Step 1 - Define What is Fun for You

Your daily driver, dependable transportation needs to be set. Much of what is described in this guide can help you find a daily driver, but it will be full of compromises. What you'll develop is a mental model that fits how you enjoy vehicles to the realities of the marketplace. Whether that's a simple love of machines, or a more complex relationship between the cost, availability and ease of shopping. Follow the guides in this section to help you get started mapping what you want to what you can get.

Step 2 - Define Your Risk Tolerance

You'll need to be comfortable with a wide variety of risks when purchasing vehicles from auction houses. There's your known risks, like body and flood damage. Then there's the unknown risks like transport damage, parts theviery, smells, and the auction houses last minute 'changes to the deal'. Looking for real world examples of what can and does go wrong? This section has details on what to expect.

Step 3 - Define What You're Not Going to Fix

This is the best way to save money and still have a fun car to drive. Alternatively, this is a great way to spend more money trying to fix it yourself than it would cost to have a professional do it. The reality is you can easily get to 80% on most body repairs, for drastically reduced cost. Find more details here on the tradeoffs and how to decide what to keep broken, and what you must fix.

Step 4 - Define Your Budget

Now that you know what you want, and what you do not want, you can define your budget. Check this section out for real world breakdowns of what you can expect to pay, and when. You've probably heard of the fees at this point, and this set of guides will show you exactly what costs are for Auction house fees, DMV fees, transport fees, etc.

Step 5 - Auction

Finding vehicles on Copart and IAA is easily the best part of the process. Their selection is truly unmatched in the industry - combined they have over 700k vehicles available on a daily basis. You can use these auction house interfaces to reduce your stress and cost. At bid time, you don't have to be subject to their engineered manipulations, and you can control your costs. Ever wondered who you're bidding against or what the various sale types mean? It's explained here.

Step 6 - Pay for the Car

Even today, few people have purchased a car online. From credit card deposits for 'buying power', membership upgrades, working with brokers and wire transfers, we cover the nitty gritty details of payments (with actual receipts) here.

Step 7 - Wait for the Car to Arrive

Typically it's a few days after the auction, but it can happen surprisingly fast. This section covers preparing your garage for the delivery, and what to expect from the delivery process.

Step 8 - Title Transfer, Registration and Inspection

The local DMV is actually a pleasure to work with. Now that you're shocked, read on for more details about the exact process here in NC with examples. We'll cover types of titles, title transfers, safety and emissions inspections, and insurance.

Step 9 - Drive for Fun!, Decide When to Sell

Now that you're ready to leave your garage, here's the steps to take to limit your financial exposure as you find out if you even want to keep the vehicle. There may be a reason it only cost $500 for a winning bid. This section shows you how to figure out if you want to keep it.

Step 10 - Sell It

There are some great options out there now for selling salvage title and clean vehicles. They operate on enormous volumes, with incredibly tight margins. You're not going to get your money back, but you're not going to lose it all either. Follow these real world examples and you can see roughly how much it will cost you to drive that $3k porsche for a few months before you sell it back for scrap.

Where Are You In The Process?

What is your combination of cost, availability, and repair requirements?
Can you handle flood damage? Missing panels? Non-starting vehicles?
Decide on acceptable panel gaps, paint imperfections, and fit misalignments
Consider fees, delivery, bid amount, parts, taxes, and registration
Set your max bid early and don't monitor the auction
Post sale negotiation, and actually pay for the vehicle.
Can be as soon as next day after auction
Title Transfer, Registration and Inspection.
Complete any legal requirements to get your car on the road
10 Days to make the first keep or sell decision.
Re-market, sell for parts, or scrap.

Find where you are in the car buying journey and click any step above to learn more. Each step includes specific examples and lessons learned from real purchases. See all articles for more information.

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