Troopies at Government Auctions

Have a look and se if there is a website for the Govt auctions. In SA they have a website and also list prices for vehicles over the last 6 weeks auctions.
Dave

Don't forget to leave some cash aside to fix it.

I noticed when I was at ARB on Monday that ARB and Toyota are arguing over who is to blame for the failure of the front suspension in a newish public servant driven 100 Series Turbo Diesel which is looking pretty sorry for itself (how do you say twisted).

For every failure of such a public servant carriage, I'll bet London to a brick there are 10 damaged vehicles that never get fixed.

Somewhat like rental cars - can go where noone else is game!

Ciao for now
Andrew who nearly bought at SA Auctions but ended up paying the same money for a little older shopping trolley that didn't know what a rock was.

Hey BayBreeze,

Check out http://www.qfleet.qld.gov.au for Qld Govt Auctions. You can also buy passed in vehicles at the reserve price - I think they call it the 'no auction option'. If you look at the stock list, you can phone with rego number and get the price. Not a lot of room for haggling, but still seems to be below market - at least for the ones I've seen. Went last year and picked up a late model Falcon for a friend, he saved a few $000's and is very happy. One advantage is they offer RWC and warranty, which some auction houses do not.

Cheers,
Charlie

Qfleet troopies are usually only 3 years old and are pulling $30+K - most have only 40-80000Km on clock. Check Cousins or East Coast website - they buy lots of ex Gov 4WD's and are retailing 78/79 series utes and troopies for $35-45K. They are sought after vehicles so still pull big $$'s. Dont forget a stock new diesel Troopy costs well into the $50k mark these days. You wont pick an ex EPA Fraser Island vehicle at auction other than for a galvanised tray - they are flogged dogs.

Few reasonable priced ex Police Camera vehicles Standard 100 series wagons at the auctions.

Look laterally at what's available - friend recently bought a 2 1/2 year old 34000km's V6 Jackeroo, balance warranty at gov auction (ex judges vehicle) -new tyres, on roads included (promotion at the time) for $24K - mint condition. Hard to justify a hardworked Troopy for $10K more.

http://www.pickles.com.au/

they have auction at brissy --- try to go on days they have repo vehicles --- usualy have no reserve ( or very low )

spend a few weeks going --- some weeks prices are stupid as there are a lot of newby bidders - other weeks -- absolute bargain

Frank

Here is another one.
http://www.fowles.com.au/

from Marty.

I've looked many times at buying from SA Govt Auctions, but there are no bargains there - the Troopies and 79series go for dealer prices. Too many private bidders.

You'll find that a lot of government departments (federal anyway) don't buy their commercials any more but lease them. Our 4WD get handed back after 60,000 km not sure who they are leased through or what happens to them once we hand one back.

Indeed this is possible ... I did this a number of years back invested $18,000 (unregistered ex Gov) with suspension damage and some body work needed. Spent about $3,000 on bits and fixed up the bodywork. It had about 120,000km on the clock and I also contacted the government service area about associated records. This troopy was pre-79 series but machanically sound. I ended up using the troopy for about 6-years.. lots of off road and camp trailer towing (a family favourite bus). I added a short back seat and we loved the old troopy solid and reliable and simple 1HZ diesel (non-turbo). I traded it for $10,000 with approx 400,000km on the clock. A good exercise if you can do the serving and repairs yourself.

Cheers