Erepairables online bidding site report

[THE ITALIAN]

My experience with erepairables;
I registered with them, they are connected with other online bidding sites so you may be bidding on the same car from another site that you already viewed.
When I say connected I mean , they are all showing you the same cars in the location you choose.
If you win at your site, your bid is placed against live bidding to dealers, part monkeys and exporters at a later time in that day.
So in a sense, you must win twice to get your car. They present your bid as the highest from "their" company and if the dealers at the site beat you by $100 you are done.
The dealers have one monetary advantage, there is no broker fee, the broker being erepairables.

I sent a pre-bid to see how the site reacts to my bid. I did this before I sent in my HIGH bid.
When I sent in my high bid, the access to bid crashed and I could not send my high bid.
I of course called my rep. and they said they would accept my bid as the high bid, how am I to know? I cannot.

Your representative has no idea if you won at even the time of the end of live bidding. they were to call me back, they did not.

Moral to the story, if you don't have a "dealer" friend, don't go this route. I am looking for a 06/07 drivetrain and they are much more competitive.

[Nuul]

Moral to the story, if you don't have a "dealer" friend, don't go this route.

You can most likely work with a small car lot to find what you want at auction for a small markup, though it may take some time. I would call a "buy here pay here" lot and see if they can keep an eye out for you for what you're after.

[dougkirkbride]

Thanks Italian!
I had been searching this site for 2 months now and couldnt succomb to the 150 dollar fee. I guess since my 818 isnt due till march of 2014 I am not in a hurry or pressured into jumping into something. i have searched all over the country and travel alot with my job so i am hoping to get luckey sometime in the next 6 months. cars tend to move quick it seems. anyways thanks for the feedback from your experience with that site.

[THE ITALIAN]

Your very welcome.
I highly DO NOT recommend any of these online sites IF you are looking for what I am--06/07 turbo. You can also look for the 06 Saab Aero,even the 05 but those are in small supply.
You are also competing with the sand rail guys too.
You are competing with Mexican , Vietnamese, & Persian buyers when it comes to live bidding here in Calif. They buy just about anything, load it on a boat. The laws about "salvage" don't mean much in the countries they sell these cars in.
My friend is a broker in Vietnam and he has seen Toyotas with chevy motors, MG's with Volvo's they do anything that can "fit" so the competition is fierce.
I have a friend with a salvage yard I connected with, and he will get me the car I want cheap. This is the best route to take or buy a running private car. I really don't like the "parts" idea because there are some custom things I want to do and having the "road map" already there is important to me.
By the way ,,, the fees on those sites also varies, but if you find a site with low fees, they will get you in "other" fees. example; I saw a car and put in a bid for 4K, the fees were 700, then shipping. Shipping can get ugly too, they give you an estimate, but that may go up 20% by the time it hits your driveway.
Unless you buy a non turbo 2.0 like an 02 or 04 model, this car(818) will cost a lot more than 15k to build.

[Silvertop]

.
Unless you buy a non turbo 2.0 like an 02 or 04 model, this car(818) will cost a lot more than 15k to build.

I hate to split hairs -- but all of the NA's in the 818's targeted year classes (02 through 07) are 2.5's. Doesn't change the accuracy of your statement though. One will need to shop very carefully to come in under 15K with a WRX donor.........

[Xusia]

I think you can get a WRX donor online for less than $5k. I saw a 2002 go just the other day for $2050. With fees, it would still have been less than $3k. Shipping would vary, of course, but in my case it was local too, so I could have picked it up and saved the shipping (there's a Copart local to most, so this IS an option!). It was in reasonable condition, so I would think you could get at LEAST $1000 - prob $1500 - back in sold parts. It did have 150k miles on it, so I would imagine some servicing/rebuilding would have been in order (in fact, that's the primary reason I didn't bid on it). But for those mechanically inclined, I think it would have been a great bargain; and certainly would allow for completion of the kit for less than $15k.

[THE ITALIAN]

Yes I agree it can be done, never said it couldn't. I am also familiar with the years of the cars, motors, turbo's- I was speaking in general.
Parting out the donor is a positive for anyone, what I really think about a donor ...... there maybe things you want to duplicate that the original car did. Like operational mirrors, anything integrated in the car already
You may want to carry over, it is nice to have it pre-wired into an electrical system that is already there with the correct clips and such.
When I said 'roadmap", this is what I meant. The donor is an instruction booklet in your face before you start.
When "you" take apart something, it sure is much easier to put back together. The FFR Roadster has evolved to almost "non -donor" always, but in the early years it was not, with all the after market parts that are now ready and cheap. Also being American made (in Mexico) it is easy to find parts.
The Subaru is pretty far away from this, also since no one even has a car...yet.
The first builds will be classrooms for everyone, the problems we have no idea about will show their face and there will be guys that "fix" them with new ideas ("like the roadster")
Some of the aftermarket parts I have on my roadster were originally garage made and became staple parts for the roadster build.

I know some guys already bought their cars on-line and you should chime in maybe.(I only placed bids) This is a regional thing also (depends on where you live) California does have multiple cars available, but this is also where all the foreign buyers come to buy in bulk.
Remember where this thread started, it was about my experience with a bidding site. The question is , where are you going to get your parts??? a 7, 8, $9000 parts package ? or the whole car ? an old donor you have to rebuild?
Either way you will have an experience you will love, mine came in the 80's when I dropped a V8 into my 240Z, before that it was Turbo's in in-line 6's (not enough power, that's why I went to a V8)

[RM1SepEx]

Unless you buy a non turbo 2.0 like an 02 or 04 model, this car(818) will cost a lot more than 15k to build.

This is a far too generalized statement... Dave made the $5000 donor statement early on and with judicious work it can be rather easy with a well bought donor, even a wrx. Most of us want more and upgrades can quickly push you over that low end budget.

For example if I just used the original brake pads, rotors, brake hoses, clutch and pressure plate, clutch hose, timing belt, water and oil pumps, steel LCAs vs Aluminum, header and transaxle w/o my Quaife upgrade my fully reconditioned 05 wrx with 70 k miles would yield a donor cost of less than $2500... All of the original parts were in very serviceable condition. Even after replacing everything I'm at $5600 and I'm still working selling donor parts!

If you didn't rebuild refurbish everything, upgrade a Quaife LSD etc... it can be rather easy as evidenced by my build documented in the working on the donor build.

I would propose that a NA 2.5 build would be even easier!

[Kalstar]

Not apples to apples, but I have purchased two 02 WRX (each) were under $3500 delivered. The black has 62k miles, the blue 85k. After part sell off I should be into all donor parts for less then 2k and I'll drive the other as neither in my eyes should have been totaled. I did purchase online, and I agree with the OP, these sites suck every penny they can out of you. This Erepairables sounds even worse. Thx OP for the heads-up, I am sure you will save someone a headache.

[Samiam1017]

Italian ill chime in here as I have three donors. Purchased from salvage sites. I would advice anybody buying a car that is running and driving that if it starts it runs and if it moved it drives. Doesn't mean it's gonna when you get it. I have a 05 came with a motor knock. It ran. Lol. I bought another with low compression. It also ran. I parted one motor out and am in the process of doing the other now. When you purchase these vehicles it a gamble unless you deal directly with a private seller. AJW is more then doing all the work for you they are also assuming all the risk! With that said I do have a 04 wrx that was recently on ebay but I highly doubt the hi bidder is gonna contact me as he is located in CA and I'm in PA and he never emailed me about information or anything. Anybody interested in a real running driving donor pm me.

[Pmpautogroup]

Register with a approved 3rd party bidder with Copart and/or other sites to avoid "issues"

[THE ITALIAN]

Register with a approved 3rd party bidder with Copart and/or other sites to avoid "issues"
Explain.........

[RM1SepEx]

Explain.........

many states don't allow individuals to bid... you need to be in the trade... typical government bull****

[Samiam1017]

You can't take a jump pack into coparts facility. It's against there policy. So if the key are in the car and your lucky enough that the last guy in there didn't leave the keys on and the battery went dead then you could start. But you can't drive. So no 3rd party bidder is gonna save you from issues. Most 3rd part bidders don't go to the facility's you would have to hire a 4th party to go look and inspect for a fee. If I remember I asked around and it was 150 for them to go look and take pictures. They have to follow the rules too so they can't drive and if the battery's dead you gain nothing

[THE ITALIAN]

Another Erepairables report;
I won another auction on THEIR site. After I won, they said I had to wait until the LIVE auction was finished to see if I won.
They also state that The owner of the car may reject my bid or anyone else and that if the bid amount was NOT ENOUGH, the car could be re-auctioned.

They don't mention that before you are a member
So really, they can take membership and no one can win or know they even had a chance.

Pretty good scam

[RM1SepEx]

Coparts auctions are live but they also have auctions that are clearly indicated that they will review the bid before accepting the final price... At least it is clearly ID'ed BEFORE you bid...

Sorry to hear about Erepairable's issues! Time to bail and look elsewhere...

[Xusia]

It sounds like Erepairables should be on the "don't do business with" list...

I haven't yet won an auction on Copart, but so far my experience with them has been good.

[erepairables]

I am one of the founders of eRepairables, and I can ensure all that it is a legitimate, honest business. We've been operating since 2002, have facilitated thousands of vehicle sales to thousands of happy buyers, and have an A+ rating with the BBB. While we seldom see complaints, we take them all seriously and try to resolve any problems on our end. We've given this discussion careful thought and believe there are both bad and good points being made.

To clear up any misconceptions of what we do, I'll try to briefly explain. Salvage insurance auctions generally cannot sell to the public, but rather only to licensed salvage dealers. However, licensed salvage dealers can buy the vehicles from the auctions and then sell them to the general public. So because we maintain the proper licenses; you tell us what you want to pay, then we'll try to win it for you. If no one else bids higher and the reserve price is met, the vehicle is yours. It's that simple.

It sounds like the complaint is essentially this: Users may feel they are able to win a vehicle at a lower price than is realistic, rush to pay the registration fee, then get upset when they realize the vehicle sells for more than expected or not at all. This is not our intention; the fact of the matter is that we clearly explain what we do and how we do it prior to requiring any payment. Visit our site and review the Terms of Use, Common Questions, etc…. In addition, we have staff available by phone Monday-Saturday to answer any questions. We even go so far as to display a bid strength meter to provide users some sense of their intended bids likelihood of winning. Nevertheless, we are happy to review our system further to prevent this kind of confusion.

Regarding reserve price, you are correct. We should make note that there is a reserve price on vehicles. This has been added, and thank you for pointing out this oversight.

However, even if there is a reserve price, and one knows it has been met, one still can't make assumptions about the sale price given the current bid and countdown timer. We use a standard proxy-bidding system similar to eBay, whereby a user enters a bid limit, and automatic bidding moves up the bid in some set increment as needed to win. Under the a proxy bidding system, current bid is not the highest bid, but rather the second highest bid plus some bid increment. So, one must understand that the highest bid may be well in excess of the current bid shown. The highest bid is hidden and could lead a careless user to assume the item can be won for less than is realistic.

For example, if the first highest bid is $10,000 and the second highest bid is $1,000, the current bid would be $1,100. A user would only see the current bid at $1,100 and perhaps scramble to pay the registration fee then try to win it at the last second for $1,200, only to be outbid by the high bidder at $1,300. The use would have to had bid all the way up to $10,100 to be in the lead. We have a bid simulator tool on our site to help illustrate this concept.

The last issue is the pre-bid/live auction distinction. With some consideration, however, this issue too becomes irrelevant. The auctions generally have two important times; the pre bidding deadline and the start of the live auction. We only take bids during pre-bidding, and these bids are fully considered during the live auction. This is very deliberate for a couple reasons. 1) When the live auction starts, a whole group of cars are being auctioned off in no predictable order. So there is no real timestamp we can provide for when the auction of your item will start or end. 2) There is no real value in participating in the live auction. The reason we use the proxy bidding system is precisely to eliminate the need to participate in the live auction. Trying to bid up repeatedly in small increments is a very bad strategy. We instruct users to bid no more an no less than they are willing to pay on their very first bid. If the vehicle sell for less, you get it for less. If the vehicle sells for more, so what, you didn't want to pay that much anyway. I would encourage anyone to look up Proxy Bid on Wikipedia to understand this from an independent source.

Again, if we've overlooked anything, we are happy to make adjustments.

[THE ITALIAN]

I guess I better chime in again since I had the bad experience ……This is an old thread.

I wasn't afraid of spending money if I got what I wanted. I bid on several cars and won two of them. I went up to 6K if I got the right car, now if you have to pay more than that for a 2.5 turbo, I would rather shop for a private party wreck.
As far as the BBB is concerned, that is not some government authority, I have a business too and I have no interest in the BBB or being rated by them.

The people at E repairables were to call me back several times, but did not. Two of the cars I bid on just disappeared with no explanation.
Maybe all the things you say here is true and I just had a bad experience, I know how auctions work, I even had trucking companies lined up ready to go, now those guys call you back.
I know I can buy "other" models all day, but my needs are specific and more expensive.
I only wish I could brag about my experience with your company, sorry. it is my duty to report my findings to my brothers @ F5.I explained to your people that there could be more people looking for these cars and I would send them your way - I can't.

[erepairables]

Old thread or not, I apologize for the for the issues you had with our customer support and disappearing vehicle data. Making vehicles from hundreds of different auction lots available through one interface is somewhat complicated. We don't have full control over the vehicle supply chain and data exchange, and things don't always go smoothly. We can take constructive criticism, we just want to make sure anyone reading this thread understands what we do, that we are on the level, and that your experience was truly the exception, not the rule.

Best wishes to you and all members of this group.

[David Hodgkins]

With that I think we shall close this thread about a non-supporting vendor.

Both parties have a chance to state their cases - with rebuttal - and I do not wish to see this thread degenerate into an argument.

:)