliable do you think they are?

I'm leaning towards the rice racer civic too. But I'm having a hard time convincing the husband that we'll have less mechanical problems with the honda.

[Emancipation 2]

I remember reading a report from Canada that the insurance co's from the US had pooled together a list of the vehicles that were listed as write off's (or is that right offs') during Katrina.. not sure of the site but i found this article about it.. apparently at this site you could type in a VIN number and make sure..

http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/ask/archive/2006/q0103.htm

[Jasman0717 8]

Auctions can be a good thing but sometimes old taxis are put on auction. The car may only be 3 or 4 years old but could have a million miles on it so beware of that. I do have a couple of friends that have gotten really good deals at the auction. Good luck

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Hubby wants to pimp around in the Audi A4, I say the civic is better. Whose side are you on?

Stay away from that '97 Audi. The only thing you'll be pimping is the local dealership's or exotic repair shop's bottom line.

[Fandango 1,439]

Lately, it seems auctions have tons of bidders and the prices go up to mkt value, so I hope you'll be able to get one at a great price!

Me personally, I'd go for the Audi.

[Dan J 277]

The current car Im driving I got at an auction. You can sometimes get pretty good deals.