Should cars with auction history be avoided?

[esk8mw]

I've been looking through a ton of Carfax reports while looking for a used M3. Question is simple - how big of a red flag is it when a car has been to an auction? With a car as "rare" as an M3, I would think dealers would want to resell any and all halfway decent M3s that come off lease, are traded in, etc.

I've also found that many of these auctioned cars end up at non-BMW dealerships, have otherwise clean histories (according to Carfax at least ) but are selling at $2-4k discounts over similar cars found at BMW dealerships. Are these types of cars even worth checking out or is that taking too big of a chance?

[ForensicM3]

Then again, with something as rare as an older M3, it may be a tough sell in their eyes. Especially a $35k-40k car with no warranty. I dont necessarily agree with your stance on a higher price through dealerships. An e90 6mt just sold for $36k with only 33k miles on it at BMW of fort myers, fl. Things may be different in the Midwest. I could be completely wrong on all counts as I'm in the same boat as you--looking for a used m3.

[mkPOTO]

I have been purchasing cars from auctions for a very long time. I actually purchased my old 335i and my m3 from auction. Nothing to worry about in my eyes. Many go to auction because it is too costly for the smaller dealership to hold onto the car. They have to pay monthly to the bank to hold on to it. And many dealership just want the car gone off there lot so they can use that money on something else

[mdosu]

no, it's the nature of the used car market. If you trade a BMW into an Audi dealership, more often, it'll get recycled into the dealer auction system, then to be picked up my other independent dealers. If you trade a BMW in to a BMW dealership, it's more likely to sit on a BMW dealer lot for a longer time.

Basically, if you were a used car dealership, you would go into the auction peroidically, pick up say 20 cars, put them on your lot, then 3 months later, anything you don't sell, you send them back through the auction for a new set. That's why you see different cars on the pre-owned lots all the time. It's not that they were selling it like hot cakes to customers, they're just recycling their inventory.

[esk8mw]

Good info; thanks guys. I won't automatically cross off auctioned cars in my search from now on. Searching for used M3s is hard work!

[mdosu]

Originally Posted by esk8mw

Good info; thanks guys. I won't automatically cross off auctioned cars in my search from now on. Searching for used M3s is hard work!

well worth it when you save thousands..last time I checked, that's still alot of dough for us sane people.

[R3dn3k Flyby]

Typically a dealer gets a buy-bid when they take in a higher end car like an M3, so they're usually sold before the paperwork is even finalized on the trade-in. I'd say there's no reason to worry about buying from auction if M3 in question is 4 years or more old or has 40k miles or more because a BMW dealership most likely isn't interested given the fact they can't/don't want to CPO the car. If it's a low mileage 1 or 2 year old M3, I'd be a little suspicious.

Example of that is a local outfit that buys from auctions at wholesale or below and then passes the savings onto its customers. Or that's what they claim anyway. I hit them up about an e90 sedan that sounded too good to be true. Pulled the Carfax and it was a Lemon Law buyback down in California and had just been to a local dealer a week or two ago to have the ECU examined. No. Thank. You.