Garda Auctions

giftgrub

Does anyone know if the guards still auction off their old cars and bikes?

i know they sell bicycles that no one claims in kevin street cop shop.

Hellrazer

Its usually advertised in the Herald/Indo a few weeks before the auction.
Get some good bargains if you go early.
Mate of mine picked up a 00 Almera for something like €2000 last year.Needed a bit of body work which cost another €3000
but he sold it for €9000 a few months later and made a profit of €4000 on the car.

giftgrub

jesus thats a nice little earner

are the cars not totally knackered after fighting crime?

BigEejit

Thats what I was thinking as well ... a few car chases would surely put those engines under a bit of stress .... and I'd bet they have a few miles put on em as well:eek:

rander00

2000E for a 00 ALmera??? Hmmmmmm.........

So they done the body work, did they happen to look at the engine and repair that. Its prob not even on the road now.

feylya

AFAIK, the cops' mechanics are extremely good at what they do and they replace the high speed chase cars every year, hence the auction to get back some money.

Lucifer

its not just old garda cars that they sell, its confiscated cars and stuff like that afaik. sometimes you can get a good bargin.

Turner

Em why would you want to buy a car that has been driven probably 24hrs per day and by up to 8 different drivers daily. IMO It wont be in the best mechanical condition.

Chief.

Hellrazer

The cars are not all ex-cop cars at these auctions.
And contrary to popular belief most Garda cars are in fairly good condition ie serviced every 6000 miles or so,all major mechanical defects are fixed as soon as they arise.If the thing needs an engine/gearbox etc then its fitted right away.

The particular Almera was a recovered stolen car which was apparently stolen in the UK,had its chassis number/plates changed and the owner couldnt be found.It had been crashed in the side and need a whole new quarter panel which is a fairly big job hence the low price.The car was given a new registration and chassis plate along with new papers which allowed it to be sold on.And to answer someone else the car is still on the road with no problems whatsoever.

At a lot of these auctions you also get repossesed cars and which the finance companies just want to cut their losses and go.

You do get the odd heap of **** ex cop car which has been driven 24 hours a day but even these are mechanically sound if not in the best looking condition.I mean youd probably pick up a 4-5 year old ex cop car(mondeo,vectra etc) for under €2000 which might have 150000 on the clock but which may only actually have 20000 on a new engine.

A lot of the motor trade people buy these cars,clean them up and sell them on at a nice little profit.
Richie

Victor

Some of them are even good enough to be used in armed robberies (e.g. ramming of cash van in Dalkey a few years ago) :rolleyes:

Councils also auction impounded cars after a certain period.

BrianD3

why would you want to buy a car that has been driven probably 24hrs per day

I'd prefer to buy a car which has been driven 24 hours a day than one which has suffered constant cold starts and short journeys. Cars like this will usually have a low mileage (because they're only ever used to drive to the shops and back) But most of those miles will have been covered with the engine not fully warmed up which as everyone know is when the most engine wear occurs. Also, as others have mentioned cop cars are probably very well maintained. I know that they are in the UK, and it's probably a similar situation here. So I think cop cars do represent a bargain. They have some pretty decent machines too - unmarked Mondeo ST220's, Camry V6's etc. I even saw an unmarked BMW X5 on the N3 one day

BrianD3

Seth Brundle

The last time I went to the auction was about 3 or 4 years ago and I'll never forget seeing a number of people bidding for what was the burnt out corpse of a Garda Ford Fiesta van. The thing was in bits - I could not see anything worth salvaging but in the end it went for IR£750

jesus_thats_gre

I would be a fair bit warey of buying an ex squad car.. I know quite alot of the people who actually drive these things and trust me, they are drivin flat out!!!!!! I know of a 2 month Mondeo with a ruined gearbox and the engine blown, put it that way!

Our man in Havana

Post Count Envy

jesus_thats_gre

Woops, so happy to have a card used against me though :horned: