When buying a car at any of the several Brisbane car auctions available, it pays to remember the following 5 tips, which have been proved again and again. These tips have not just been proved in Brisbane but on the Gold Coast, in Sydney and all over Australia!

Be honest about your handiness with tools. Can you change a tyre? Of course you can. But can you change more complex components of a car? Can you clean out the cylinders? Can you recognise what’s wrong with a car before a massive disaster occurs? If you’re a mechanical novice, sometimes it’s best to avoid auctions as you don’t have the safety blanket of an RACQ inspection or statutory cooling off period. You will own any pre-existing faults with the car you buy. This isn’t such a big deal with ex government cars such as Q Fleet but still, consider this aspect.

You aren’t guaranteed to get a bargain, but it is likely. Competition these days for second hand cars is fierce, with car rental companies and taxi companies all competing for great deals on cars, particularly ex government vehicles, so it is possible the end result of the car auction will be somebody paying a price above retail. It’s funny what happens when you get fifty or so testosterone pumped car buying males in a room who start competing with each other!

Be aware, very aware. If you bought a car from a dealership or privately, Queensland law is generous enough to provide you with a cooling off period, no questions asked. This is not the case with car auctions, so remember that when the hammer falls, the car is yours. Don’t make a bad decision just because you were asleep at the wheel, so to speak.

Check out the Vehicle Identification Number. If the VIN on the engine doesn’t match the VIN on the door or in the boot (or wherever it may appear on that particular car), alarm bells should start ringing (or perhaps police sirens). If you’re at a government auction this isn’t so much of a big deal, but otherwise definitely conduct these checks manually before you consider entering the bidding war.

Listen, listen, listen to the auctioneer! If you miss the auctioneer’s warning that the car is hail damaged or flood damaged and you buy it anyway, guess what? The car is yours. If you don’t hear that the car has 1 million miles on the clock and you buy it, you can’t take it back to the owner or auctioneer and demand a refund. Keep your ears open for the duration of the auction and do your research.

There are other things you can do to make your vehicle experience more pleasurable and to find out what they are, simply repeat over and over again that the reason you’re likely to get a good deal is because risk is being passed from the seller to you (remember, no cooling off period or other protections you may get from a dealership… and on test drive!). Nothing in life comes free, but sometimes the extra risk amounts to naught and in those cases you will win at the auction game.

The reason you are likely to get a reduced price at a vehicle auction is because much of the risk has been shifted from the seller / auctioneer to you, the buyer. As mentioned above you don’t get the protections that private and dealership buyers get, but you do get lower prices. Make sure you recognise the situation you are in, play by the rules and keep your eyes open.

Learn more about Brisbane car auctions. Stop by Jack Smith’s site where you can find out all about car auctions and ex government cars and their pro’s and con’s.