Articles by Stephen Corby

The newspapers are full of stories about people who set off on a Saturday to buy a house and somehow spent $300,000 more than they meant to.There's far less danger of over-reaching when buying a car at auction, although that very human desire to win at all costs can still kick in, but it is a similar experience in so far as you don't get to live in a house before you buy it, nor do you get to drive the cars that are offered up at auctions before you hand your money over.As such, there's an element of danger, which can make the whole process seem like a cross between the Boxing Day sales and Russian roulette, but research and careful preparation can reduce those risks.And, as with any kind of auction, what makes them a tempting proposition is that you stand a good chance of picking up a bargain. Buying a car at auction can be 10 to 30 per cent cheaper than shopping for a second-hand car at your local dealer.How, then, do you come home with a winner, rather than a lemon?Knowledge is power when it comes to car auctions, so you need to make sure you are fully informed about what the kind of car you want to buy is worth.Find out what similar models are going for on the private and dealer markets, remembering that the prices people end up paying are almost always lower than list price.People can get caught up if they haven't done all of their research prior to biddingBe sure to check the car's true worth with CarsGuide.com.au's car-valuation service which uses industry sales data to give an accurate price range, depending on mileage and features.It's important to prepare as fully as possible before immersing yourself in an auction's rapid-fire environment, according to Brendon Green, General Manager of Motor Vehicles at Pickles Auctions, Australia's leading vehicle auctioneers."An auction is an exciting environment and people can get caught up if they haven't done all of their research prior to bidding," he says."We suggest customers attend a few auctions as an observer before they're ready to bid, to get acquainted with the process."We want people to set their budgets prior to auction, check condition reports and read through the service history."You can, of course, avoid auction-room hysteria altogether by researching and bidding online, but it's still vital to inspect the cars in person beforehand.So how do you avoid buying a money pit when you can't take a test drive?It's a simple rule: time spent preparing beats time spent repairing. Make sure the car you're bidding on is well-maintained, and check the service history carefully.If the condition report is missing or incomplete, walk awayThe complex electrical systems and tech-heavy engines in modern cars require more careful attention. They're not inherently weaker than older technology but they are more intricate; if the parts aren't properly maintained, the damage is more difficult – and expensive – to repair.If the service history is patchy or incomplete, be aware of the hidden costs you may be taking on with what might seem like a bargain.Auctioneers will offer information about the car's condition and services in a detailed report, usually online and at the auction site. This document is your only evidence that a car has been properly maintained. If the condition report is missing or incomplete, walk away.Choose cars offered with a roadworthy certificate. It makes insurance and registration easy, as well as saving on unexpected costs such as brake pads and tyres.Because you can't drive any of the cars before bidding it's a good idea to test drive similar vehicles ahead of time to decide if your choice is right for you. Check things like sight lines, the comfort of the seats, whether it feels powerful enough for your needs, if it has ISOFIX attachments, and the general ergonomics.You can inspect cars before they're auctioned, however. If you're concerned that you'll overlook something, you can hire professional vehicle inspectors or bring your mechanic along."It's the best way to gauge the true condition of the car and narrow down your list of options," says Green."An inspection is also a great time to familiarise yourself with the auction house and ask its employees questions to help make your decision."Newer cars will still have a few months or years of new-car warranty left and, for extra assurance, some auction houses offer extended warranties.Many cars have gearbox, engine or trim options that make them as desirable as a smashed windscreen.As an example, early automated manual gearboxes like BMW's jerky SMG or Alfa Romeo's Selespeed (nicknamed "sillyspeed"), which were exciting when launched but now seem about as cutting edge as soap.Remember, bid with your head, not over itOutmoded engines can carry a price penalty at the petrol pump, and be aware of aesthetic choices, because a car with puce green paint and red leather will not hold much resale value.Look through used listings on CarsGuide.com.au to find the more desirable options that carry higher second-hand prices and decide what you're happy paying for and what you can live without. Remember that some models, and indeed whole brands, can be difficult to re-sell down the line.Buying at auction can be from 10 to 30 per cent cheaper than the dealership, according to Pickles Auctions, or, if you're really lucky, even higher.The price you get will be highly dependent on how many other people there are on the day seeking the same car, or model, as you. Remember, bid with your head, not over it.

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Truly, some of the behaviours that human beings exhibit are so self-defeating, so spectacularly lacking in logic, that if we observed them in other, supposedly lesser animal species, we’d find them as hilarious as lemmings throwing themselves off cliffs, or chimpanzees throwing their poop at one another.Ask any reasonable, adult homo sapiens whether it’s sane to drive a big, heavy, potentially deadly weapon of a vehicle down a busy road with one or both eyes closed, and they’d surely tell you that it is not.But ask them if, the last time they received a phone call they perceived as important while driving they pulled off the road to take that call, or read that text, or replied to it on the move, and their answers, in the main, will defy logic. Pulling over to take phone calls, or to write texts, seems like the behaviour of either wowsers or super humans these days, even though it was merely common courtesy back in the early days of brick-sized mobile phones.We know it’s the wrong thing to do - like cheating on our taxes or drinking tequila or voting for Pauline Hanson - yet we drive and use phones anyway. It’s like some giant Darwinian experiment, frankly, with recent spikes in the road toll in countries like the US widely blamed on the vague-sounding term “distracted driving”.One of the things we really like to kid ourselves about is the idea that talking on a phone hands-free, using modern Bluetooth in-car systems, is somehow vastly safer than using a phone shoved to our ear. The fact is that having a conversation of any kind while driving equates to doing two things at once, something many humans just aren’t very good at.A judge in the UK recently spoke out about the dangers of using hands-free mobile-phone systems after sentencing a woman who killed a motorcyclist coming in the opposite direction while having an 'in depth' conversation via Bluetooth.Samantha Ayres, 34, was still mid-conversation with a  friend - who gave evidence against her claim that she had hid a pothole and lost control, causing her to drive into 26-year-old David Kirk - and detectives concluded she had become distracted by her hands-free call.Judge John Pini QC said: "There has to be an immediate custodial sentence. The fact that using a phone (hands free) is lawful does not alter the fact it is an actual distraction. The guidelines make that clear.”A recent study by the University of Sussex in England also found that conversations of any kind can be distracting, even if they are hands-free, particularly when they require a driver to use mental imagery.“A popular misconception is that using a mobile phone while driving  is safe as long as the driver uses a hands-free phone,” Graham Hole, a psychology lecturer and an author of the study said. “Our research shows this is not the case.”The conclusion was that the human brain has a limited capacity for visual processing.The study found that when drivers are engaged in conversations that require them to summon visual images behind the wheel their distracted brains fail to recognise road hazards, and thus will react slower.Some very clever experiments were conducted, which involved groups of people in a driving simulator completing a driving course, one group with no distractions, then another group who were asked true or false questions that involved summoning mental images - "In a rowing boat, the rower sits with his back to the front of the boat,” was one example. A third group were asked simpler true or false question that involved no mental imagery, and in all three cases the researchers measured how fast the drivers hit the brake pedal when they recognised a hazard on the simulated road.A second, similar experiment was conducted which tracked the eye movements of participants under the three different conditions.The researchers found that the drivers who were not distracted reacted far faster and were quicker to spot hazards, while those who were asked questions involving mental images had much slower reaction times and were more likely to “look but fail to see” hazards.Those distracted drivers were also far more likely to focus entirely on the portion of road directly in front of them, reducing their use of peripheral vision.The conclusion was that the human brain has a limited capacity for visual processing.Professor Hole explained that when a driver is tasked with recognising road hazards while mentally picturing some aspect of a conversation that imagery “competes for processing resources”.“Conversations are more visual than we might expect, leading drivers to ignore parts of the outside world in favour of their inner visual world,” Hole said.This doesn’t, however, mean that drivers have to operate in silence and tell their passengers to remain quiet at all times.“Chatty passengers tend to pose less of a risk than phone conversations,” Hole added.Passengers in the car with you “will usually moderate the conversation when road hazards arise,” Hole said, while someone you’re talking to on the phone obviously has no idea what you’re faced with and yaps on regardless.“The only 'safe' phone in a car is one that's switched off,” Hole concluded, pretty much summing up the way we should treat Bluetooth technology. But probably won’t.Safer and far more legal, obviously. Interestingly, it turns out that that our ability to “self regulate” means that holding a phone while driving is even more dangerous than we’d previously imagined.A recent study at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, using its high-tech driving simulator, found that people who use Bluetooth to make a phone call tend to slow down and drive more cautiously. Terrifyingly, however, people who looked down at their phone screen while driving tended to speed up while doing so. Again, some human behaviour is just too stupid to be true.The study analysed 35 drivers aged 18 to 29 at QUT’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety-Queensland.Lead researcher Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios points out that previous studies had not taken into account people’s ability to self regulate their behaviour and reported that the study had found such behaviour being demonstrated in the simulator by people using hands-free devices. Those behaviours included slowing down while on the phone and keeping very central in their lane.“But, overall, driving and using a phone still negatively affects both activities,” Oviedo-Trespalacios said. “It’s more efficient – and of course safer – to just pull over in an appropriate place to use your phone quickly and then resume your journey.“We found most drivers actually increased their speed while distracted by looking at and holding their phone.”The study also found that drivers who held their phones were more likely to use them on the open highway than on curvy country roads or in busy city environments.“Road-traffic conditions appear to play a vital role in self-regulation of secondary tasks and associated driving performance,” the researchers wrote in their paper.The scary fact is, of course, that it doesn’t seem to matter how often we’re presented with the facts, or how much research is done. Tomorrow, out on the road, you will no doubt see someone talking on their phone while driving, or appearing to talk to themselves while using Bluetooth.All we can do as individuals, of course, is to reduce our own risks by making the more intelligent choice, and parking the phone while driving.

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