Copart Car Rip Off Internet

 Copart is not a bad place to purchase vehicles but just be careful and do your homework.  Many shady dealers place vehicles in salvage auctions.  Some of these are partially put back together to make them look good for the internet photos.  We use Salvage Research when bidding at online salvage auctions.   They will help you by finding these shady dealer cars.  Go to their site and see some of the examples.......

While I understand the original posters (OPs) frustration with his purchase it doesn't really seem that Copart played much, if any, role in this buyers dissatisfaction.  It is quite obvious he didn't really understand what he was buying or the process involved in buying through Copart. That is mainly his fault and not the fault of the company. It would also help if the OP was able to write a clear, concise, coherent sentence so someone could actually understand what he was trying to say.

Copart clearly lists all of the info regarding the cars, to the best of their ability, in the vehicle listing.  On the Copart website they also clearly explain the process of purchasing cars through them & what to expect when doing so.  

Ripoff Report isn't the only place where I have read complaints about Copart. But the similarities in the complaints is uncanny. The majority of vehicles that Copart sells have salvage titles, which means that the cars have been written off by the insurance companies & junked, instead of being repaired. Then people, like the OP, purchase a junker from Copart & then cry/complain when the car turns out to be a pile of junk.  What do people expect from a car they paid a few thousand dollars for that has a salvage car title? People need to use a little bit of common sense.

I purchased a 2001 Mercedes S430 through Copart back in June 2009. However, I wasn't interested in buying a pile of junk, so I only searched for cars with 'clear' titles which had the primary damage listed as 'normal wear'.

Back in 2009 Copart didn't list the vehicle identification numbers (VIN #s) in the car listing like they do now. In 2009 you also had to go through a reseller (i.e. a licensed car dealer) to purchase cars from their auctions. Now you can register directly through Copart's website to purchase vehicles.

What I had to do in 2009 was to request the VIN #s for the cars I was interested in from the reseller. Then I took the VIN #s & ran both a CarFax & AutoCheck report for each vehicle before I finally settled on the car I was interested in bidding on.  When my car finally came up for auction I bid online & ended up winning. Then I went on UShip.com & hired a transport company to pick the car up at Copart's Las Vegas facility & had it delivered to my house.

Even though I purchased a car from Copart for $10.5k with a clear title that only had normal wear & a clean CarFax & Autocheck report I still didn't expect it to be perfect. After all, the car was already 8 years old & had almost 80K miles on it.  It was obviously going to need some work.

Sure enough there were issues with the car that I had to repair. I went online to several Mercedes car forums & researched the problems since I knew that others would have the same issues with their older Mercedes. Then I went & purchased the parts needed & made the repairs myself.

I also took the car in to have the oil/brake/coolant/transmission fluids changed out. In addition, I took it to a PDR (paintless dent repair) shop & had them pop out 4 dents from the driver's side rear passenger door. I also bought a new set of tires for the car since the car had two different brands of tires on it when I received it. Furthermore, I bought a set of Mercedes AMG wheels that I found on eBay to make the car look more up to date since the stock wheels looked small & outdated.  Last but not least I detailed the car & bought a new set of carpeted Mercedes floor mats for it.

Did I pay quite a bit for the car. Yes. Did I have to put even more time & money into the car to make it almost perfect. Yes. But when I was through the car looked great inside & out. It was also mechanically sound & it ran well. I drove it for a few months & then put it up for sale on AutoTrader. The car sold in a matter of days to the 1st person who called about it.

The moral of the story is this. CAVEAT EMPTOR (let the buyer beware)!

1. Don't buy a car from Copart if you don't know anything about cars or how to repair them
2. Don't buy a car from Copart unless you can afford to spend time & money making repairs to the car
3. Don't expect something for nothing (i.e. a perfect car for $1k or $2k dollars that has a salvage title)
4. Don't expect the car to be perfect even with a 'clear' title & 'normal wear' listed as the primary problem

If you follow the above rules you will reduce the likelihood of having issues. Remember, Copart sells used vehicles, most of which have been junked that have salvage titles. Don't take the car listing as gospel. Don't be surprised if the car won't start, has missing keys, mismatched tires etc...Those are things that come with the territory when buying from a salvage car company like Copart.

"I did some research before buying"

Research that doesn't include a test-drive is useless.