| Every month. city, state and federal government | | | | trained mechanic, you might miss a small problem |
| agencies across the nation seize tens of thousands | | | | with the car that they would catch. Once you buy a |
| of vehicles, trucks, and motorcycles for all kinds of | | | | car from a government auction, the deal is final. |
| reasons. For instance, if a person owes a tax bill that | | | | There is no 30 day return policy, so make sure to |
| they cannot pay, they may seize their car as | | | | check it out. Luckily, you can usually get vehicles so |
| payment. To recoup part of the money, the | | | | cheap at auction, that even you have to fix minor |
| government agencies auction these cars off at | | | | problems, you still end up saving a lot of money over |
| auctions all across the United States. | | | | buying the car at retail prices. |
| Unlike dealer auto auctions, government seized | | | | Finding the auctions can be a little bit tricky. |
| vehicle auctions are open to the public. There are | | | | Sometimes they can be found in the classified ads |
| usually a lot of dealers there, because they are able | | | | section of the newspaper, if you know what day to |
| to buy the vehicles so cheap, then clean them up a | | | | look. Police auctions can sometime be located by |
| bit and sell them for retail price on their lots. Dealers | | | | calling a local police station and asking about it. To find |
| typically mark used cars up at least 25% (and often | | | | state and federal government auctions, you may |
| much more), so by going directly to the auction, you | | | | want to look at an auction locator service. Not only |
| can cut out the middle man and save thousands of | | | | will they be able to tell you where the auctions are |
| dollars. | | | | located each month, they often have a list of every |
| If you have a mechanic friend, it is definitely a good | | | | item that will be auctioned off. That way, if there is |
| idea to bring them along to check under the hood of | | | | nothing being auctioned that you are interested in, |
| auctioned cars. At the auction, they will start the cars | | | | you don't waste your time going to the auction. |
| and let you hear them run, but if you are not a | | | | |