Looking to get the missus a used rep mobile. Most of the stock on Arfur Daley's forecourt and Ebay blaggers seem to be ex-lease 1 owner jobbies, which I'm in the market for. How do you bypass the Camel Hair coat brigade and bag yourself one direct?
Do you have to be in the trade?
Any recommendations for where all these ex-lease cars can be found???
Been looking locally for a motor, and nearly all but one were ex-lease........

Most of the smaller local auction houses are supplying used crap for ferrying Pizza / Chinese take away, or illegal mini cab transport

Must be a way joe public can get a pice of the action without paying a dealers profit for the day !!!

Cheers

I think you've got to know what your doing for that kind of thing as you don't get much chance to look at them.

Not quite the same thing but don't rental companies flog off all the cars at regular intervals for a decent price? There might be leasing companies that also do this with the old cars.

What sort of thing were you looking at and what price? If your looking one owner and only a couple of years old you might be better going for approved used.

Any of these places close to you?

http://www.british-car-auctions.co.uk/buy/Useful-information/Types-of-auction/Lex-Autolease/

By all means go and look but auction prices (with the premium charged to private buyers) as made it a waste of time for a while now, there will always be the exception but auction prices for the type of car your looking at have been very strong foe a while now.

BCA, British car auctions, go to there site and get a list of the cars being auctioned for the day you can attend. don't forget the fees, which the traders get a more favourable rate.

Whoops, bit slow there.....sorry.

[Edited on 26/1/14 by unijacko67]

Most of the newer cars ar auction cone with limited warranties or opportunities to check them after the auction. Generally, Its only the older cars that are sold as seen.

My friend went to the Derby car auction on one of the fleet days, he found that the prices were pretty comparable to Glass private sales rather than the 'bargains' you used to get. And obviously no chance for test drives, proper lookovers, etc.

I've had a couple of ex-lease cars now (purely by accident, I've only found out when I've gone to see them) and they've both been from the private owners who are selling them themselves. Typically three years old, having just done their first MOT but no longer tax cost-effective. My first thought would be the classified ads on Ebay.

These days the auctions have got very greedy on the fees they charge private buyers but you can stil find good buys. Rather than ex-lease it is better to look for low mileage older vehicles, the big dealers don't retail these but push them straight to market.

Different auction companies have different T&C. so study them carefully and be a 100% sure what level of warranty or not the car is sold under.

Same feedback here......all the cars I've looked at / browsed on't web seem to be one or two owner and ex-lease. Which is what I'm in the market for. Just hoping to cut out the middle man???

I'm hoping to pick one up direct from the lease company. Looked at the BCA sites and it looks like the lease companies have a clear out regularly at their sites.

Yeah I know buyer beware, as at most car auctions. But most of the ex-lease cars tend to be fully serviced so better hopefully in the long run. My current Golf was an ex-lease when I bought it 8 years ago.

Been having a few interesting conversations with car "supermarkets" recently........since when did your local car dealer become a supermarket???................Makes me laugh. They treat you like a non car knowledge numpty, then offer to "price match" any car in the country............How can you price match a car?, but they try and convince you

Its not like its tin of beans which is exactly the same from Tesco's up the road..............

I'll continue my search. cheers

I've just bought my first car from a main dealer.

I was after a C1 for my mam, I looked on eBay, freeads, gumtree, auctions and saw mostly crap or if it was nice, it was overpriced.

Ended up buying a low mileage car from Lookers with a new ticket, service and half decent warranty (maybe!), gave the salesman a beating and had a cracking deal. Better than most private sales.

Just caught him at the right time with loads of stock and not many sales going out the door.

Auctions weren't the place they used to be.

Still pays to buy from dealers at the end of the month IMO, they always want a sale that bit more.

Does anybody know the different fees for one off buying and trader buying at BCA etc,, as for traders knowing what they are buying is a joke if it looks straight and shiny thats as far as it goes some dont even look under the bonnet,,,

If you know what car you want, dealers aren't a bad shout to call. They will often have cars coming in after private contract hire and other personal lease deals. Also there are a decent amount of companies (usually small) who will deal with dealers direct for fleet 36 month hire.

Keep in mind high used stock comes into dealers around registration changeover dates (March and September).