Auto Auction of San Diego

First Of All, DO NOT PAY IN CHECK HERE!!! THEY PREFER CASH OR CARD!!! Got A Lot Of Attitude From The Worker And Wasted Time Because Of This.
Totalled My 2004 Mitsubishi Eclipse And Went Here To Look Around. All The Vehicles Are In Pretty Rough Shape And Taking Them To A Mechanic Is A Must!!! DONT BE FOOLED AND BUY A CAR ON THE SPOT!!! EVEN IF THE CAR APPEARS TO BE IN GOOD CONDITION!!! DONT BE YOUR OWN MECHANIC!!! Found A 2003 Ford Taurus With 93 000 On It. Took It To FTS Auto On Convoy Street (Highly Reccomended!!!) And Got An Honest Opinion From Joe On The Car. Buying The Car Outside The Auction Was $ 3200 And Based On The Repairs Needed (Tires, Alignment, Passenger Window Repair, Transmission And Oil Pan Repair, Etc.). I Attended The Auction And Got It For $ 2000 PLUS THE FEE THAT IS ATTACHED!!! Came Out To Be $ 2285. You Have Until 5pm The Day After The Auction (If You Dont Attend The Auction You Pay The Same Day, No Deposit) To Give The Full Amount And You Are Required To Give A $ 500 Deposit Up Front No Acceptions. I Was Lucky Enough To Buy A Car That Was Already Smogged And Had The Proper Paperwork Included Inside The Car (DMV Records, Gas Recipts Etc.) All In All, It Was A Fair Experience.

What waste of time!!! First of all… I saw this X5 advertised for auction, starting bid $ 6000.00. I called to see if it had been auctioned off. I was told, «no, we had one bid for $ 6500.00 and it was to low. So we did not sell it. For $ 7000.00 we will sell it. Its in perfect condition. Blue Book is over 10K.»
The X5 had mismatching bald tires, AC blows hot air, ripped passenger seat. pistons on engine hood shot and last but not least…, the fuel light was on!!!
I also took notice of all the cars for auction also had bald mismatching tires. They must also have a Used Tire Shop.
I would never buy a vehicle from this place…, enough said. Such a waste of my time!!!

If you go here ask for Ray! He was awesome! I’m not one for auctions so we opted out for the «price today» offer, we went looking for my daughter’s first car for her 16^th birthday. I told Ray what we were up too and he helped us out 100%! Don’t go here expecting to get a new car for a few thousand dollars. You’re being ridiculous. He has good used cars. You are able to take them for test drives during the week, and take them to your own mechanic for an inspection if you want too. You can negotiate prices and everything Ray quotes you is either blue book value or lower. So don’t be selfish haha! He has to make a living too… I love the experience! And if you want to go here but your too shy let me know! And I’ll take you over there and introduce you to Ray! !

My husband I bought a car here and we had a good experience: We got to test drive the car, we made an offer that they accepted instead of going through the auction, they informed us of the DMV back registration and seemed to do business openly and honestly. When we noticed an issue with the car after getting it home, we called and they fixed it. I don’t think you can ask much more when buying a used car.

I had a very positive experience here. I ended up purchasing a 1999 Ford Explorer which was in spectacular condition. They explained the fees upfront and hid nothing prior to me bidding on the vehicle. They hand out leaflets with all of the fees clearly posted. You have the option to come on site prior to the bid and test drive any of the vehicles and even have your mechanic look at them. I may have gotten very lucky with my vehicle but I am not going to complain. Good luck with your purchase and do your homework prior to bidding!

This place is a joke. I have always used Unilocal but never left a review, but after today i felt compelled to do so. I went there after searching craigslist and local auto auction websites looking for a very specific year and model of car. This place just happened to be the only place listing one for an up coming auction. I attended a REAL auto auction years ago, and i have been talking alot with a coworker who has a dealer license and frequents otay area auctions quite often, so i was expecting something totally different. I headed in on a thursday to check the car out prior to the auction and looking back I should have known something was fishy when the car i was looking at was on the website as up for auction before LAST saturday, meaning it didnt sell and was being auctioned again this upcoming saturday. I asked the SALESMAN why it didnt sell last saturday… They have a RESERVE price… what? The reserve price at a real auto auction is the opening bid. I’ll get to the point, the SALESMAN offered to sell it to me right then and there, two days prior to the auction, for 2500, yes that was easily 1000 over what it was worth (via kbb and months of craigslist) not to mention, dealer fee, auction fee, dead registration, taxes, extremely bald tires and most likely a problem passing smog. What a bunch of crooks. THIS IS NOT AN AUCTION, it is a extremely low end dealership pretending to be an auction. I will not be attending the «auction» this saturday. Beware.

Beware of this place. I purchased vehicle #238 on the 8÷9÷2014 auction, stock number 20 322. Paid the amount agreed, to find out that the car had a history of dues at the DMV. Owner Bill said, «I’m sorry but you have to pay all the unpaid registration for the past years that the previous car owners owe.» I paid Auto Auction of San Diego the money, and Bill said — «You are screwed, there’s nothing we can do» in a polite way. He said that the buyer has the option of checking that there are no previous dues before buying from them. They will hear from me — legally, as this is not a fair sale. 8÷14÷2014. For them, the $ 300-​$ 400 dlls of DMV dues are worth more than unhappy customers.
Is this the kind of business that you would want to buy from?

LOL! These guys are such scammers. They raise the price of the bid even if no one is bidding against you to attempt to make you bid higher.
The auctioneer spends more time trying to be funny instead of doing his job.
They also go up by $ 500 per bid. Haha. I highly advise against anyone wasting their time coming here.
What a waste of my Saturday.

My Chevy Astrovan was hit and declared a total loss due to a stolen car accident. After I received the insurance money, I started looking for another Astrovan. Forget about Craigslist, no one bothers to reply to emails. I then turned to looking online, and found two at the Auto Auction.
I went out, took a look at both of them, took one for a test ride, a trip to my mechanic, brought it back, and bought it (they also do «Buy it Now’s»). Yes, the Auto Auction is an auction and a car dealer, and they have lots of vehicles. If you know what you’re looking for, and have a mechanic to take a look at what you’re interested in, you can get a good deal. All vehicles are inspected by their mechanics, and are in good running condition before they’re sold.
An AutoCheck report is provided online for each vehicle that is up for sale, and it’s very informative. I got a great deal on another Astrovan, and it was within my price range.
If you’re looking for another vehicle, keep checking their website, because they get deliveries every couple of days, and list them as soon as they get a chance. I highly recommend talking to them. If you’re looking for a specific vehicle, go in and talk to Ray. He’ll take your name and number, and give you a call if he gets it in.
Ray gave me a great deal, and if I ever need to buy another vehicle, I’ll definitely start here. If you attend the auction, you’re unable to test drive the vehicles, they’re in line to be auctioned off.
Please note that I didn’t attend the auction, I found what I wanted there, bought it on the spot, and it’s in great condition!

Worst place to go for cars. Auctioneer will linger on til someone bids. Is this even how auto auctions are supposed to do things? No! They are fast pace to where they move on to the next. Not to mention when you won a bid extra fees on top plus they dont let you inspect the cars before you pay. Complete waist of time. As much as you pay for a car at this place, you can purchase a quality car off of craigslist. BEFORE YOU BUY ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION TO SEE HOW THEY RUN THEIR BUSINESS. It will save you money. We bought a car there and the engine was blown, they make the cars run just to get them off their lot. Hope this helps on future purchases.

Do not come here if you’re looking for a steal of a deal. The people who bid are all clueless and generally overpay. Auctioneers pressure you to bidding up strongly. Auction fees start at 200 dollars on top of the selling price, and go up as the price of the car goes up.
You get no guarantees when buying a car, cannot drive it only look at it. Every car is sold «as is.» Doesn’t surprise me after seeing some of them, eek!
But the biggest disappointment of it all, was the lying and cheating auctioneer. He could not tell the truth to save his life. Always over-​glorifying a car and telling lies above lies. Here are a few of my favorites– «this Audi has 200,000 miles but let me tell you, it’s barely broken in and it will last 3 times that!» Ha ha ha ha, and this one– «ladies and gentlemen this car may say Chevy Nova, but it’s really a toyota corolla.» It was sickening seeing all the people suckered into buying those cars by the lies! Oh and if there’s a price that’s low that a car is about to sell for, the auctioneer will talk and talk and lag until somebody else bids up. Not the typical timely fashion.
You’re better off buying your car off craigslist and knowing what you buy. You’ll probably pay the same price or less on Craigslist anyway except you’ll know if the car is a time bomb.
I should probably add that the auction employees borderline harass you, I was on the verge of punching one in the face who would not stop begging to me and literally called other people cheap. Also, it turns out they have some of their own «undercover» employees bid on their own cars to get the price up or to keep someone from going below their set reserve. How DISGUSTINGLY scandalous!

This Place is Joke. I hate to waste my time writing a Neg, on such a beautiful saturday, But I hate seeing people get suckered even more. I guess Im Just protective by nature.
Its basically a used car dealer masquerading as an auto auction. The car prices are close to what you would get on craigslist.
The Auctioneer cant tell the truth if he tried. He goes up 500 dollar increments (instead of 50 or 100) and sometimes more, suckering regular people who have showed up off the street to a public auction. He bubumbles his words together dabab dabadaba do i hear 4500 on a 2000 Honda? (, I think he taught himself auctioneer lingo, and not too well.)
He likes to make up elaborate stories and jokes about the cars to get people to pay more and tell them what a deal they are getting and then quotes values of the cars being worth «thousands» more. He also throws out cautionary statements to let you think he has your best interests in mind. Just watch out for the double talk.
This is how you know he thinks he is dealing with suckers, because pros would know the value before he opened his mouth. The guys in the audience thatdo know are just shaking their heads and some even get up and leave.
He quotes some cars are already smogged and you must pay, but its only 50 dollars, you should be lucky because you go out and pay 79 dollars for a smog.
Where? Suckerville? Nice one Guy. I paid 29 at Steve’s Auto in PB in and out in 25 minutes and service with a smile, Thank you Unilocal! IM guessing they pay 20 – 25 bucks. They up charge everything.
Their fees are almost double the other auctions, and– they arent selling other peoples cars, its their own, so the employee mentioned. And the list goes on. It was mentioned by one of the workers that, they buy cars from the big dealer auction and then re auction them here. Which means for you, they have a vested interest in these cars and the $ they get out of you, and tinker with them. I found massive amounts of oil under at least 15 of the cars I looked at. All of the devilles were junk, either blown engines or were about to. A friend I met bid and won on one and I had to warn him to tow it home. I went to look at a mini cooper and tried to open the hood but the latch wasnt there, instead i found the OBDII jack (the plug in for the computer) was open, turned on the car and the computer was erased. Hmmm…
Thats my take. My observation. So basically, its their way of selling a lot of used cars at once to hopeful buyers of a deal, but not giving test drives or warranties (they say the cars are tested, but give a disclaimer to that even) and making huge cash profits all the way around.
Better off searching craigslist and spending your time on a car you are going to put the life of the people closest to you in, and your hard earned money.

I came here Saturday and was not sure of what to expect. We had to park in a parking lot way above the auction and walk down. Once getting in there was a woman at a table with a sheet of their stock. It was labeled with Year, Type, Model, Vin and the estimated Blue Book Value. There was something else but I can’t remember what it was. They had some cool cars/​trucks there but it was a bit peculiar. If the auction guy starts out a $ 3,000 and no one bids. when he gets lower why is «someone» always bidding at the $ 1,000 mark instead of waiting for him to go lower? I witnessed a woman buy a 2001 beautiful Mercedes for $ 1400 but it was diesel. I am not sure how I feel about car auctions but I want to come back and watch again. I would love to find a truck. I specifically want a Toyota 4 runner… this place was pretty cool. you should go check it out. Do not take money the first time here… it is addictive and they will get up in your face begging you for the sale… almost like a Casino. Their snack bar was also pretty cool. I did not take pictures because security discouraged it. There are also fee’s associated with your purchase~ if the car is smog ready you will be charged an extra $ 50.00 for that service. There is also a fee depending on the price of the auctioned car you purchased available on the picture I posted. Good Will Hunting!~ I did not need to pay an entrance fee nor did I need a special licence to shop here. WARNING: There are dealers here that you need to contend with so be careful!