Sunday, September 30, 2012

How to Find Government Seized Auto Auctions in Your Area

Finding car auctions in your area has never been easier thanks to the current online car auction databases. In the past government seized auctions would mainly be found in local papers or maybe flyers in the post and they still are, but the advantage of finding government auto auctions online is that you get to see the wider picture. You literally can find every single car auction happening in and around your city, whereas if you were looking in the local paper every day you might only spot a car auction here and there and miss the ones in your surrounding cities.

Going to a local seized vehicle auction in your area is by far the safest bet if you want to find a decent car at an affordable price. Many car enthusiasts visit government auctions and manage to pick up sports cars, or even classic cars as well as your every day family car for a fraction of its original price. The reason these cars are often sold at such a good price is that they are seized and need to be sold due to storage costs or a fleet of ex government vehicles that need to be sold quickly in order to raise some money for the department.

The benefit of visiting government seized auctions in your home city or state is because you are given the chance to inspect the vehicle before you bid. Many people prefer this rather than visiting online auctions such as eBay, due to the fact that they can avoid any scammers and get to give the vehicle a full inspection before they part with any money. Unfortunately buying cars in online auctions can be risky, you could end up purchasing a faulty car and then have to spend extra money fixing any problems.

Information About Duplicate Car Keys

Depending on the brand and model of your car you might need to go to the dealer to have new copies of the keys made. Sometimes additional keys or transponders will over ride and mess up your cars security system which can at times void the warranty.

If you are looking for information on duplicate car keys there are lots of different places you can buy them. Many websites and companies exist that specialize in the selling of different kinds of keys. Many times they can also be made to be used in almost any vehicle.

Many of the newer vehicles and cars on the road today use transponder systems to unlock and lock the doors as well as other uses and features as well. Sometimes parts departments at the dealership can make more copies for you to use. Often lock smiths can come and unlock your car as well as make any additional copies that you may need.

Most often there are some things that need to be done to verify that the blank key will function correctly. The first thing is that the key has to be shaped and cut to the original key. Then the transponder must be programmed to correlate with the radio frequency of your car's system so it can unlock and then lock the doors and open the trunk.

You can reprogram keys yourself or you may want to have a professional do it for you. Both negative and positive aspects exist for both. If you program them yourself many times it takes lots of time to do it right but it can save you money as well. Going to a professional and having them do the work for you will not be as time consuming but it will also cost more.

Depending on the brand and model of your car you might need to go to the dealer to have new copies made. Sometimes additional keys or transponders will over ride and mess up your cars security system which can at times void the warranty. When you are leasing your car you may want to contact your dealer for details.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Rebuilding Salvage Title Cars

Notwithstanding the negative reactions that a car with a rebuilt title has on some car enthusiasts, it is actually a very practical consideration to look into when considering a project car. Choosing a rebuilt-titled car instead of one which has had a clean title from its date of manufacture is purely a matter of economics. By its label, a project car is one that your are improving or building up as a hobby. This would mean adding aftermarket accessories like a coilover suspension, brake upgrades or even just HID light for a start. With salvage title cars selling for a fraction of the value of clean-titled cars, it makes a lot of sense to consider a salvage car as a basis for your project car.

But first, we have to define what constitutes as an acceptable salvage-title car for our purposes. A car that has been burned or flooded is out of the question, most specially if your are building up a project car that you will use mostly for the street and occasionally at the track. One may consider a flooded car if all you're after in the first place is the bare shell which will be used as the basis for a race or track car. Once a car has been flooded, corrosion will set in at places you can't see or reach and failures will occur at the most inconvenient times. With partially burned cars, ascertaining the degree of structural damage is a difficult job even for an engineer, so that's another place not to go to.

So what type of salvage title car is acceptable? Mostly one that has had accident damage, either in the body or in some easily replaceable drivetrain components. Remember that in many cases, an insurance company will total the car once the cost of repair exceeds the book value. So there are gems that can be had if you just look patiently. Sometimes, an insurance company will total a vehicle where the crash damage involved only replacing the fenders, hood, bumper and radiator. In cases like these, the integrity of the car is intact. If you're comfortable with working on a car or have some buddies who can help you out, restoring the car to roadworthy condition is easily attainable. Then just head over to the DMV to have your car inspected and have the title converted to a rebuilt title. After which you can go splurging on things like HID lights or a coilover suspension.

Government Seized Auto Auctions Can Save You Thousands

Did you know government seized auto auctions are happening all the time all around the country? Yes, you may have heard about the police auctions and ex government or seized vehicle auctions, where cars literally go for thousands less than the original retail price. This is where a lot of the car dealers are going for their stock. It can turn out to be very profitable for them as they can get these cheap cars and hike the price up when they go for sale at the dealership. So why go to a dealership for a used car when you can always find a practically new car at a government auction for a fraction of the cost?

So if you wanted to find out when and where these seized car and ex government vehicle auctions were happening the first thing you could do is turn to the newspaper. Most auto auctions will only be advertised once in the back of a newspaper. Seized car auctions are kept low key that's why you have probably heard rumours of them or a friend or colleague who got a car there. Checking the local paper every day can be a tiresome job and can come up short, since your local paper will only list auctions in your town or city. You could miss other car auctions in your surrounding drivable distance.

So what is the answer to finding every car auction in your city and surrounding areas? In today's world most people would probably try to Google it first. That can also come up short as most government seized vehicle auctions aren't advertised directly on the internet. So the next thing to do would be to look for a decent car auction database website.