Buying from Copart - is it right for me?

I am looking for a beater car to use for playing in a farm field and some red neck racing at the end of the summer. If I want to do both, that means I am looking for a front wheel drive car with naturally aspirated 4 or 6 cylinder power. Craigslist yields a lot of rough cars in the $500-750 range, mostly things that once drove and need a ton of work. I was thinking I might be able to find something in nicer shape that was taken off the road due to an unfortunate accident that yielded a car not valuable enough to fix. The example I have in mind right not is a 2007 Yaris with some tire marks on the door, but otherwise looks drive able. I doubt anyone else would want to fix and resell the car, but I'm wondering how much it would cost in fees to actually complete the purchase.

To further complicate things, I was looking at cars from NY and OH that would have the title signed over to me rather than a PA car that would need costly registration to transfer to my name before scrapping the car. I would be able to do this with a private party, not sure about the insurance auction setting.

Copart - Yaris

Any comments on how to find a good runner from copart with cosmetic issues? Things to avoid?

That Yaris with only 100k miles will be in the shop for only one day before it is at a corner lot with a $4k asking price. Add a quick door, bondo the rear and some paint...poof...done.

The fact that it has a manual trans makes it less marketable for a car lot than the dent does.

My guess is that with fees attached it will sell at the auction for around $2k.

You could find better. You want something that runs but more pre dented. Find a fwd car hit in the rear that needs nothing to run but to look right again would need a rear bumper, a hatch lid, and two rear fenders.

I looked through your auction and here is the one I would go after. ..
Ford Fusion with manual trans
I don't see much damage but the average car lot will pass on a Fusion that is not an automatic.

As for fees, figure about $250 for every $1k. So, a bid of $2k will have fees of about $500.

As for low end stuff, Pull-a-part will bid everything up to about $250. Then add fees and it is hard to get anything for les than $500. Maybe a PT Cruiser could be done for less than $500 since the JYs already have more of them than they want.

How about some hail damaged cars?

I've bought quite a few cars through Copart from about 2005 until a few years ago. You used to be able to get pretty good deals, but it's difficult now. Often, the cars that seem easily repairable are doctored up to look better. Think zip ties, sheet metal screws, and bondo w/ cheap paint. I would only look at cars that look like they have a real reason for being totaled. Also, the fee structure sucks. A $500 car can quickly end up being >$1000, even if you don't have to worry about proper licensing.

I think you are better off sticking to Craigslist/Facebook and making offers. Might surprise you what people will sell for if you have cash in hand.

What about any of the other sites like Dashub or IAII itself?

The fees make Copart unappealing for me. I was trying to buy a totaled Z06 but the fees, storage and towing really made it uneconomical.

I asked around and found someone that was a Copart member and would get you the car for a $200 flat fee. That's reasonable, but by then I decided I didn't want to store a busted up Z06 for the few parts I really wanted and then have to part out and dispose of the carcass.