11:48 am, January 13, 2025
Buying cars at a physical auction can be a daunting experience – especially if you’re new to the motor trade.
However, for our trip to the new G3 Vehicle Auctions site at Bedford we had some experienced help in the shape of Used Car Awards host and Wheeler Dealer star Mike Brewer to show us around.
The site’s inaugural sale took place last Monday (Jan 6) and we were there to try and buy some stock for the Clever Car Collection.
G3 bought the Bedford site from the failed online used car dealer Cazoo when it snapped up its wholesale arm in a deal that saw 28 employees transfer across last May.
The site is big enough to feel busy but small enough not to overwhelm and has been smartened up nicely by the auction business.
Bedford’s sister site at Castleford is seriously impressive and there are plans to keep investing in Bedford as the sales develop.
Since buying it from Cazoo, the G3 team has been busy transforming the former prep centre into an auction hall and last Monday nearly 300 cars went under the hammer.
In our special video – which you can watch above – we got some advice from Brewer, and some other seasoned auction pros, to help us try and (finally) win something.
The day started with running the auction catalogue through some AI filters to work out which fit our stock profile.
We wanted cars with some service history, in decent condition and as close to being ready to retail as possible. And yes, we know, that’s what everyone else wants as well.
The shortlist was quickly whittled down to around 10 cars and Brewer helpfully walked around the site with us to see whether they were worth a bid.
G3 has a range of vendors, but the majority appear to be from finance companies that have repossessed cars. There was a mix of stock – everything from full fat Range Rovers to damp Volvo V70s.
We selected a range of Korean cars (typical Clever Car Collection fodder) including two Sportages, a Hyundai i20 and i10 and a Volvo V40.
We checked over the reports on the listings from the auction house, interrogated the MOT history and then gave the cars a good look over in the lanes. Some were quickly discounted after a glance over and that’s the nice thing about a physical sale – you can actually see the cars up close, in person.
When it came to bidding time we were a little nervous, but felt a little more prepared than the last time we tried it. A year ago we headed to Manheim’s Colchester auction and came away empty handed so this was a chance to finally win something.
With Brewer’s advice ringing in our ears we hit the auction hall and tried our best to secure some stock. Most cars went for well outside of our budget – the sort of retail ready stock we were looking at went well over Cap estimates – but we did get lucky with one.
I won’t spoil the video and tell you which one we bought, but I am pleased to say we did at least come away with something.
I really enjoyed the day at G3. Physical sales are a lot of fun, if a little nerve wracking, but it makes for an interesting day.
You can see the video above and subscribe to our YouTube channel for notifications of when we post new videos.
