Police Vehicle Auctions vs Car Dealerships - Which is Best?
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Are you aware that you will be allowed to attend many of the government and police auctions in your area? The police seize thousands of cars and other vehicles every month all across the country due to several different reasons. These vehicles are offered for much lower prices than you would generally pay by going through a car dealership.
Government auctions are a well kept secret that dealerships would rather you not know about. They purchase these vehicles themselves for very low prices and sell them to the rest of the public for good profit. The more consumers become educated about police auctions, the more competition they face at the auction plus car dealerships sales they could potential lose that business.
Yet almost all North Americans still continue to use car dealerships to purchase their vehicles every day. Why? Most people unfortunately aren’t educated on police auctions. The government doesn’t spend any money advertising so auction attendance is solely based on word of month. Following is a list of pros and cons when buying at these auctions:
Advantages:
- Business Methodology allows much lower prices.
- Police auctions are held everywhere in US and Canada.
- Information regarding government and police auctions with vehicle listing detail is now available on the web
- Typically there is a wide selection of vehicles (i.e. could find a BWM, Jeep, Porsche and Chevy at one auction)
- no distribution channel (car dealership) to go through or to pay
- No pushy salesperson looking for a commission
- Motivated seller who is not equipped to handle inventory, everything must go
- Better income tax advantage (can be set up as a business for resale to spouse, kids etc.)
- May pay less sales and new car tax
- Once you understand process you can do as a side business (i.e sale cars in Autotrader.com or eBay)
Cons:
- Most of the sales are cash only (any credit would have be done externally)
- No extended warranty beyond what the manufacturer offers. Most used dealerships give only 30 days
If it’s not a problem paying cash, or you can get credit elsewhere, then the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Just remember to bring a mechanic or car expert who understands vehicles with you to the auction. They will inspect the vehicles that you’re interested in to make sure you get a great deal.
