Hobbs Parker Car Auctions

Hobbs Parker runs Kent's principal car and commercial vehicle auction from Orbital Park in Ashford, part of a wider group that also covers estate agency and property. For a buyer the useful thing about this operator is how much it publishes up front: separate pages for how to buy, auction fees and trade clients, plus an instant online valuation tool that will tell you what a vehicle is likely to fetch before you decide what to bid.

What you can buy

• General cars: a weekly timed online sale.
• Used vans and commercial vehicles: its own separate weekly sale.
• Classics: handled as a distinct department.
• Trade and fleet consignments alongside private entries.

How the bidding works

Sales are timed online auctions with a staggered close — a sale opens at a set hour and the first lots begin ending several hours later, so lots do not all finish at once. Entries close a day or two before each sale, which is why the catalogue firms up late. Stocking finance is offered to trade buyers through a third-party facility, a sign that a substantial share of the room is trade rather than retail.

What to check before you bid

Read the published fee page before bidding rather than assuming: this operator states its charges openly, which makes the real cost easy to establish and there is no excuse for a surprise. The staggered close means you need to know when your lot ends, not when the sale opens. Vehicles sell as seen from Ashford; for a cross-border buyer the stock is right-hand drive, which limits onward resale in most of Europe.