As the county seat of the most populous city in Minnesota, Hennepin County doesn’t just have plenty of police, there are also a lot of police cars. If you’re on the hunt of cheap used cars, this is good news for you: now you can buy them once they’re available at an auction.
For some people, buying a used police car seems to be far-fetched, if not awkward or weird. However, this feeling may stem from the idea that the only vehicles that can be sold at auctions are private ones. That’s not entirely true, of course, as the government is one of the biggest auctioneers in the country.
But why should you consider buying this type of car? There are many reasons:
- You have a piece of history: When you purchase an ex police car, you’re also paying homage to the many memories that the vehicle is part of, particularly in crime busting.
- It is a good car. Or at least there’s a good chance that it is. You see, the government doesn’t pick cars on a whim. It sets some criteria including the ability to help the user carry out the needed task. As a police, they need vehicles that can navigate even difficult, narrow roads, powerful, fast, and very safe.
- It is well maintained. Each year, the police force creates their budget, which includes how much to spend for the maintenance of the vehicles. The money may be used for repairs, routine checkup, retrofitting, and upgrades.
- It has complete documents. More likely, these used police cars have clean titles that you can easily confirm.
- It is cheap. One of the best things about buying ex police cars is they’re often very cheap. A buyer may save as much as 60% off the vehicle’s book value since the force is not really interested in earning a lot of money from the bid. Rather, it wants to get rid of the asset while earning some small gains or recouping pre-sale expenses.
Where to Find Them?
Now that you already know how awesome it is to own a used police car, the next step is to learn how to get one.
One of the things that you need to know is that these auctions don’t happen at regular intervals, which means they bid them out only when it’s absolutely necessary. To keep tabs on dates, you can go to the county’s police office or you can subscribe to an online auctions listing.
Online auction listings do not organize these bids, but they are updated to reflect any new, upcoming, and ongoing auctions happening in the county. Many of these auctions have active links where you can already see the items that are up for bidding or even begin the bidding process.
You can also broaden your search to cover the nearby counties like Scott or Wright, as well as close cities. This is helpful when you cannot find the car that you like in the Hennepin County auction.
