[Inter Alia]

I'm considering buying a 328i at an auction (in Phoenix, AZ that is not open to the public). What are the pros and cons? Do you have any advice to help me get the best/safest car possible there?

Thanks.

[GMWNashville]

while its not a BAD idea...its not the greatest idea unless you know what your looking at. Any car can look like a great car from the outside-do your homework-run carfax reports, go to your local dealer and look into service history on the vehicle, make sure everything is what it should be. There are great cars that come through the auctions-there are also lumps of garbage that people try and pass off as great cars...

[Inter Alia]

I'm still not sure on the logistics, as my friend has the dealer contact and I have not spoken to him. I'm thus wondering whether I can bring a mechanic (I will not buy a car unless I can do so). Presumably, I can get the VIN number before bidding, and thus run a Carfax report and check service records, but I'm not certain. Your points are well taken though. I won't buy a car from the auction unless I can do all of these things.

[scrufy]

You also need to know how to see prior bodywork..well the ugly. If they really did a good job, it might be hard to tell. But then again, it prolly wont matter much in that case.. Anyway, carfax doesnt always show everything.
Look for dull paint and over spray, welds that might be different, scratches where there it would be hard to scratch something..unless the thing was apart...that kind of stuff.
Look for grease pencil part numbers on stuff or check marks.. Etc...
Im talking about grabbing a flashlight and looking down i. The engine bay, under the quarter panels, and under the rear end etc... Not nessesarily anything that would show on the outside.

[ajsalida]

Go read the turbo tuning section here, see how many guys drag race or track their cars with tunes and meth, catless DP's, FMIC's, etc. 20 PSI boost in some cases. Then later take off all the mods and sell it as "stock" (see parts for sale section here). Or the suspension section, guys running slammed cars, then taking off the coilovers, putting back stock susp., wheels & tires. I had no idea how thrashed these cars could be until I started reading this website. How do you check for THAT? I would bet e9x M3's are on average far less modded than these 335i cars, the turbos are so easy/cheap to crank up.

So it isn't just the body work. Knowing what I know now I'd probably either buy new or near new with bulletproof history and keep it stock or look for a very cheap salvage/thrashed car and mod the hell out of it post-warranty. Or just buy the M3. What I did buy before I knew this was a low miles former service loaner form a large dealer, with a CPO warranty extension. So I am hesitant to mod it too much, which kind of sucks.

The other thing I worried about is you get one of these ex-tuner cars, say with a previous CPO on it (I looked at one bought at auction I was sure had been modded, far too cheap). You check history with BMW and it comes up clean. Then something blows up and BMW says, oh gee whiz, our double secret key fob tuner mod tracking program indicates this car had a tune before you owned it, so no warranty.

Moral here I guess is either know the detailed history of the car, or lowball the hell out of it just in case.

[Green Machine]

I purchase cars for a living and attend auctions all of the time. No worries about purchasing a car from an auction. If you have purchased a used vehicle from a dealer, there is a good chance it was purchased from an auction at some point. The auction is actually obligated to announce known issues such as transmission, engine or frame damage, your local dealership is not. Don't trust the autocheck and carfax reports, only about half of the accidents are reported. Don't trust a vehicle just because it is a CPO vehicle, I have seen plenty of CPO vehicles with frame damage and other issues. Dealers are dishonest and will take advantage of you if don't know what you are doing.

Be careful at the auction, bringing retail customers to the auction is not allowed. If caught the acution will suspend your dealer friend, from attending the auction again. When looking for evidence of previous body repairs, look at the bolts on fenders, hood, doors, decklid etc, to see if the paint is missing or damaged on the bolts. That is a great way to see if a panel has been replaced, or adjusted due to an accident.

[rudebwoi]

Because its a 328, I would say that it is fairly a reliable vehicle. They can take a beating, and most likely not modded extensively. Just ensure the body is in good shape, clean title. I'd most likely say it is mechanically sound. For a 335 i'd want more reassurance however.

[MisterSkiMask]

Originally Posted by ajsalida

Go read the turbo tuning section here, see how many guys drag race or track their cars with tunes and meth, catless DP's, FMIC's, etc. 20 PSI boost in some cases. Then later take off all the mods and sell it as "stock" (see parts for sale section here). Or the suspension section, guys running slammed cars, then taking off the coilovers, putting back stock susp., wheels & tires. I had no idea how thrashed these cars could be until I started reading this website. How do you check for THAT? I would bet e9x M3's are on average far less modded than these 335i cars, the turbos are so easy/cheap to crank up.

So it isn't just the body work. Knowing what I know now I'd probably either buy new or near new with bulletproof history and keep it stock or look for a very cheap salvage/thrashed car and mod the hell out of it post-warranty. Or just buy the M3. What I did buy before I knew this was a low miles former service loaner form a large dealer, with a CPO warranty extension. So I am hesitant to mod it too much, which kind of sucks.

The other thing I worried about is you get one of these ex-tuner cars, say with a previous CPO on it (I looked at one bought at auction I was sure had been modded, far too cheap). You check history with BMW and it comes up clean. Then something blows up and BMW says, oh gee whiz, our double secret key fob tuner mod tracking program indicates this car had a tune before you owned it, so no warranty.

Moral here I guess is either know the detailed history of the car, or lowball the hell out of it just in case.

Go read the OP, he wants a 328....no turbos on that.

[ajsalida]

Originally Posted by MisterSkiMask

Go read the OP, he wants a 328....no turbos on that.

Yeah good point.

[Bavarian E92]

Dont Buy A Salvaged Or Previously Salvaged Car!

[time2fly]

I'm hoping someone can help me. About 4 months ago I bought a very clean little 1990 BMW 325i, 5 speed. Straight body, fresh paint, perfect interior with a new dash, power sunroof, and an all-around nice driver. I paid $5k for the car - probably a little high but it was VERY clean for a 1990.

Last month I catche some black ice and crunched the front fender/grill area. Long story short, USAA wants to total the car and is only offering me $3k, less my $500 deductible, netting me $2,500. Their independent appraisal company could only find 3 "comps" in the entire country - none of them as clean as mine. USAA tells me that to fight their value I need to hire my own appraiser to go to battle with their. My fear is that I'll spend $500-$800 on an appraisal but not get enough of a bump in valuation to make it worth the hassle & risk.

Any honest appraisers out there who know bimmers well enough to know how rare my car was and what a clean one is really worth? I'll spend the money if I find someone I can trust who's not just trying to take my $$.

Please email me at bceverson@gmail.com if you have any suggestions. Thx...

[XieJin]

Originally Posted by time2fly

I'm hoping someone can help me. About 4 months ago I bought a very clean little 1990 BMW 325i, 5 speed. Straight body, fresh paint, perfect interior with a new dash, power sunroof, and an all-around nice driver. I paid $5k for the car - probably a little high but it was VERY clean for a 1990.

Last month I catche some black ice and crunched the front fender/grill area. Long story short, USAA wants to total the car and is only offering me $3k, less my $500 deductible, netting me $2,500. Their independent appraisal company could only find 3 "comps" in the entire country - none of them as clean as mine. USAA tells me that to fight their value I need to hire my own appraiser to go to battle with their. My fear is that I'll spend $500-$800 on an appraisal but not get enough of a bump in valuation to make it worth the hassle & risk.

Any honest appraisers out there who know bimmers well enough to know how rare my car was and what a clean one is really worth? I'll spend the money if I find someone I can trust who's not just trying to take my $$.

Please email me at bceverson@gmail.com if you have any suggestions. Thx...

Seems like an odd place to post something like this, a 2 month old thread? Not even a E9x we're talking about here....

Still, good luck with it mate!

[GOLFFRR]

if your interested in a CPO 328 i am more then happy to take care of you. take a look at our lot online and see if anything stands out. GL on your search

[username604]

Originally Posted by volkswackin

Any car can look like a great car from the outside-do your homework-run carfax reports

My cousin bought a bmw 328i last year and it had a "clean" carfax.
3 months after owning it, he had a message come up on the dash. He went to the mechanic and he ended up paying $105 because the oil's viscosity was not up to standard.
Point of the story is, you can never trust carfaxes. My cousin got screwed by one of them.

[tony20009]

It sounds like you are planning to attend dealers' auction. That is where the BMW dealers who are selling the CPO vehicles folks here buy. You can certainly buy a good car there, but if you do, you will be pretty much on your own for service and everything else, and I'm sure you know this already. In general, such auctions have a fairly simple rating system that runs from one to five. You want a five car if you can find one there. Also, auctions care very little about most of the bells and whistles on the cars. Auto/manual, a/c or no a/c, sedan or coupe or whatever, motor condition, suspension condition, perhaps accident history. Pretty much everything else is irrelevant in the wholesale car market.

If you are going to the auction, you should know what information they provide beforehand. Use that information. There's no doubt that you can buy a good car there.

One edge that you may have is that as the end consumer, you should be willing to pay more than the wholesale price for the car for whatever price you pay will surely be less than what you'd pay at a dealership. The dealers there will absolutely not want to pay more than the fair wholesale value for the car; they need to be able to sell the car at a competitive price and make a profit. That disparity is in part why the public is generally not allowed into the auctions; they'd drive the prices up to unprofitable levels.

If you find that you cannot win the bid (though there's no reason that should happen as you are a retail buyer), you can certainly employ a couple other strategies. One such strategy is to go and determine what BMW dealers local to you are there and pay attention to the cars they buy and at what price they buy them. Use that information to then go buy that vehicle from them as a CPO. Keep in mind that if they buy a less than stellar condition car, they will have to put some money into the car to make it CPO worthy. As part of this strategy, if you can, try to meet some of the other attendees, or if that's too risky, at least try to find out who might be from any BMW dealership. The BMW dealerships there bidding on vehicles will want one of two things: top notch cars they don't have to put much if any money into or cars they can buy for well below the standard wholesale price such that even after putting their money into the car, they can sell it at a good price as a CPO. Of those two, the former will be selling at a higher price and the latter will be at much lower prices.

Another strategy you may consider is identifying the vehicles there that interest you and keep track of who buys them. If you lose track at the auction itself, you can always use CarFax to find out who bought it.

Good luck