Motorists hammer out route to a deal

Exhaust fumes fill the room as the engine of the Renault Megane revs and a group of 20 men swarm around it.

Auctioneer Richard Stoodley's eyes scan the room at the Cannock Auction Yard spotting just a slight nod or hand movement among the crowd.

"Do I hear £300, £300 anyone?" he says as the men move around the car stroking the dashboard, checking that the doors close smoothly and looking at the wheels.

"This is a bargain of a car with its MOT paid until July – I see £300, now £320, £340 to the man with the hat, £360, £380 – do I hear anything more than £380?

"Going once, going twice – sold for £380 to the man in the hat."

The man in the hat is Ricky Brown, aged 28, from Parkfields, Wolverhampton.

"I come to the auction every week in the hope of spotting a good deal," says Ricky.

"I usually have a few cars at home which I work on then sell.

"It is a way to make a bit of money, especially at the moment with Christmas coming up and the credit crunch hitting everyone hard.

"My hobby is working on cars so this is a good way of being able to make some money from it."

It is a Tuesday night at 6.30pm and Cannock Auction Yard on Wellington Drive is filled with cars and people wanting to find a bargain.

At the back of the large shed around 150 cars of all colours and sizes are lined up and driven one by one into the room to go under the hammer.

Crowds of people with just a few hundred pounds in their pocket, hoping for a new car, are eyeing up every vehicle that passes by.

The credit crunch has yet to bite here – in fact business is thriving because more buyers are taking a risk with an auction-bought car rather than pay more at a forecourt.

Tom Luik, business manager at the Cannock Auction Yard says he doesn't need to advertise as they are filled with cars and buyers every week.

"We sell cars on a Tuesday and a Saturday and we usually have around 150 lots to sell and a minimum of 200 buyers," he says.

"The auction house has been here for more than 30 years and it is known throughout the UK – we have people from all over the country come to buy the cars.

"We are popular at the moment with people wanting a bargain, but then people have always wanted to get a car for a good price."

Darren Perry and his brother Scott from Brownhills among those at the auction to hunt out a bargain.

"We have come to buy a car for my daughter Stacey who has just passed her driving test," says Darren, 40, from Ogley Road in Brownhills.

"I have a couple of hundred quid and had a look in the car magazines but if you want a real bargain the best place to go is to an auction.

"Without a shadow of a doubt more people are heading to the car auctions because of the credit crunch as they know they can save a fortune."

Tony Ridsdale, 44, who owns Westwood Car Centre on Walsall Road in Cannock is at the auction to sell some cars.

"I regularly come to the auction to see what our part-exchange models make," he says.

"At the moment things are terrible in the car market as the credit crunch has had a huge impact on dealers.

"Things have gone very quiet but my business is doing better than most – we are still doing enough to survive. We do a lot of repeat business from our loyal customers." Tony says he regularly sees people at the car auction who are keen to pay a good price for their next car.

"A lot of the people that come to a car auction are the type that you would never see in a showroom," he says.

"They want a very good bargain and are prepared to do a bit of work to get it."

Dave O'Brien, 39, from Halford Crescent in Walsall is at the auction with his wife Vicky and 14-year-old son Luke, hoping to upgrade his car.

"At the moment I have a Rover Metro and coming to an auction saves you around 50 per cent," he says.

"I plan to spend around £800 and the car that I'm going to get would be around £1,600 in a showroom. There are certain cars that people are just not buying, these are anything with engines above 2.5 litres and also people are not buying diesels.

"This is because they see the price of diesel is high compared to petrol – it is not popular any more.

Karl Denton-Beaumont, 34, from Leicester was at the auction with a friend who was selling a car.

"I have been to a few auctions and the bigger, more powerful cars are popular with the Polish," he says.

"They can buy a Mercedes or BMW for a cheap price and take it back to Poland with them where they would pay a lot more for the same car."

Brothers Nathan and Ryan Barrows were at the auction for a night out and hoping to pick up a cheap car.

"Mainly we are here to get us out of the house ," says Nathan, aged 31, from McDonalds Close, Tividale.

"Not only do people come here to snap up a bargain but it is a social night out and a way of catching up with people."