Buying at Manheim Auction

They have affiliated dealers to purchase for you for a service fee. I thought they were listed on the website.

 

You are not going to save enough buying at auction for the risk of it, especially if it is your first and only truck. Go to a dealer, preferably one that is also a new truck dealer as they have a reputation to protect and usually don't sell junk. Look at many trucks, at least 10 and then pick the one that is in the best mechanical shape and fit for what you are doing. When you go to the auction, you are not allowed to drive the truck, nor can you have a mechanic go over it, basically you get to look at it with your eyes and maybe hear it run as they drive it through the lane. The pre-sale inspection the day before only lets you look at it, no running or driving. For an extra fee you can buy a psi (post sale inspection) which gives 7 day guarantee of the condition, hardly enough time see if there are any real problems. Lastly, unless it is a public sale, most auctions will not let the end purchaser (you the consumer) into the gate, the dealer will go bid on what you tell him, but you personally will not get to inspect the truck until after it is bought, too late to do anything but cry about it.

 

Most truck auctions ( at least ADESA, www.adesarigs.com ) are open to the public with no dealer license required. At Adesa you have to put $1,000 down to get in the door, if you buy something it goes towards the purchase price, if you don't buy anything then they credit or refund it back. Keeps out the people that just want the crappy donuts and coffee I guess.

The auctions I go to you can inspect and start the truck but cannot drive it, you see it in 1st gear when it comes through the lane. If you save $10,000 off what you pay at a dealer by going to the auction, I would count on putting about $5,000 into the truck to get it ready to run and drive good.

The auction route is one way to go and you can get a good deal but just do as much as research as you can before getting there.

 

You can use a broker, such as alpine in New Jersey, that's how I get cars from auctions, or copart or IAA. You use their dealer license to get into these places. It's like 200$ down and 250$ a transaction. I used to use them til my girl started working at southern auto up here in CT.

 

But Brian's got it down right, most of the equipment there is totally smoked. Most cars and equipment at auctions are repos, and if someone got there truck repoed I doubt they took care of it