Copart advice. New to me.

[Silver]

Anyone Copart experts? I can fix anything 'external'. I'm no engine or transmission rebuild guy so I'd just swap out with a used one if there were major problems. But I am interested in the idea of picking up a cheap vehicle that may or may not need a bit of work to make road worthy. Either to flip or perhaps even keep. Just browsing I even see some vehicles that are priced very low that have no supposed issues at all.

As for picking up cheap vehicles from Craigslist, etc, nothing is cheap in my area. Everybody thinks they've got a collectible, etc.

Thoughts?

 

[Nick1994]

It’s an auction, so the price appears low until it’s right up on the auction block when most bidding happens.

I bought a 2001 Buick LeSabre once just for fun, I flipped it and made a couple hundred bucks. Not sure it was worth it for that one.

I still browse from time to time to see if something interesting pops up.

Here was my post about it
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/picked-up-a-beater-to-flip.263745/

 

[zzyzzx]

Auto Auction Rebuilds

Welcome to Auto Auction Rebuilds! My name is Randy Shear and I am the owner of this channel, and the content creator, and videographer / editor. I spend a lo...

www.youtube.com

 

[Jake_J]

Copart like any auction has quite a bit of fee's tacked onto the sale price, so be aware of what the adders are before you go bidding.

 

[dbias]

My BIL does lightly hit rebuilds all the time. He usually has about 3 in process all the time. One in tear down, one in rebuild and one in paint booth. They are always sold before the paint booth. He usually rebuilds F150 and Focus. We go to swap meets and its nothing for him to buy half a dozen grills, headlights, hoods and fenders etc at a time. He has his license? Or what ever to get in and bid. He only bids to where he can double his money or better and does very well.

 

[GON]

Here are a few of my copart posts. My recommendation- do not buy. I watch copart daily, and can purchase anywhere in the USA. I find about one vehicle worth purchasing a year, which means 1 out of 365 days. O enjoy doing it, but better odds walking away a winner in a crooked casino than in a copart purchase. I have been watching a few very specific vehicles over the past three months, only to see them sell for well over market value. Came to the specultion is the covid 19 checks are bringing buyers with money burning into their pockets to the auction.

Copart find " truth in lending post".

This post is a demonstration on "the truth in lending" about some Copart finds. It may support how leaving certain truths from a post can paint a sometimes different picture of what the transaction/ sale really is. This will be a two part post. I will come back to this post later today and post...

www.bobistheoilguy.com

Copart- Tired- Fecta (not tri-fecta) S- class Merc

I have posted a few threads on Copart. Overall I think 99.5% of the vehicles on auction are not a match for a consumer to purchase. If the vehicle has value the pros are in on it, and consumers often get wrapped up in the bidding process and overbid, and then find out that winning bid has little...

www.bobistheoilguy.com

Latest Copart purchase- not so happy

Purchased a 2003 Pontiac Bonneville SLE two days ago. I liked what I saw in the pics, I liked the maintenance records. I am somewhat fluent with the 3.8L engine, and the pics showed me it had been maintained. My limit was $225. I bid the live auction using my phone. When I bid at $200, the...

www.bobistheoilguy.com

Garage picture with two of my Copart rides

Below is a picture of two of my Copart purchased rides. The silver one is my daily driver, a 2006 S430 4matic. A very enjoyable sedan that does well on the old Appalachian trail roads I commute on daily, that can be covered with a lot of water that runs down from the mature mountains, and then...

www.bobistheoilguy.com

Ok Copart buy

Purchased this 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix a few weeks ago. 147k miles, looked fairly clean other than the left rear passenger door. Had decent maintenance records with oil changes being done on schedule at a GM dealership. Paid Copart about $723 for this GP. Not included in the cost was a $55...

www.bobistheoilguy.com

One of my more dissapointing copart buys

When I purchase from Copart, two things I do are (1) limit my targeted vehicles to those of which I am very familiar, (2) have a history that usually reflects one or two owners, vehicle was registered in a non-urban environment, etc. Found this 2006 Grand Prix GT (supercharged 3.8L), it was a...

www.bobistheoilguy.com

 

[CKN]

CoPart has nothing but junk. As another poster said-he finds maybe one car a year. There are reasons these things have been totaled by insurance companies and are sitting in that yard......

CoPart is the equivalent (on here) of building up an oil stash because (everybody else is doing it) the oil is cheap, nearly free, etc., and then not knowing what to do with it and then losing whatever money was invested.

 

[Silver]

Thanks for these suggestions GON and everyone. So I know there's always a risk. I'm still on the fence about whether it's worth it. If the descriptions aren't just blatantly false I think I'd be ok narrowing down to something I'd like. The local yard(s) are within 30-45 minute drives. I definitely would not want to pay more than 'normal' market value though. I'm just not into paying more for something just because of some fad or spike in demand. Not unless it's toilet paper.