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Hi folks, So, I've recently discovered that I now live just down the road from a Copart in Sandwich, which has naturally got me looking at their inventory and fee structure. Has anyone had any experience of them? One of their many, many fees (turns out, if you fart within 5 miles of the Copart facility they have a fee to charge you for it) is a 'bidding fee' which charges you for bidding. It doesn't however, tell you if it's a one-off fee per auction or a charge for each bid you place on an auction (which could add up very fast indeed!). So, which if these is how it works: - I place a bid on a car, they charge me, then I place another bid on the same car but don't charge me again because I've already payed my 'bidding fee'
- I place a bid on a car, they charge me, then I place another bid on the same care which they charge me again for
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You pay a one off fee to join think it's £100 then you can bid on as much as you want, there are fees when you win an auction. There is a bit on the copart site that tells you the fees
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Remember some vehicles are plus VAT as well but it does tell you
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As a non-buyer through this avenue, my question is whether it is actually possible to do the maths and buy an item at a similar price as you would off any other site.
All those costs add 32% to the price you are paying for the item.
Clearly many people find this system acceptable, or they would not be successful.
Explain or justify to me please, I may learn a thing or two.
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,710
Club RR Member Number: 34
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As a non-buyer through this avenue, my question is whether it is actually possible to do the maths and buy an item at a similar price as you would off any other site. All those costs add 32% to the price you are paying for the item. Clearly many people find this system acceptable, or they would not be successful. Explain or justify to me please, I may learn a thing or two. They don’t find it acceptable, it’s just they have no other choice. Copart have a total monopoly. any car that becomes the property of an insurer due to a payout is handled by copart. If you want to buy accident damaged cars to repair you can barely buy them anywhere else. Copart are one of the biggest reasons second hand cars and especially vans are currently so expensive.
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,227
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Copart fees upon fees upon feesRich
@foxmcintyre
Club Retro Rides Member 160
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Copart are one of the biggest reasons second hand cars and especially vans are currently so expensive. *cough cough* see also, “supply chain of new vehicle issues”
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,188
Club RR Member Number: 170
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As a non-buyer through this avenue, my question is whether it is actually possible to do the maths and buy an item at a similar price as you would off any other site. All those costs add 32% to the price you are paying for the item. Clearly many people find this system acceptable, or they would not be successful. Explain or justify to me please, I may learn a thing or two. They don’t find it acceptable, it’s just they have no other choice. Copart have a total monopoly. any car that becomes the property of an insurer due to a payout is handled by copart. If you want to buy accident damaged cars to repair you can barely buy them anywhere else. Copart are one of the biggest reasons second hand cars and especially vans are currently so expensive. Not sure I buy that, but the monopoly is a good point. Bear in mind that everything from CoPart has a marker of sorts on it. If it's not a CAT (write-off) marker, some vehicle checks do see if the car has been through a CoPart auction. We Buy Any Car, for example, do not give market value on CoPart cars, irrespective of the write-off status. Speaking to a friend, who buys alot from CoPart, he has said there are 2 or 3 other companies who deal as a main agent for write offs. He does quite well from CoPart, albeit he can pour cash into some cars off there! Copart are one of the biggest reasons second hand cars and especially vans are currently so expensive. *cough cough* see also, “supply chain of new vehicle issues”This. It's been the single biggest reason. This has also meant the supply of good cars secondhand has got more scarce. Traders were telling me they were only being offered cars which were 'done'. Good cars very rarely pop up, and when they do, they do not hang about at all, and are sold almost straight away. Other reasons? -Finance deals now getting pricier, with interest rates increasing -Parts prices going through the roof. This probably started, co-incidentally around almost 7 years ago, with it going up a notch after 2021. Again, a 'friend' is aware that shipping parts from here to Slovakia is now way more expensive and double the time compared to before. In the automotive production world, where packaging is returnable, it really adds up, and messes with Just-In-Time practices. Space in the UK, after all, isn't cheap, or by any means, free. I know, with selling some parts for M3s, European parts are far riskier and pricier to ship, unless I basically slap the true value onto the parts onto the customer, which then makes a main dealer in Europe look competitive to my aftermarket parts.
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Last Edit: Dec 14, 2022 8:04:00 GMT by ChasR
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Ah thanks, so it looks like it is a one-off bid fee. That's a lot less scary!
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,188
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Ah thanks, so it looks like it is a one-off bid fee. That's a lot less scary! Indeed! However, one thing to bear in mind, from a friend who buys and sells from there, is that it is a gamble buying a car from there. Unless you know the car, you have to accept that you are jumping into an unknown puddle with both feet. Seeing a car with the rev counter sat at idle via a photo doesn't say alot. You can't view the cars prior to bidding, but ofr £10, you can view the cars via mobile, and a virtual walkaround. Speaking with him yesterday, he was saying -Almost everything he buys needs discs and pads, at least on the front anyway, if not all round -Tyres also tend to be shot. -He'll service anything, which still adds up. -In a few cases, he's ended up changing engines, but has still come out OK the other side, just not as well as he wanted. Another very good friend, once tried to buy back an XJ8 that was a customer's car, with no key. Unknown to anyone else, the car had a knackered crank in it, which the new customer came to find out at great expense. Obviously, my friend bidded to what he deemed was an acceptable value for an X308 with a dead engine, albeit a tidy car, with good history, but was outbid by the new customer.
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Last Edit: Dec 14, 2022 8:12:20 GMT by ChasR
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Dec 14, 2022 10:03:41 GMT
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Yeah I've heard it's a total gamble. There was a chappy on here who rescued a Saab 99 from Copart and had to redo the brake lines as they'd crushed them when moving it around with a forklift under the sills.
Mainly I'm looking at them as a source for an alloy block M57 for a potential future project and then breaking the car to make the money back, but I might take a punt on something that looks repairable (knowing that it'll be a gamble). Something needs to pay for the future project as well!
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,188
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Dec 14, 2022 11:19:20 GMT
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Yeah I've heard it's a total gamble. There was a chappy on here who rescued a Saab 99 from Copart and had to redo the brake lines as they'd crushed them when moving it around with a forklift under the sills. Mainly I'm looking at them as a source for an alloy block M57 for a potential future project and then breaking the car to make the money back, but I might take a punt on something that looks repairable (knowing that it'll be a gamble). Something needs to pay for the future project as well! I’d get a tatty running car from eBay or FB Marketplace in that case. You will determined quickly if the engine is viable, and have a working ECU etc to roll with it. M57s, are now going up on value car wise, driven by how the N57s aren’t quite as solid, albeit the better engine for MPG. OM606 values being crazy isn’t going to help here either. I can see why you want to go to CoPart, and donor cars aren’t cheap. I paid more for my E91 than I wanted. But if the engine is dead in the CoPart car, say due to swirl flaps, neglect, etc. you will be back to square one. Depending on how soon you want it, E91s rust worse than folks think, so a rusty car may pop up sooner than you think.
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Last Edit: Dec 14, 2022 11:29:34 GMT by ChasR
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melle
South West
It'll come out in the wash.
Posts: 1,981
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Dec 14, 2022 11:54:28 GMT
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There was a chappy on here who rescued a Saab 99 from Copart and had to redo the brake lines as they'd crushed them when moving it around with a forklift under the sills. Wow, there must have been quite a bit of other damage too then, as the brake lines run inside the car and exit the body away from the sills.
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www.saabv4.com'70 Saab 96 V4 "The Devil's Own V4" '77 Saab 95 V4 van conversion project '88 Saab 900i 8V
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rodharris83
Club Retro Rides Member
Day Dreamer...
Posts: 757
Club RR Member Number: 4
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Dec 14, 2022 12:19:08 GMT
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This any good? : eBay linkslightly worrying comment though : "Engine can randomly die on longer journeys, although it always restarts straight away."
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Dec 14, 2022 12:51:02 GMT
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There was a chappy on here who rescued a Saab 99 from Copart and had to redo the brake lines as they'd crushed them when moving it around with a forklift under the sills. Wow, there must have been quite a bit of other damage too then, as the brake lines run inside the car and exit the body away from the sills. Ah, sorry, it was a 900. This was the thread. Not sure if it was on that car in particular, or just mentioned in the thread. Good read though! This any good? : eBay linkslightly worrying comment though : "Engine can randomly die on longer journeys, although it always restarts straight away." Ooh interesting! Wonder what the issue is. Sounds sensor related, or something electrical at least... Will keep an eye on that one and see what it goes for.
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Last Edit: Dec 14, 2022 12:52:06 GMT by biturbo228
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melle
South West
It'll come out in the wash.
Posts: 1,981
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Dec 14, 2022 13:06:03 GMT
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Same deal on the 900.
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www.saabv4.com'70 Saab 96 V4 "The Devil's Own V4" '77 Saab 95 V4 van conversion project '88 Saab 900i 8V
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Dec 15, 2022 10:39:31 GMT
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Everything is moved by forklift and they aren't careful, expect damage everywhere.
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dragon
Part of things
Posts: 147
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Dec 15, 2022 16:19:50 GMT
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The forks are long enough to lift a car from the front or rear straight off trucks.
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I used to buy from them but stopped a couple of years ago. They aren't very 'accurate' with their photos or descriptions . For example if a car has smashed trackrods, they'll be sure to point the wheels in the same direction before taking a photo. The photos are often not helpful, i mean how hard would it be to just photograph underneath the car where there is damage? I was interested it a newish Berlingo, I phoned them to ask them if it drove, they said it did, I bought the car £6500 it didn't drive at all, there is no way the car could drive, because the airbags had deployed it had disabled the high voltage system, PITA but was ok in the end as I got the main dealer to reset the ECU after i had jigged the car, replaced the front chassis rails, and reconstructed the front end as the car was still under warranty. I once went to collect a car from the Essex branch and they could not find the key for it, and they think they listed it wrongly and there was never a key, they did credit me around £150 for this however and were apologetic. They move cars around on their forklifts, EVEN IF THEY DRIVE. this is insane, and I think almost every single car i bought from them was damaged in some way. I'm talking scrapes to the backs of the wheel rims from them ramming the forks into them, damaged handbrake cables, bent shock absorbers. broken plastic undertrays, fuel lines, damaged bumpers (they sometimes let the forklift carriage rub on the bumper) the person driving the forklift obviously thinks, this is a scrap car, not giving a thought to the fact that by bouncing it across a car park at full throttle they damage previously undamaged areas of the car costing money to fix. The website is badly designed, why isn't there a way to just show you the cars you have bookmarked, instead you have to sit through other auctions for stuff you have no interest in. Because they run so many auctions at once you have to have multiple auctions open , for a load of cars you are not interested in. They also started adding irritating sound effects , like it was a cartoon, I don't know if they still do that. I did manage to get some really good deals a few years back, 15 year old cheapie cars with just one damaged panel for example for around £350-£400 delivered. Example Peugeot 206 with a biff in the tailgate, rest of car perfect with 52,000 miles on it. 12 year old Almera with just a biffed in front wing and scuffed up headlamp for about the same money. A Peugeot Partner with light front end biff. All on the button with MOTs. The main reason I stopped buying was the fees just got ridiculous. They used to charge just £45 (net) to deliver a car from Sandwich to me, I would sometimes buy 3 cars at a time. Now it's more like £180 a car, which on a £200 car is not good, I feel a lot of cheap fixable cars will get scrapped as they are not viable to buy anymore. Expensive cars work out better on fees etc , but I still get the general feeling of they are out to rip you off which is a shame but seems to happen to a lot of companies that get too big If Copart was a burger joint, they'd charge you a fee for walking in, charge you for a burger, charge you for paying for the burger, charge you for the cardboard box , charge to transport the burger to the counter, charge you for a chair and charge for using the toilet. I also don't like this extra service they offer to buy and break a cat B car for you... you have to tell them your maximum bid, this is open to fraud as they can just bid it up , in theory. It would be better if they just let you buy the car in the usual way but then broke it for you.
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Last Edit: Dec 16, 2022 11:16:04 GMT by datman
69 Plymouth Fury Convertible 75 Range Rover 2 door 82 Range Rover 4 door 84 Range Rover 4 door 78 Datsun 120Y 2 door 78 Datsun 120Y Coupe 78 Datsun 620 Pickup 81 Datsun Urvan E23 86 Datsun Vanette van 98 Electric Citroen Berlingo 00 Electric Peugeot Partner 02 Electric Citroen Berlingo 76 Honda C50 04 Berlingo Multispace petrol 07 Land Rover 130 15 Nissan E-NV200 15 Fiat Ducato
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Dec 16, 2022 16:18:07 GMT
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If Copart was a burger joint, they'd charge you a fee for walking in, charge you for a burger, charge you for paying for the burger, charge you for the cardboard box , charge to transport the burger to the counter, charge you for a chair and charge for using the toilet. That was my impression having read their insane fee structure. It's not given me a great impression of American companies (although the few I've actually dealt with have been far less underhanded). What would you say is the proportion of 'completely duff/poorly described' to 'actually ok' in the cars you've bought from them?
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Dec 18, 2022 16:33:53 GMT
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i wouldnt say any were really completely duff, i did end up just breaking a car that i was hoping to fix but it was a cheapie and the parts were useful. Oh, one of the cars i bought had been sabotaged. I think someone in the yard took a fancy to it and unplugged a plug inside the fusebox so they could bid on it and get it cheap perhaps, luckily I found this quickly and car was running in no time. Bought an unusual grey import Terrano , didn't get it running as it had been overheated badly due to damaged rad, and head gasket had badly gone, sold it on as-is. i don't think i actually lost money on it Many of the cars I bought for £400 or so have been used as dailys by friends for 5 or so years now, so it feels good to save 'scrap' cars and get more life out of them, perfectly useable cars with a few dents etc. I would perhaps use a friends account, or get one to share, to reduce membership cost. I'd be interested to hear peoples experiences of other salvage companies , as a comparison.
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Last Edit: Dec 18, 2022 16:42:14 GMT by datman
69 Plymouth Fury Convertible 75 Range Rover 2 door 82 Range Rover 4 door 84 Range Rover 4 door 78 Datsun 120Y 2 door 78 Datsun 120Y Coupe 78 Datsun 620 Pickup 81 Datsun Urvan E23 86 Datsun Vanette van 98 Electric Citroen Berlingo 00 Electric Peugeot Partner 02 Electric Citroen Berlingo 76 Honda C50 04 Berlingo Multispace petrol 07 Land Rover 130 15 Nissan E-NV200 15 Fiat Ducato
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