Auction buying advice?

[IanF]

I was there last week; stopped my dad buying a GLE63S (as his daily - Mik has already told me off), and we had a cheeky punt at a 2016 firey-orange Conti GT cab instead (it sounds awful, but looked stunning).

Popping over to visit my parents, so I may pop in tomorrow on my way back. SJ - not sure if we swapped numbers, I'll keep an eye out for you. I look forward to meeting you Carlos.

[drcarlos]

Well, that was fun!

I picked out a few candidates yesterday going by pictures, MOT length, etc.

Rocked up and 9am and had 30mins to inspect them externally before the sale started and they were first up.

Two were immediately knocked off the list for excessive bodywork damage and a reserve was promoted to to bid list.

The wife then rocked up and I showed her the two candidates (sadly the better interior-ed one was second)

Watched them all fired up and driven to the hall and then got in amoungst it, it was quiet with only a few people bidding on these early cheap lots. And were they cheap, I watched an 08 plate transit make £700 at the hammer and it was in decent enough shape.
The first combo came in and the auctioneer tried to drum up interest at £400, no one was having it so the start dropped to £300 (WTF!) with the hammer falling on this one at only £350 quid, gobsmacked was not the word. Next up was candidate number one, again started at £300 with a maiden bid I dropped in subtlety at £325, outbid to £350, so I tried again at £375 and then all of a sudden it was done, I'd bought it with a hammer price of £375, less than half of what i was prepared to bid. Deposit paid and we went off to pay the balance. So with the VAT, buyers premium and other charges it stands us at £695, which for an 08 plate 1.3CDTi combo with full service history done religiously every 10k and not one but 2 camchain changes done in it's life and a couple of months MOT. It's not bad.
It drives well, is quite nippy and cavernous inside.
So what do we need to do?
Well it needs front grill chrome trim
Wheel arch trim
Drivers door card
Pair of seats
Steering wheel
A decent Radio
Deep Clean inside as it's bloody filthy!
Machine Polish as its badly bloomed (a quick 5 mins with basic t-cut on the wing made a massive difference).

Probably another £200-300 spending.

The one at retail would have set me back £2400 for the same thing and at the end of the day needed a few bits too.

For what amounts to a dog van it should do nicely.

Carl.

[Nathan]

Go back next week and buy another 2x

[drcarlos]

Go back next week and buy another 2x

You know I thought about hanging around and buying the second one we'd marked out.

If I can get this one up together for 1k, I reckon I could easily make £700 a van on these. Not a lot but not to be sniffed at.

Would have kept the better one of the two.

Carl.

So far the replacement parts have cost me about £120 and I only have some seats and a stereo to buy.

[Broccers]

Sounds well worth the effort

[Rich B]

My mate has an Astra van 1.3cdti, his is chipped and goes surprisingly well for such a little engine.

[Nathan]

Go back next week and buy another 2x

You know I thought about hanging around and buying the second one we'd marked out.

If I can get this one up together for 1k, I reckon I could easily make £700 a van on these. Not a lot but not to be sniffed at.

Would have kept the better one of the two.

Carl.

So far the replacement parts have cost me about £120 and I only have some seats and a stereo to buy.

Might be worth keeping a lookout for the ones with rear seats and windows on the sliding doors. They have always seemed so much more useful, especially if its just a dog wagon.

But I guess if you wanted one of them you would have bought a Berlingo Multispace already.

[drcarlos]

Go back next week and buy another 2x

You know I thought about hanging around and buying the second one we'd marked out.

If I can get this one up together for 1k, I reckon I could easily make £700 a van on these. Not a lot but not to be sniffed at.

Would have kept the better one of the two.

Carl.

So far the replacement parts have cost me about £120 and I only have some seats and a stereo to buy.

Might be worth keeping a lookout for the ones with rear seats and windows on the sliding doors. They have always seemed so much more useful, especially if its just a dog wagon.

But I guess if you wanted one of them you would have bought a Berlingo Multispace already.

We need the larger load space of the 2 seater so we can get 4 dogs in the back and have them crated for safety. My boy has already spotted it will fit a racing mower too so we can take 2 mowers to race meets and both race.

Carl.