I'm sure some of you guys are painfully aware of the threads I've made over the last few weeks pestering you all about used M37 pricing, and I'm happy to say I finally bit the bullet and have purchased an M37. I actually went through a well-reputed auto auction broker who nabbed it for me at one of the weekly national auto auctions.

So in case you guys are interested, here are the details: it's a 2012 M37x with the Deluxe Touring Package, Premium Package (required, I know), in Harbor Blue with Stone interior. I should be picking it up later this week or early next, so when "The Day" finally arrives, I'll post a few photos here.

 

Congrats! ... and welcome to the "there are other cars from Infiniti other than the G club" That's the same car I have other than color. I know you will enjoy .... how many miles? I work from home so my 2012 only has 13k miles (my 2012 Xterra has less than 4k miles).

 

Congrats.

Mileage? Willing to share what it cost?

 

Congratulations. I'm in the same boat. I am curious about the auto auction process. Would you mind elaborating?

 

Thanks for the welcoming! Sorry -- I meant to include details on mileage and price in my earlier post and had to leave quickly to make an appointment.

The car has 39k miles and was purchased at the auction for $25,600. I also have to pay the auction broker's commission of $650 and a small shipping fee, but I feel like I got a pretty good deal. Here in the southeast, equivalent M37X's are selling for $32 - $33k on Auto trader (and some of those are falsely low prices posted to "get 'em in the door").

I was originally planning on going for a 2011/2012 G37S, but when I realized I could get a well-equipped M37 for virtually only a few $k more, going for the M37 seemed like a no-brainer.

Feel free to post any additional questions you guys might have about the car, the bidding/purchasing process, etc.

 

I've always worried about auctions myself .... if a car was that good, wouldn't dealers hang onto them to make more money selling? I was under the impression that dealers put cars they don't want to deal with (aka need too much work, won't make much profit, etc.) to auction. Mind you, this could all be a false assumption on my part but I always thought that made sense logically.

 

Some friends of mine swear by auctions. They trust their guy and he gets em good stuff. Looking to get my next car or truck by auction...just to try it!

 

Most the time you are correct in thinking that. However there are also auctions that specialize in off lease cars. For example, those leasing a G, if you are trading it in, most dealers are making the final payments and sending them back to Infiniti because the buy out is higher than the value of the car. What we do is wait for them to pop up at these auctions and buy that G with a buyout of $32k for $23k.

 

Good to know, thanks for the info.

 

Many of the cars that I've look at on Autotrader show up as auction cars on CarFax. I just didn't know that you could hire someone to buy a car for you. Does the broker give you information about the car before you decide to bid? Is it on the spot bidding? (I'm thinking Mecum here) or is it more like ebay-type bidding?

I've always been nervous about buying anything of such value sight-unseen, I suppose unless you can find someone you absolutely trust and isn't going into it just looking to make a quick buck.

 

The guy I used actually sends out a list of all the cars being auctioned-off at each of the 4 or 5 major dealer-only auctions they attend throughout the southeast every week, and you select any cars from the list that might be what you're looking for and email him. He then emails you back with more specific information and photos of the cars you inquired about. If you decide you'd like to get serious about placing a potential bid on one of the cars, you call him up the night before the auction, and he's got guys on the ground at each auction site who will physically visit and visually/mechanically assess each of your specified cars the next morning (I.e., the morning of the auction itself).

If they think the car is in sound mechanical condition and they feel it would be well-advised to place a bid on it, you decide both if you'd like to bid as well as the maximum amount of $$$ you'd be willing to bid. Since vehicles tend to sell at these auctions, in most cases, for slightly less than the average NADA trade-in value, the auction broker figured that this particular M37x would sell for close to $27k, which is right around the average NADA trade-in value for an M37x in similar condition and with the same options packages and mileage. When it's time for a particular car to show-up on the block and receive bids, the auctioneer takes bids for exactly 30 seconds. According to the broker, my particular M37x was bid to around $25k or a little more, and at almost literally the last second, he placed a bid for $25.6k and won the car.

According to the various blue-book value calculators (NADA, KBB, etc.), the "fair price" I could expect to pay at a dealership is $33k or very close to it, so even after factoring in the broker's commission and shipping charges, I still saved at least $6k-$7k over what I would have paid at a dealership.

Also, the auction company (Manheim) is VERY strict about evaluating and categorizing the aesthetic and mechanical conditions of every car being auctioned into categories ("below average," "average," and "clean"). For a car to be placed in the "clean" category, it can't have any mechanical issues, significant aesthetic blemishes, have ever been in an accident, etc. So with that being said, I'm not really worried about getting a lemon. And besides... even if I do encounter essentially any issues with the car, I still have ~2 years or 21k miles left during which Infiniti will take care of any warranty-covered issues.

 

Sounds great. I'm hope it's all you ever wanted, congrats. Would you be willing to PM me the broker's info and details? I'd like to look into this for possibly buying the wife another car.

 

Black Betty, I PM'd you with the information you requested. (I would've posted it here as well, but I'm not sure if the moderators would consider it to be spam/advertising...?)

Regarding the car itself, there is one thing I'm panicking ever-so-slightly over. I wasn't specifically looking for an AWD M37 (I live in the southeast), but the only Harbor Blue M37 with the Deluxe Touring package that I've come across on the auction listings for the last several weeks happened to be an AWD one, and I honestly just got tired of waiting week-after-week. However, I've never actually given much thought to an AWD car potentially experiencing more reliability/powertrain-related issues, but after doing a bit of searching on Google, I've come across a few message board discussions in which a number of people have remarked that AWD systems are heavier, more complex, and generally more prone to suffering reliability issues.

Do any of you guys know if there are, in fact, any known/specific issues associated with the AWD M37? Have I made a mistake purchasing this car, especially since I technically don't "need" AWD to drive where I live? I sure hope not, because I really love everything (else) about this car...

 

The X system is the same on the G, right? I don't see more issues here on this forum with X models than RWD. In theory, yes there could/should be more problems. So long as you're happy, keep it!

 

I wouldn't worry about the AWD system crapping out on you sooner than a RWD system. Like KEG said, in theory, since there are more moving parts, there's more potential for failure, but it doesn't happen.

Thanks for posting the auction process. I've always been interested in doing something like this but it's never crossed my mind to do this privately and I'm always nervous I'd end up with a big mistake.