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Jake, we need an explication of how to go about buying a salvage car. A guy on the MG boards was interested in a car on the Copart auction site. It looked like a tremendous trap for the unwary. On top of that there is a extensive complaint thread on the net.
Jake, we need an explication of how to go about buying a salvage car. A guy on the MG boards was interested in a car on the Copart auction site. It looked like a tremendous trap for the unwary. On top of that there is a extensive complaint thread on the net.
You need to be a dealer, wholesaler, or dismantler to buy from copart. I have a friend at work who is a dealer and lets me use his account, i just kick him a couple hundred every time i pick up a car. They do have some very rare auctions where they will open to the public but they are not common.
Copart is a crapshoot. If you're on someones list (meaning a dealer), and only if you're on their list (they're only allowed 3 people total, no guests), you can go take a look at the car before the auction. However you're not allowed to bring a jump pack in and they leave all the cars turned on to drain the batteries. You also need to bring your own yellow vest and wear it or they won't allow you to go in. You could sneak in a new jump box like a boostmax, just be sneaky. Because S2000s are so few and far between i've never looked at the ones i've bought in advance, they've all been out of state. i just go by the pictures, use my knowledge on them, assume the worst, bid high and cross my fingers. Copart will usually tell you "Car starts" or "runs and drives" but that's no guarantee. For "car runs and drives" all they do is start it and move it straight forward and back 10 feet, they engine could be knocking and it'd still say "runs and drives". If it says "runs and drives" don't assume you'll be able to drive it home on a dealer plate.
The most important thing is you have to make sure you're bidding in the final minutes when the bidding goes live, bids in advance will never win you a car, kinda like ebay. It's a gamble, sometimes you find extra parts you couldn't see from the pictures, sometimes you find more damage then anticipated. You buy everything as-is. When you pick it up you hand them a bank check or money order (they'll only take up to 400 cash so you need a bank check) and they give you a slip, you take that slip to a fork truck driver and he will get your car. You can't go look at the car first, you pay first and you own whatever they bring out. If you're lucky the fork truck driver will be back within 30 minutes, and if you're really lucky he won't pop any of the tires with the forks on the truck. He'll drop it on your trailer and you're all set, strap it down and go. The yard will be full of tractor trailers hauling 10 cars a piece out of there, so my advise is to get there early, when they open, before you end up behind a couple rigs waiting on 30 cars to load before you. If you don't like what you ended up with too bad, you own it now. If you're not okay with taking an expensive gamble, copart is not for you. Since i never plan to "rebuild" anything i buy from there, it works for me, i'm not trying to turn these cars into gems, just using them for the good parts so i can turn other cars into gems. I can usually get the parts i need for the project and sell the rest to offset my cost. It's also important to remember these cars usually sit in these yards for months before they actually get auctioned off. So if your buying in the spring assume it's been there for 6 months through the winter. They will try to tarp large soft top rips and smashed window glass etc, but they don't always do a great job, and people going in and out of them doesn't help either.
It doesn't surprise me there would be a big complaint thread on the internet, people don't read before bidding. Everything is sold as-is and they are very up front about this. If you're in the car business you're probably not the same guy writing negative reviews about a bad buy you made. I would assume those "reviews" are more from inexperienced people who regret spending too much money on a car they didn't do their do-diligence on.
Where is this car your friend is interested in, is it an MG?
Last edited by jsenclosure; 12-21-2016 at 06:06 PM.
Looks like the the top still works. It's a shame, looked to be a nice, well kept car.
12-21-2016, 01:07 PM
