Every single time the author has gone to the auction house, I have been the only person there looking at cars. I've never seen another individual opening doors, kicking tires, etc. Just me and the people who work there. If you love cars and machinery, it's a bit of calming, peaceful and rewarding experience.
Before you go in person, make sure you use the guidebook entries for How To Use Copart or How To Use IAA for finding vehicles.
Once you know what you want, identify when it will go to auction. Typically vehicles are available for inspection a few days before the auction. If you just want to go for the experience, just go any day their website lists that they are open to the public and see what vehicles are there.
Make sure you bring with you:
- Your membership numbe
- A high-vis vest.
- Protection from the elements.
The author likes to also bring the following in a aluminim case clipboard:
- Pen/paper
- OBD bluetooth scanner
- Pen flaslight with laser
- Extendable selfie stick.
Once you arrive, you may have to user their app to check in, or go inside and fill out the paperwork. Go ahead and scan this and you'll see you're pretty much the only person there, all week. If you look like the author you look completely out of place, like their bosses' boss or their dentist. From what I can tell they get about 0 softare engineers in there per year (other than yours truly).
You will then be told how to find the vehicles available for inspection. These are generally placed in a section of the lot closer to the office. See the article about Forklifts and Transport Damage for more history about where these vehicles came from and how they got there.
You will immediately notice the most important factors:
- Some of these vehicles are literally sitting in the dirt.
- Some have plastic covering half open doors and windows.
- Some are completely wrapped in plastic.
- Some are nowhere to be found.
How do I look under the vehicle?
There is no easy way. The author likes to use a selfie stick with my phone attached poke around that way. It's not ideal, but it can give you some great insight depending on the lighting and what other level of access you can get. Why don't they just put the car on a stand and take some photos of the underside? My assumption is to sell more of the Vehicle Inspection Reports.
What's the plastic for?
The plastic is there to protect the vehicle from the elements. This is a 'value add' service that some of the vehicles have applied to them to retain their resale value. You won't see this plastic either in part or a wholly wrapped car on the inspection photos. If the door won't open, they can put some of this super sticky plastic over it and it won't get further rained in. That's the idea at least. As you've no doubt noticed by now, nobody is watching you and you can do whatever you want to the cars at this point.
Occasionally, people do try and steal parts or entire vehicles from the lot.
Where's the car I was looking for?
Some of them are in the a special building that they can lock and keep out of the elements completely. These are for the 20k+ at least vehicles, so you're probably not reading this if you're interested in those.
That's pretty much it.
If you have the knowledge and enough light, you can drastically improve your knowledge of the repairs required to a vehicle. You'll get a good idea if the pictures match the visual reality, along with the unknowables like smell and feel. Go ahead and bring a paint thickness tester, tire gauge, moisture meter if you want. Put them in that aluminum clipboard or your vest pockets. Nobody will care, there's nobody out there but you.
Why don't you go in person anymore?
The pictures are close enough. Find a car that is relatively clean inside and it's mostly representative of the state of the vehicle. If it has damage that affects the drivability, that probably means it was being operated while the damage occured. Which means it's basically run and drive plus whatever damage is visible. If it looks otherwise undamaged and it's not run and drive, then it's a 'who knows' and there's pretty much no point in inspecting it in person anyways. Unless you bring a borescope and tools and somehow manage to look inside the crankcase, there is really no way to know. That level of inspection is against the terms of service of the yard anyways.
Step 5: Auction