Has anyone bought a car from Copart?

[BenzBoy]

I'm looking for a donor vehicle and was thinking about buying a crash-damaged car. I've seen links to Copart auctions on RR before, but has anyone ever bought a car from them?

[The Transplanter]

bought several in the past but everything is to expensive now, I think you stand as much chance of getting a bargain doner from ebay

[paran0id]

yes quite few.

[smithy13]

When it was hales yes.

Now copart no. Its the stupid auto bidder.

I tried to buy a very rare desirable ducati motorcycle off there a while back but it fetched more money than a whole one!

[BenzBoy]

Thanks guys , I'm just looking at my options for picking up the right car.
Maybe I'll register and have a bid or two.

[trouble]

£40 to register is it not?

[MiniDan]

Takes a while to register. You have to send a photocopy of your driving licence off to them and some other info before you can bid. Oh, you have to pay as well.

Last time I looked, it was £40, but it runs from Jan-Jan, so if you register in October, you still have to pay £40 but get three months membership. That's why I didn't sign up. Ment to do it at the start of the year but forgot

[The Transplanter]

Sept 25, 2011 17:48:22 GMT BenzBoy said:

Maybe I'll register and have a bid or two.

No disrespect to you or anyone else, but since Copart has pretty much manopolised the salvage car market, and allowed "all and sundary" to join the prices have gone through the roof

The online bidding system works ok, so long as you have half a day to hang around waiting for the vehicle you intrested to come up! And its at that point when it makes twice what you expected and won by someone in Poland or Lithuania. Thats you start to question your own sanity for expecting to buy it at a reasonable price

I used to buy 20v Turbo's, VR6's & TDi's for doner vehicles, but now its cheaper to by an undamaged one of ebay that requires some sort of work. by all means join but don't expect to many bargains.

Also a word of warning, Copart are very loose with the truth in their discriptions and photo's!

[BenzBoy]

Thanks again for the useful advice! Hmm, I'm not keen on shelling out 40 notes just to lose a few auctions... maybe eBay / Gumtree / local ads are more up my street.

[theo2468]

Blue cycle is a good salvage site, I've bought a few cars through it. Only problem I think my dad may of had to send buisness details through to be a member. But it means not any one can just join so still reasonable in price.

[cobblers]

From my experience with any salvage auction on "common" vehicles, I've found you can buy a straight motor for comparable money, or a straight motor with a simple fault for a LOT less off ebay or autotrader.

I'm not sure who these people are that pay "private average condition" prices for a stoved in cat C vehicle, but I'm happy to leave them to it.

[briggsy]

Had a few, when it was Universal Salvage, but as others have said, easier and cheaper to get one of the bay of E

[Mr S]

www.motorhog.co.uk and www.raw2k.co.uk/ are another couple of places to have a look at for salvage stuff!

[rangyman]

try asm they do salvage auctions too