Selling & Buying Accident Cars in Japanese used car auction(2)

Hello. This is JPC’s News Letter #12.

I am going to continue to talk about cars that are involved in an accident in this issue. But this time, it is about damaged cars being sold on an “as is where is” basis.

Damaged cars are sometimes sold as they are without being repaired. So as you can guess, they can be in various forms & shapes. Some are so badly damaged that you cannot imagine what they were like before the accident, some have big dents in the rear panel from a rear end collision, some have their airbags fully open, etc. When you reach this section, it looks like a graveyard for cars… However, there is a market for cars you cannot believe anyone can fix and there are dealers who specialise in dealing with damaged cars.

So what sort of dealers sell damaged cars at the auction? First of all, 1) dealers who deal with those cars: They buy damaged cars straight from their owners and bring them to auction. The owners are usually in shock after an accident, so the dealers go & see them as soon as they hear about an accident; and buy the cars for cash. They have to do so before the owners calm down to get a big bargain.

Secondly, 2) insurance companies: when people have an accident, they first contact the police, then their insurance companies if the cars are insured. The insurance companies, then decide what to do after talking to their clients and if they think it is not worthwhile having them fixed, they take the cars to the dealers like 1) or take them to auction.

Then what sort of dealers buy damaged cars? 3) dealers who are specialised in dealing with damaged cars as they are, usually called “Fixers”, 4) panel beaters, 5) recyclers and 6) car exporters. “Fixers” in 3) are people who only buy damaged cars at auction, fix them and sell them again. So they only deal with these sort of cars. 4) Panel beaters: they usually fix dents and scratches on car bodies but when they run out of work, they buy damaged cars at auction, fix them themselves and sell them again at auction. In this case, they can sell cars with the fixing cost on top of it; so they can recover all the repair cost. 5) Recyclers: they are the people who sell used car parts. They demolish damaged cars and collect the re-usable parts, then sell the parts. They get rid of the useless parts and de-register the cars. 6) Car exporters: they export these cars as they are for customers overseas or after being fixed in Japan.

Fixers (3) and panel beaters (4) aim to sell them again after some repair, they only bid on popular models which are relatively easy to win at auction & sell again. Recyclers (5) target cheap cars because they only sell the parts. Car exporters (6) mainly export SUVs such as Land Cruisers and sport cars depending on what their overseas clients want, but cars going to the Middle East and Pakistan, they tend to pack as many damaged cars as possible to send them as second hand parts. You have to know what you are doing to do this sort of business.

We do buy damaged cars like these case by case. If you are interested, please do not hesitate to ask us.

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★ Japanese used car stock : http://jpctrade.com/stock/index.html
★ JPCTRADE Home page : http://jpctrade.com/
★ JPCTRADE Blog : http://jpctrade.blogspot.com/

(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955