if he knows what he is doing (and i'm sure he does) he can look the vehicle over for paintwork and frame damage at the auction. on top of that it will still have the factory warranty. if it was me i would inspect the vehicle and then run a history (keep in mind that history reports are not the bible). if the vehicle is sold under a "green light" (meaning no issues) then i would buy it. the hardest part will be finding many 2010's. i hope she finds the one she is looking for.

 

Sure--you are taking a "chance." But it would be a 2010 Lexus. Unless the owner f'ed with the car knowing it was about to be repo'd, what could you possibly be worried about???

 

I would worry when I ask myself "gee, what's this 2010 RX doing here at an auction?" The answers I come up with in my head aren't good, as the car is probably a recovered total loss from an accident, flood damage, or theft recovery. Ask yourself, what other reason a 2010 car would be at an auction. Whatever the answers, I'm sure they're not good.

 

If I really wanted a '10 RX and it was within by budget, I'd just get one from a dealer and not worry about all of the potential issues from buying one at auction (see IS350jet's comments).

If that didn't work, I'd look for a nice CPO.

 

Agreed, because both scernarios have plenty of opportunity for deep discounts and cross-shopping.

 

Most of the nearly new cars at auctions still have manufacturers warranty, so if you have the time to go to a few auctions to find a car that you want, you'll most likely get the best deal on it.

Most used car dealerships buy their used cars at auctions anyway, and then resell them to general public.

 

Where do you think dealers buy and sell there used cars?? Do you think they advertise it? Hell no, I do alot of my work with Mannheim and they try to insure that you get a quality car i.e if the car is prooven to have been in a accident manheim will remove your bidding privlages.
http://www2.manheim.com/

 

It's so easy to talk about a subject you have no experiance in, dealers sell new cars to other dealers to I.E a dealer in the middle of no where gets 15 new camaros and the towns population is 25 people they send them to manheim and make a profit on them.

 

If its on copart or iaai etc its an as is sale, manheim is respectable and Toyota and Lexus financial sell there cars there

 

I'm thinking the main reason a 2010 would be at auction would be because someone could not make the payments. The RX came out in April, so there has to be something out there. As far as condition... I've been mauling this over a lot. The type of people who buy RX's are generally restrained, educated, and business-like. The odds of them trashing their RX due to a loan default is likely low.
Will also explore some new car dealer internet departments to get a rough idea of how low the leases can go.
Thanks for the responses.

 

I think this is what a lot of people are not understanding. If the vehicle is from Manheim, which sells vehicles directly from the financing companies themselves then there is nothing to worry about. If the vehicle were a lemon or has frame damage it would be labeled as such. These vehicle have been inspected before being sold and there is no mystery to them. Copart and IAAI is a completely different story.

Like I said before, these are the same vehicles that all the dealers buy the majority of their used car inventory from. Some are "inspected" and sold as certified. So if you can buy it without the markup, I say go for it.

 

What's a great deal?

 

Uh... I'm not even going to *try* to understand what this means. Is it English?
I've only been in this business some 27 years. Specifically, I was referring to a 2010 model year car, not just used cars in general. How many reasons can you think of that a 2010 car would be at auction? Fizzboy7 had a good example of a repo. What else?

1. Lemon buy back
2. Total loss recovery
3. Dealer unwind. (although, those cars are usually sold at the dealer as demos)
4. Demos. (see number 3.)

Never underestimate the seediness of wholesalers. I've seen with my own eyes what these guys would do to make a profit, and it's not pretty. These guys are masters at fraud and they have their ways around salvage title laws. I've seen them purchase total losses directly from an owner *before* the insurance company has a chance to total the car, and they walk away with a clean, non salvage title. The car is sent to Julio's Hack and Whack Auto Body for a disgraceful substandard repair and guess where that almost brand new 2010 RX ends up? You guessed it, it goes to auction. It's not uncommon, I've seen it a thousand times.

 

i bought a 1990 civic hatch for $500 years ago at auction. it lasted 5 weeks. i was naive enough to believe every old civic was bulletproof. lol