Opel Club Cape Town

Ok so my gf is looking for a good reliable, economical car maybe with AC and power steering, between 2000 to 2003. For the last 3 weeks we searched the dealers we searched the net and then Friday one of my colleagues suggested I try the auction because his cousin picked up a E90 Bmw for R28000 at Burchmores. Now I’ve heard this line many times (Go to the Auction if you wanna get a good car for dirt cheap). So I thought maybe we should try it out. Went through the Saturday, had to register R5000, which you get back or go towards the car purchase if you buy. And if you buy car an additional R1940 admin costs and 14% vat added to the selling price. Nobody tells you these details when they busy bragging about the car they recently bought at the auction. Now we can only spend between R30000 to R40000 so our range of good vehicles are very limited. There were about 80 cars, but most of them were basically beyond us because most of them were late model flashy Bmw’s, Audi’s or MPV’s etc. Saw 3 City Golfs, 2 Tazz’s and a 2002 high mileage Golf 4 these were the cars we were aiming for.

Tazz’s sold for reasonable prices for R19000 and R22000, but I thought they weren’t worth the money. Reason, they were both accident damaged and the repairs were done badly. All three city golfs sold for over R40000 and the golf 4 was unsold coz the bidder who wanted it were offering R43000 but the bank wouldn’t take less than R55000. Don’t forget you must still add the Vat and Admin fee to those prices. At the end of the day more than half of those cars were unsold. Of the cars that were sold, most of them were taken by one bidder. 95% of the people walked away empty handed, me included. This whole auction business was a let-down, I went there and wasted a perfectly good Saturday morning. There are some cars there that’s been there for more than 6 months and all because the banks wants a set amount and if they don’t get the cars will be unsold and just be re-auctioned the following week.

I’ve been there now and know that the auction story is not as rosy as some people make it out to be, well at least not the Burchmore’s one. Looking for the right car is not easy, and there are no shortcuts to get around it.

Check out the Auto Trader mag

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"Your entire education comes from classic car magazines and you dress like you're on a condom run for the mob."

I purchased my Ute at an auction in 2005 Oct. It was at Wesbank's repo auction, viewing the Tuesday, auction the Wed. The auction house told us about the vat & admin fee which still needed to be added ontop of the overall bidding price.

I hit a bargain with my Ute, paid R45k cheaper than the retail price & it only had 14000km's on the clock.

I know of 2 other people that also hit very nice bargains, one was a Chrysler Neon with very little km's that he paid R40001 for...yes, R40000 + R1! lol
And the other was a VW Jetta that also went for a very nice price, can't remember the exact amount now.

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Opel Club Cape Town Member

as CA said, you can get good prices but depends on how much is outstanding on the car.

there are many auction houses and Burchmores deals more with the high end stuff

try Aucor or the bank auctions.

otherwise

www.autotrader.co.za

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Current:
'13 Alfa Romeo MiTO Quadrifoglio Verde Sport 125kw 250nm
Dont take life so seriously

Swedish House Mafia- Greyhound

Ex:
'12 Fiat Bravo Sport 110kw 235nm
'11 Kia Koup 122kw 203nm
'08 Daihatsu Sirion Sport 1.5 VVTi
'02 Euro Opel Corsa 160is
'85 Opel GSI 2 door Boss

Thanks Crispy, and thanks Corsa Fever Just looked at autotrader at a few jetta4 very easy to navigate on that site. She wants a Corsa C coz she likes the shape, but from what I see those cars don’t go for less than R 45000 as in a 2003.

You lucky CA , I mean really lucky. There were 6 Ute’s and 2 Bantams and a hilux there that went for a lot of money maybe even more than market value. They were scooped up by one bidder who I suspect was a dealer. Bakkies sell like hotcakes.
So the stories are real, it just we had a bad experience and I don’t think she will be too keen to go back to a car auction because of the disappointment of not getting a something reasonable. Anyway patients is virtue.

That's right, she has to be patient. I was also impatient at first so I know how she must be feeling.
The right vehicle will come along
Don't be hasty, keep looking

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Opel Club Cape Town Member

I have no issues with Burchmores... bought my Coupe there.
What u need to remember is that the majority of the "high-end" cars are repo's where a minimum reserve has to be met before they let it go, so often the ones with the highest reserves are left over. You need to go to a few auctions and hope you get lucky coz alot of the bargain cars are bought by dealers (Velocity cars etc). I have been there many times and seen the dealers get great bargains, so often you need to decide for yourself what car you are looking for and set a max price which you will pay before even going to an auction.

Overall i agree though that it is easier and many times cheaper to get a car privately than via auction these days.

Good luck with your search though!

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"To win without risk is to triumph without glory"

1998 Kadette 200is
2.5 V6 Conversion
2007 Zafira

check out mycars.co.za you can do all the bidding online, its run by Standard bank. i was going to purchase a Golf 5 GTI from there for dirt cheap but got out bidded and didnt want to carry on back and fourth pushing the price up, it was eventually sold for R74 000 with 67000km on the clock and in a immaculate condition

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Current
2008 Opel Corsa C UTE 1.4i
2x Pioneer Champion Series 10" DVC's
1x XTC 5000watt Monoblock
123db

2000 Opel Corsa B 1.4i

EX1997 VW Citi Golf (1.6i Polo Conversion)
1991 VW Citi Golf 1.3

omg thats cheap

_________________
Current:
'13 Alfa Romeo MiTO Quadrifoglio Verde Sport 125kw 250nm
Dont take life so seriously

Swedish House Mafia- Greyhound

Ex:
'12 Fiat Bravo Sport 110kw 235nm
'11 Kia Koup 122kw 203nm
'08 Daihatsu Sirion Sport 1.5 VVTi
'02 Euro Opel Corsa 160is
'85 Opel GSI 2 door Boss

Thanks Ebie, I’m gonna ask her to read this thread tonight. You guys have a lot of experience and its positive feedback.

mycars.co.za also uses some of Burchmores cars i think but like i said it goes through Standard Bank so if need be they organise finance as well you just need to do a preapproval quote online it also makes things much easier because you can browse through all the cars on auction and upcoming auctions and then asked to be notified when a specific car goes on auction

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Current
2008 Opel Corsa C UTE 1.4i
2x Pioneer Champion Series 10" DVC's
1x XTC 5000watt Monoblock
123db

2000 Opel Corsa B 1.4i

EX1997 VW Citi Golf (1.6i Polo Conversion)
1991 VW Citi Golf 1.3

Shot thanks Jay-C , We will have a look at every option within the budget off course.

If you wanna buy at an auction, you need to go to as many of them as you can. My 1st 200i E was bough on auction for just over 26k and that was after the vat and admin fee was added. My parents bought quite afew cars on auction. Problem is that alot of dealers do too. So if you looking for a popular car, its gonna be tough to get as dealers look to buy cars that sell quick.

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Current: '05 VW Golf 5 2.0 TDI Sportline
'97 VW Jetta VR6
'83 Datsun 1400 Sunny
Ex: '97 Opel Astra Estate 200i
'00 Opel Corsa GSI 2.0 16v
'96 Opel Astra 200i E 16v
'02 Opel Corsa GSI 1.6
'93 Honda Ballade 160e 16v
'95 Opel Astra 200i E 16v

skerp

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'SOFAKENWAT'

Go to the police auctions too, bargains.

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"Your entire education comes from classic car magazines and you dress like you're on a condom run for the mob."

Came across this auction site

www.mycars.co.za

No admin fee, vat incl. & no commission, but check the site out properly first

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Opel Club Cape Town Member

lol you arent reading my posts na CA?

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Current
2008 Opel Corsa C UTE 1.4i
2x Pioneer Champion Series 10" DVC's
1x XTC 5000watt Monoblock
123db

2000 Opel Corsa B 1.4i

EX1997 VW Citi Golf (1.6i Polo Conversion)
1991 VW Citi Golf 1.3

oh ya sorry



I'm doing 101 things at once here at work

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Opel Club Cape Town Member

call me

i got volvo s40 2.0 T4 full house automatic for 32k very relaible and light.

I'll soon have 330i for under 70k
Chrysler Neon 2.0 16v full house manuel 2003model leather seats,cruise control alles R25k .

later thee should be a a4 2.0 non turbo 2006model for 65k but will keep you guys posted

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Race car : 200is Turbo 200.3kw and 405nm KILLER .
Family Car : E39 BMW 540i Individual 4.4 V8 Avus Blue 217kw and 460nm Stock Standard .