North Toronto Auction Experience.

[rfd-addict]

Hey,
can any one please share their experience at "North Toronto Auction"
I am looking at feedback regarding the prices / quality / procedure..
Ideas / options.

Thanks

[dvdrsi]

Anyone every buy a car from the public auctions at ntva.ca? Are most of the cars lemons?


Thanks

[AGR-1]

Its an auction "what you see is what you get".

Prices: all an auction needs/wants is 2 bidders that want the same vehicle then the fun starts?

You can view the vehicles online, you can inspect them on their lot.

[ihsn]

:arrowu:

Can anyone shed more light on this?

[AGR-1]

This auction deals primarily with x-police, x-municiapl, x-federal vehicles in various conditions, as well as older private vehicles in various conditions.

The buyer at this auction is looking for a reasonably priced vehicle, and has the resources to have reconditioning work, be it mechanical or body performed at a reasonable price or he can do it himself.

The x-police especially OPP P71 Crown Vics are good value for the money, if such a car is of interest to you.

If you are expecting a fully reconditioned vehicle, that will cost nothing to safety, perhaps this auction is not for you.

[ada2]

I have bought 2 cars there. I was satisfied with both purchases. (One came from Donway Ford, and the other from a leasing company.) You have to remember that the cars are not certified and do not have a current drive clean pass. Therefore you may have to do some work on them to get the safety certificate or drive clean. It is up to you to guess how much work may be required. Newer lower mileage vehicles are a better bet than older vehicles. If you are not picky you can get a car for a few hundred dollars, but you can be pretty sure it will need work. Condition won't be great on a cheap car.

In general the price will be less than a dealership or used car lot. However you can not test drive them. All you can do is look at it and start the engine and play with the radio and other controls.

They say they sell "EX FEDERAL GOV'T UNITS, TOWNSHIP AND MUNICIPALITY UNITS AND MUCH MORE". In reality the vast majority are from dealerships and leasing companies. There are lots of nice vehicles, all the way to some in pretty rough condition. (I.E. bashed up, very worn or dirty interior, or non-running.) There are usually x-police cars, more than usual at today's sale. You can not get a temporary permit to drive x-police cars away, they have to be towed.

For a sale on a Saturday you get until Tuesday to pay and take the vehicle. They take cash, certified cheques, bank draft, debit, or credit cards. You can mix. For most cars you can get a temporary permit on the spot (Saturday only) to drive it away. You have to pay in full first. Their terms and conditions say you have to pay a $500 deposit to the auctioneer when you buy, but I have never seen this collected. You can see all terms at their website, as well as cars in the next sale (starting a couple of days before the sale): http://ntva.ca

It is a noisy place. There are 3 auctions going on at once in 1 building. The cars are driven in through garage doors on one side and out the other side in a continuous flow, each one pauses in front of the auctioneer to be sold. There are 3 lanes beside each other. The place could do with some acoustic treatment on the walls and ceiling to make it easier to hear. There is no sound dampening now, so their solution to overcoming the noise and reverberation is to turn the volume up higher, which mostly just makes more noise. The have a video screen in each lane, so you can see the current bid easily.

Most cars have a reserve on them, or they will not sell for what they think is too low a price. The seller gets to set whatever reserve they want. At first you may not realize it, but many cars are passed (not sold) despite the auctioneer appearing to take bids from the crowd. (This is a legitimate auction practice, and done at most auctions. It is nothing crooked or shady, it is done to get the bids flowing.) Probably more than half the cars are passed. You will likely see them in the next auction. Their website also has their "Previous Auction Sales Results" which is a list of sales in the last auction. If it was in the auction and does not end up on the sales list, it was passed, or the sale fell through (rare). You can get an idea about going prices, although there is no indication of condition, so you can't tell all that much.

Read the terms and conditions carefully. There is a buyer's fee that you pay as well as the auction price and taxes.

If you don't have experience with buying at an auction, or are timid about buying a car not knowing if it can be certified for a cost you can live with, you probably don't want to start here.

[Starkicker]

I don't know if this is the same place but my uncle bought 6 cars and 5 of them had bad transmissions. He had no way of knowing that based on the walk around of the car he was allowed to do.