Are you in the market for a used car? There are various places you can find a vehicle, from the wide network of second-hand dealers across the UK (click here for an example if you're interested in Fords) to private sellers and to auctions. You can even buy a car on eBay if you have the nerve.

Auction sales are immensely popular - Europe's largest vehicle auction company sells in excess of a million vehicles annually continent-wide and in January of this year almost 100,000 cars were auctioned in the UK. But are they all they're cracked up to be? It's said that when you go to an auction you're actually buying a car, rather than being sold to, as you would be at a dealership. And what that means is, buyer beware.

Here are a few truths you'd be wise to bear in mind if you're off to auction soon.

Doing your homework is essential

It would be unusual for an auction house to take any legal responsibility if the car you buy turns out to be a lemon. They will try to give as accurate a description as possible, but really if the seller is determined to keep something hidden, it's on you to discover it, so you need to be at your sharpest when looking over the car before you start bidding. Whenever you read material such as "the car is thought to have..." or "the seller has indicated that..." this information should always be taken with a pinch of salt.

Usually, there will be what's called a Preview Day, where you'll be able to give the vehicle a once-over to judge its condition. If you don't feel confident in your own abilities to correctly appraise a car, try and bring a friend that does. If necessary you can also hire someone to do that for you, maybe a local mechanic prepared to take a day off. However, this also adds to the cost of the day and you may still end up going home empty-handed.

The other problem is that you only have limited time to check things over. You can't keep coming back with more questions until you're sure like you can at a dealership.

Timing can be everything

You may feel that you want to arrive at the auction as early as possible in order to get the best choice, and while there's some truth in that, often the best opportunity may come at the last minute. With auctions, especially those taking place over several days, if a seller doesn't get the minimum price they're after, they may well put the car out a few times. So a low bid right at the end might be accepted. Trouble is, if you have a specific car in mind, there's no guarantee it will still be there by the time you're ready to raise your paddle.

Second thoughts are wishful thinking

If you've never visited an auction before, car or otherwise, then there's something very important you need to remember. Every qualified buyer is given a paddle that they raise in order to bid. When an offer has been accepted, the auctioneer brings down their hammer to seal the deal. And when that hammer falls, you own the vehicle. Going back on your decision is very difficult, if not impossible - if you don't have an exceptional reason. So only raise your paddle if you really want the car and you can definitely afford it.

You never know who you're bidding against

At auction, you're going to be among a crowd of perhaps a few dozen to several hundred people, many of whom could be interested in the same car. It's also quite possible that the seller may have a friend in the crowd, or perhaps on the phone, making bids to drive the price artificially high. Admittedly, this kind of thing is fairly rare, and if the auction house got wind of it they would be looking to put a stop to it immediately, but it's not impossible.

The best way around it: make a mental note of who else is appraising the car at the same time as you, and if the person you're bidding against is not one of them, be on your guard. And before you start bidding, decide exactly how much you are prepared to pay for the car and stick with that amount. Be ready to walk away if needs be.

You won't always get the best price

People often go to auction in the hope of finding a better deal than they would at a dealership or with a private seller. But the reality is that the seller at auction is always out to make as much profit as they can, understandably, and the auction house will also take a percentage of the selling price, which the seller will have to take into account. Newer cars are more expensive at auction just as they are anywhere else. So although great deals are often found, you might be doing yourself a disservice if you decided auction was the only way to go.

Promoted article by Louise Wood - 6 May 2015