Scotty i know you said no online car auctions but I found a 2010 Toyota Corolla with an imbedded video of it starting and running Smooth and pictures of the frame and its nor rusted, still stay away from it or make an exception?
I would stay away. Cars go to auctions for a reason, and none of them are good.
what if one went to an auction because the owner died, is that a good reason?
No. Because then I want to check it over and see what the fluids look like, how it runs, tire flat spots. A lot of times those kinds of cars have been sitting before the owner passed, and sitting more while their estate gets worked out. Plus I would never knowingly buy a car for myself that belonged to a dead person. Just have a thing about that.
ahh ok so you want to check if its in good condition 1st, that sounds right
Correct
You can never go off of looks though. I like to put my hands on it, feel the welds, check for badly done repairs, etc.
It's your money but I just don't recommend buying something you haven't touched. You could be in for a nasty surprise.
ok, that makes sense, I would defiantly have it checked out before buying it, unless I was buying it to repair on purpose for like a flip
Now yeah, if you just wanted to flip it and make no long term commitment to it I would say if you could get it at the right price, go for it. That would be a different situation and I would have a different answer.
right and this 2010 looks really nice (not that that part matters verry much) and they only want 400 bucks right now
Auctions are always a roll of the dice. If you are looking at it as a flip, two things are important: Clean title, and buying it CHEAP. $400 is nothing but we both know it will go up from there. The question is how much and do you have enough gap to repair any issues and still make money.
if it sells for under $1000 I'm Shure I could make money off of it.
Good deal. Just make sure you figure in auction fees. 
worst case Scenario ill only make 1k bucks, but its being sold because it got impounded and nobody picked it up.
That would make me nervous. Was it such a bad car they didn't want it anymore? Who knows. Auctions man. If you pull the trigger I do wish you the best.
thanks, if it really has 25k legit miles i should be able to get 5k off of it easy, if running good.
You always want to see it in person. And you still want an independent mechanic to check it out thoroughly. If you can’t do both, I would pass.
ok, I would do both unless I'm wanting to repair it for maybe a flip
Have a mechanic check it out
:thumbsup:
For the most part I would say walk away because for an average Joe to buy a car at auction is basically swimming with the piranhas. The only way I would even consider it is if it is an absolute steal of a deal. Buying from an auction is a big risk so the deal has to be good enough to make it worth the risk.
so if they have proof the mileage is legit 25k miles and the engine runs, and has little issues that's a good deal?
You saw it in a video? What about seeing it in reality?
well i mean it had a video in the car listing of it running smooth, but if you could look at it in person is that better? if not then ok, I understand.
My advice: If a mechanic can't check it before purchase, don't buy it.
That's good advice
ok, sounds good
heres what it looks like At the Moment
From the watermark on the picture, it is from Govplanet. Those cars are given to government workers, then sold when they are not needed. You never know if the person assigned with that car could have driven like a maniac all the time. Stay away.
Unless you have a lot of experience, you'll walk away from the auction without your pants. These cars all look good when they are washed and sprayed down with WD40.
I asked the same question yesterday about an auction car and people told me to stay away from auction cars because they look good, but still have problems. I would get a really nice car at an auction if I would buy an auction car because corollas are already so cheap and so basic that you should just get it from a dealer for not that much more. I was looking at a fully loaded car with extremely low miles that got rear ended and everyone told me that there are too many hidden problems and it is just a gamble. Just save your headaches and get the same corolla for like $6,000 from a dealer because they will have less problems than an auction car. If you were looking at a 2020 tundra platinum that had some damage that was fixable and was a really nice price, then I would tell you to get it because that is a $65,000 truck. This is a $17,000 base corolla. I say ditch it. Sorry, man.
I see, well what about a Ford f250 for about 4k bucks and it runs and has Ben checked by a mechanic and has 0 wrong with it
You don't have much to lose and has been checked by a mechanic, so I would probably say go for it. If it starts to develops major problems in the future, you could still sell it to a junkyard for a thousand bucks. You should probably ask the other guys as well because I don't know much about auction cars.
You should get one from a normal place if you can because I don't trust auctions myself. Usually dealers buy auction cars from dealer auctions for like $30000 for 10 to 12 cars and sell each car for like 6-12 thousand and it doesn't matter if they get one bad car, because they will still break even in the end. Even Scotty Kilmer, a long time mechanic, bought a really relaible toyota pickup truck, and even that thing had problems.
now that right there is supprising, especially sense the old 80's pickups were near indistructable
"I would get a really nice car at an auction if I would buy an auction car because corollas are already so cheap and so basic that you should just get it from a dealer for not that much more. "
Its for $400 I don't think dealer prices of 6 grand count as "not that much more"
just read the description and it was impounded and the owner never picked it up, so there selling it in an auction now, that change anything on thechances of a mechanic saying its a good buy?
You still need a mechanic to check it out. You can’t always trust what they (the auction) say.
true, and if the odometer is legit, its only got 25k miles
Do they have keys for it or is it being sold without keys?
it does not say but I'm Guessing with a key sense its got a video of the car starting up and running
$400 means somebody is trying to get rid of a problem that isn't worth fixing. Don't even bother. You're better off spending your energy to earn more money for a better car.
so just to be clear here the fact that $400 is just the starting bid doesn't change anything?
@1980scarlover
If you buy $30 crap for $1500, it is still a crap. It seems you somehow don't believe advices given there.
Oh that's right... it's an auction.
Stay away from auctions! That is the last place a first time car buyer should go. They are rubbing their hands together waiting for optimistic people to prey on.
And don't be so careless with your hard earned money.
well imma try flipping a car from it and see what happens, cuz I got a feeling if the Toyota does have an issue its not gonna be too big of a deal
then why did you ask us? I'm not answering your questions any more.
To get info and see if there was a reason not to flip a car from an auction
So did you go bid on the car?
We just had another member get burned at an auction because they lied about the mileage.
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/auction-car-sold-to-me-false-odometer-reading/
no no i'm not doing that stuff for another year but what i do is look for stuff like ford f250's that will sell for a lot even with 200k-300k miles
Here's a question, how much would your local junkyard give for it if you had to junk it?
Why don't you find out the name of the guy who died and look it up in the obituaries? Don't be surprised to find out it's all a fairy tale.
Unless you really know what you are doing or trust the seller 1000%, it’s not a good idea to buy a car sight unseen.
ok ive decided not to
This is my experience with a car auction, I was the high bidder on ebay for a 2000 toyota camry le for $6,700. The car had 70,000 miles on it. A car dealer in canton ohio was selling the car. He called me the next day and offered me 400 dollars to forget the whole deal. I did not, I drove from michigan to ohio to get that car and I payed cash. I drove that car for about 13 years and put over 100,000 miles on it. I never had to put no money into that car and everything worked including the ac. I did put brakes and tires on it when needed but all cars need that. It was the best car I ever had. I just sold it last month with 177,000 miles on it. It had the 2.2 liter engine. Part of me still regrets selling that car because it was the only car I ever had that took hardly no money to maintain. I did put a new timing belt and water pump on it at 120,000 miles but not because it needed it, But because I did not want the belt to break and ruin the valves in the motor. The water pump got changed because i figured as long as they were doing timing belt you might as well do the water pump because it was driven by the timing belt. This did happen 13 years ago so times might be alot different now. This was my experience and I might have gotten really lucky back then.
I put my answer at the bottom of the page. The question did not indicate what type of auction it was it just said "online car auction". 
Interesting story, like you said you got lucky.
saying the 2000 being junk but the 2006 sounds like a lie because there the same 1.8l engine under the hood
Ask this as yet another question so people can see your serious about buying a car (to get more answers) but engines can be updated and solve issues and 2003 solved the oil consumption issues. 1.8 engine is used to this day but it constantly changes.
ahh ok, that was confising sense they look exacly the same