How to Buy a Used Car from Pickles or Manheim in Australia as a Private Buyer — Tips and Tricks

I’ve bought four cars from Pickles and Manheim (all but one from Pickles) so far over the last few years and wanted to share my experiences. My dad bought several in the years before me (he got me onto it).

In each case, I’ve bought cars for thousands of dollars under market price and always sold them after a year or two at the same price or even for profit in one case (probably got lucky there). So I wanted to share my story a little bit, as well as some tips on how to do it.

I’ve read a few posts on Reddit about buying used cars on Pickles and Manheim. They’re full of caution (most cars on there have something wrong with them) or generic advice suitable for first-time car buyers.

But if you’re experienced with cars and know your values, then buying at auctions can be an excellent way to not just save money, but maybe even break even on car ownership.

Note / Disclaimer: I’m not a professional buyer. I’ve done this enough times to be able to help total newbies, but the below is a collection of my personal notes, experience, and opinions only. I’m still learning, and if you have a different opinion, I welcome it. Comment or send me a note.

Executive Summary

Here’s a brief summary of everything in this article.

• Buy at ex-government auctions. That’s where the cars with the fewest problems (if any) are, and where you can get excellent value. The vehicles may be boring, though, but if functionality and budget are your priorities, they’re great. Boring cars are driven boringly and will be in the best condition.
• Know your cars. You won’t have a chance to test-drive one. Usually, you can’t even sit in them. Know the feature sets and prices they sell for at dealers. (The good news is you can learn just about a few models, like Corollas and Hiluxes, and just recent years… so you’ll learn the difference between a Camry Ascent Sport and an SL, for example.)
• Be prepared to deal with a more cumbersome process than buying at a dealer. This is for people with time and patience. You have to register to bid, bid, arrange insurance and permission to drive an unregistered car (varies by state), pick it up (and the auction sites aren’t in convenient locations), get a roadworthy certificate, get any repairs done (usually very few, if any, but it happens), and buy registration.
• Take the good with the bad. You might have a poor experience. I hope it’s not your first one. I’ve had three great and five good experiences, and I’ve had my share of bad luck in life!

More detail on everything below.

What are Pickles and Manheim?

Pickles and Manheim are two large auction houses in Australia. They hold many kinds of auctions, but the vast majority (and the best for cars) are for goods either being sold by government departments or insurance agencies.

Because most sales are by government departments, most vehicle models are within a narrow range. They’re mostly a few years old (e.g. 3-5 years old) and quite pedestrian cars — mostly Toyotas, actually! And within Toyotas, you’ll find Camry Hybrids, Corolla Hybrids, and Hilux 4x4s. Fords are even more concentrated. The lion’s share of them are Rangers.

Based on the inventory as of March 2024, I created the below chart. Around 40% of all vehicles are Toyotas and Fords, and Hiluxes and Rangers are the biggest components of each of those.

There are, of course, many other cars you can get from Pickles or Manheim. Government departments have fancier cars they use to ferry around officials. And there are undercover police cars, things like the Subaru WRX, BMW M models, and more.

If you’re after something specific and exotic then not only will supply be very limited, but demand could be higher, too. Say you want to get an old BMW, for example. If you find one (like the one below), then word will get around, and you may find that you’re up against a couple of other bidders who are bidding with their hearts, not just their wallets.

But sometimes, bidding on somewhat unusual cars can be a good way to find bargains at Pickles — especially if they’re lumped in with the more pedestrian vehicles. More on that below.

Pickles vs Manheim — Which one?

I’ve bought at both, but mostly at Pickles. Over time I’ve become more familiar with it. But the same kinds of vehicles are at both. Neither is generally better than the other in any way — it comes down to the individual vehicle.

Because most of my experience (including my most recent experience) is at Pickles, my examples are from there. But from memory, it was all very similar with Manheim. At times they will have different levels of functionality in the website and apps, of course.

Prerequisites for Buying at Pickles / Manheim Auctions

There are a few things I think you absolutely must have to buy at an auction. These are

1. Good control of your nerves,
2. Very good knowledge of cars and car values (at least for the model you’re after). For most auctions, there are no inspections!
3. Cash on hand or finance pre-approval,
4. Comfort with getting a car fixed and roadworthy, plus the ability to absorb repairs,
5. An understanding of the logistics involved (auction fees / freight / roadworthy / registration fees), and
6. Patience.

More on all these below.

Nerves: Auctions are nerve-wracking events. Even online, they’re fast-paced and there’s little time to think about things. You have to be on top of our nerves to not go crazy bidding and blow your budget. It’s easier to control your nerves when you’re just tapping on a phone, but it’s also easier to overbid as you’re just pressing a button.

Knowledge: Secondly, you really need to know exactly what the car you’re after is like, and what it’s worth. Say you’re after a Camry Hybrid. You aren’t going to get a test drive. You won’t know the features for sure — you have to be familiar with the various trims and what the various year models sell for at dealers.

Also, get familiar with what can go wrong with a car. For example, if you’re buying a car with a battery, understand the battery’s lifetime and how long it’s under warranty. Or if buying a 4×4, understand how likely rust is to diminish its value.

It’s worth noting that there are no inspections for most auctions, and bidding is done online, not in person. There are a small number of auctions for which you can inspect vehicles (e.g. some state fleet auctions). You have to register for these, and inspections are by appointment on certain days, only. Thus, generally, you have to be comfortable with buying cars you’ve never seen or sat in.

Money: You can get loans from these companies. But I always buy cars and motorcycles with cash. I don’t like to borrow money for depreciating assets (or anything, really). Anyway, make sure you have the money ready — because you have to pick up the car within two days of the auction closing, and so you have to pay the day of the auction or the next day.

Repairs/Roadworthiness prep: Most cars from auction houses need something to get them on the road. For ex-fleet cars, it’s usually something benign like

• Tyre tread
• Windscreen wipers
• Tail lights/turn signals (a crack or damaged one
• Headlights fogged (I’ve had this before — demisting them is a cheap job)
• A bushing on the suspension (this can be expensive, in the hundreds of dollars, but it’s not a fatal flaw)

I’ve never had an experience of a complete “lemon” of a car — i.e. one that has a badly running engine or major faults.

You can also get this stuff when buying privately or buying from a dealer. I’ve bought cars and bikes from both that have had problems show up when I went to get a roadworthy just a month later (when I had to sell them quickly for various reasons). Turned out that the initial roadworthy check was a little lazy, or maybe the second was much stricter.

Logistics: If you’re buying a car from the same state, you have to work out how to get it off the lot, to the mechanic, then to your house. There are different rules for what you can do in each state in Australia.

For example, in Queensland, it’s enough to have CTP (which you have to get anyway to register a car) to drive your car from the lot to the mechanic. In Victoria, you have to have a temporary registration, which is cheap, luckily ($50 for a week). This article on my motorcycle site discusses unregistered vehicle permits and where you’ll need one.

The registration process in Victoria is particularly stringent. Read here for an overview. It took me a few weeks to get it all done — entirely because most sites were booked out.

If you’re buying interstate, you’ll need to know about transport options. Luckily, these are abundant in Australia, and easy to use. Get a few quotes — they’ll be within $100 of each other, anyway.

Finally, patience. The above process isn’t hard, but it requires a lot of to-and-fro compared to buying from a dealer. That’s why dealers exist — to make things easier. They take care of everything, and so you pay the piper for the privilege.

Choosing a Car to Buy

The first thing I’d recommend for any car you can’t personally inspect and check thoroughly is to buy a boring car.

By “boring”, I mean a recent car that has a fairly basic feature set. Ideally, this would be a car mostly used in the city — not off-road.

This means cars like a Toyota Camry, a Toyota Corolla, or maybe a BMW or Lexus mid-spec car if you want to be fancy. Utes, yes — I’ve bought a Hilux before and it was in great nick. (But it’s worth calling and checking the previous owner. If it was a mining company, your Hilux may have shot suspension and be covered in rust.)

Stay away from those old Landcruisers, exotic European cars, and anything from the army. Unless you really know what you’re doing, of course (in which case, this post is far beneath you!).

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of boring cars you can buy at auctions:

• The high-volume, most-sold and most-bought cars (Toyota sedans/utes and Ford/Holden utes)
• Low-volume, niche vehicles (which aren’t exotic)

First, high-volume cars and vehicles. When you’re buying a high-volume car like a Toyota Corolla Hybrid, you generally can buy it for a few thousand dollars less than a dealer would pay.

For example, say for a certain model year, you check Carsales and see that dealers list them for around $25,000 for low-mileage models a couple of years old. This means those dealers want to make around $2-3K profit on each one, but also have to factor in the risk of some minor repairs. So they’ll buy them for $5K less. That’s the price you can get them, too.

Sometimes you’ll get a bit luckier, especially if you’re buying further down the list in the auction — you can save a couple of grand more.

Generally, for these kinds of vehicles, I’d always buy in-state. The cost and logistics of shipping make the deal less attractive very quickly.

In the past, I’ve bought just two cars like this. One was a 2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid. It served us for many, many years, and never presented a single problem. We beat the heck out of it.

The second was a Toyota Hilux Diesel 4×4, which we set up as a camper. Unfortunately, we aborted that trip, but we had no problem selling the car.

Secondly, you can also buy more niche vehicles on Pickles. These are things like high-performance cars (ex-police cars), brand-name vehicles like BMWs or Audis, or electric vehicles.

Because these come up far less on Pickles auctions, there’s more opportunity for a bargain here. Generally, I would look in the big government auctions (e.g. federal or state fleet / leasing vehicles), and look for the weird cars in there. I’d avoid the specialty / luxury auctions (i.e. auctions focused on just luxury vehicles), because at those, there’ll be more competition. You’ll still get good prices, but they’ll just be “market”, rather than undervalued.

A word on police cars. It’s well-known that they’re driven hard. Mechanics I’ve spoken to say so, and so do police (see this thread, for example.) They’ll still work, of course, and you can get them cheap for what they are. If you’re planning to flog it yourself, e.g. at a track, then it might be the ticket for you.

In the federal/state government fleet auctions, the weird cars sit among the normal ones. So you’ll see Camry, Camry, Corolla, Camry, BMW M-spec car, Camry, etc.

The BMW M3 in the listing higher in this post, on the other hand, is part of a specialty auction, advertised far in advance of the auction, and in the company of lots of other nice cars.

Examples of niche vehicles you can buy at government auctions are

• High-performance (usually ex-police) vehicles — these are risky
• Luxury vehicles, used for chauffering senior diplomats, or part of senior people’s salary packages — these are nice!
• Electric vehicles

I’ve seen quite a few mid to high-spec luxury vehicles at auctions get relatively little attention. This might reflect the fact that they’d also be harder to sell second-hand — I’m not sure. But they’re definitely good value relative to new.

But there’s a specific opportunity right now in electric vehicles at government auctions. The websites aren’t set up to show their stats properly — they don’t list the battery capacity or the range. And the auctioneers don’t understand them, so they won’t tout their special features.

Look at the below ad, for example, for an upcoming Hyundai Kona (similar to the one I bought).

The traditional indicators are there — the presence of keys, a service history, and the odometer.

But what you want to know when buying an electric car is

• What kind of engine does it have? What’s the power rating on the motor? The Kona comes in two specs — 100 kW and 150 kW. Big difference!
• What’s the battery capacity? Is it a 40 kWh or 60 kWh battery for example? Huge difference. (Again, the Kona comes in two spec levels.)
• What’s the battery condition? Either self-reported through the diagnostic tool or through an external indicator.
• What’s the indicated range when the battery is full? (Note — this varies, as it’s usually calculated based on usage. But it’s usually within a 10% range, especially for fleet cars. E.g. a used MG ZS EV base model should usually report 240-260 km range.)
• What’s the remaining factory warranty? (Warranty is huge for cars — it’s like buying a fridge or washing machine, in many ways.)

So, not knowing all of those things, you have to a) do your own digging and b) be prepared to take a punt. But the informed buyer can score bargains.

I would specifically stay away from extreme bargain hunting on Pickles. I wouldn’t buy something like a high-mileage Landcruiser, an ex-Army vehicle, or something of the like, unless I was very ok with buying a lemon or rust bucket. Similarly, ex-police cars may have been totally hammered. Caveat emptor, always.

Bidding — All online!

As I mentioned above, there are no inspections for most auctions. There are some auctions for which you can inspect cars, like the VicFleet one for example (and maybe other state fleet auctions).

Bidding, similarly, is now all online. This happened between 2020/2021, but it stuck. Pickles charges a $110 online “bidding fee” even though it’s the only way of bidding — doesn’t feel legal, but that’s the way it is. I suppose if they disclaim all fees, it’s fine. (It’s still dumb. Maybe I should charge an online fee for viewing this website.)

At Manheim, you still bid through the website. At Pickles, you bid through the app. Below is an image of the Pickles app. I screenshotted this when I bid on a car that I didn’t end up buying as it went too high.

Before bidding, you do have to register to bid. You need to verify information like your personal details and put a credit card in for the deposit. You’ll be charged something like $500 or $1,000 when (or if) you win the auction.

Bidding is very simple. You just hit the button to bid. If it nobody else bids above you, you win the auction.

Payment, Collection, and Registration

Once you’ve won the auction, there are three main steps:

1. Wait for the invoice and pay the balance after the deposit. This usually happens the same day.
2. One or two days after, you’ll receive an invoice showing zero balance owing.
3. Get either a temporary registration or buy CTP. Note that it varies by state — e.g. in Queensland you can drive a vehicle that’s unregistered as long as you have CTP insurance and you’re only going either home or to the mechanic, but in Victoria, you need temporary registration, though not CTP. (This may change over time — contact either the auctions or the local vehicle registration office.)
4. Pick up the car. You’ll need to show them you can drive it (license and the appropriate paperwork).
5. Get a Roadworthy certificate / Safety certificate or whatever your state calls it. This process varies dramatically by state, it turns out (it’s much more expensive and time-consuming in Victoria than Queensland). You may need to get repairs done.
6. Register it!

Note on repairs — I’ve bought a number of cars at auctions. In only one case did I need to get repairs done — I had to get the front headlights demisted. That cost $30. I’ve previously had to get repairs done even for cars bought at dealerships when selling them after a few months, so there are no guarantees in life. (Dodgy car yard, in retrospect…)

In fact, the last car I bought was listed as having damage in the rear passenger indicator.

I had budgeted this in as part of the fix-up cost… I thought it’d be a $300-500 part. On collection, it just looked like it had been smudged with some kind of … something. I buffed it off with a microfibre cloth in about 30 seconds.

Once you have your car, you can drive it home or to a mechanic if you already have one that has availability (around me they are booked out around a week in advance, but that varies by location). Then, just get the certificate and register it at a transport office.

The auction sites can also organise inspection and registration in theory (they say so on the page for some fleet vehicles). I’ve never actually used this (I didn’t know it existed until I came across it by accident), but if it’s cost-effective, that’s an option you can take.

Risks of Buying at Auction (and a discussion)

With buying online, there are certain risks — but they’re not to be exaggerated.

The first, big, most obvious risk is that most cars you buy will come without a safety certificate / RWC and without registration. (A very small number come with both.)

This means that when you buy the car, you have some legwork to do. You have to go get it checked and registered. Most people with jobs and lives just don’t have the time and energy for this. That’s why most people with jobs and families just buy from dealers.

Secondly, you can’t inspect cars in most auctions. Even for the auctions in which you can inspect cars, you can’t take test drives. Nor can you get a mechanic to come and do a full check.

The auction sites list their own condition reports, but the sites also say that there may be incorrect elements in there. This can go either way. For example, they might

• Miss the fact that a service is missing in the log book (I read this happened, online… the new owner wasn’t happy, but I personally wouldn’t care)
• Exaggerate damage that’s really just a tiny mark (this happened to me several times, including the instance above with the tail light)
• Not mention that the car is due for service (this happened to me once, no big deal)

The thing is, for a two-year-old ex-government Camry or Corolla, there’s not a whole lot that can go wrong. They’re reliable cars driven in a boring way.

If you feel uncomfortable with risks then either don’t buy at auctions at all, or limit yourself to ex-government fleet auctions. Luckily, these are the bulk of vehicles available.

Wrap up

Hopefully the above has been useful. Having now bought ex-auction cars in two states (Queensland and Victoria) I’m reasonably comfortable that there wouldn’t be any major variations in the value and process in different states. But if there is, let me know!

If you have any other questions or things to add, drop a comment.