It has been about 9 months since I bought anything at the IAA Insurance Auction. I have detailed my purchases in threads like this one and its sub-links. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/learn-me-auto-auctions-copart-brokers-iaas-etc/132812/page1/
This week, I bought a 2010 Mercury Milan Premium Edition. All the options but with the 2.5L 4cyl engine with 6 speed auto.
In this first picture the front nose is held to the car via two large zip ties.
In this picture the nose is loose.
I went on Monday and looked at the car. The bidding was Tues. The trunk is stuffed with pieces. I saw that both headlights are there as well as the other pieces like the absorption bar for the front bumper and all the other cowl plastics and wheel well liners.
My guess is the car took a super light hit to the front. As is common, the Insurance Co may have paid the body shop to do a little teardown to investigate damage. All of this front end seems to have been removed carefully. I am not sure what the body shop found but the IAA info says the car was valued at $6,518 in pre-damage condition and that it has $5,919 in damage. Sure that would be a professional body shop repair making it great. I'm not looking for great. I'm looking for good enough. My goals are to keep the car, not flip it.
In my initial investigations back at home I see that both headlights are in the trunk. One light has all 5 of the 5 connecting points in tact and one has one broken connecting point (leaving 4 good connectors which should be enough!) Both light fit into their respective locations perfectly. No bent metal of bent housings keeping the lights from being reinstalled. The front, black absorption bar has one broken connecting clip but the remaining 7 clips that hold it on will be fine!
The front grill has some cracks in the vertical slats and there is one big "scuff" in the plastic front nose on the lower passenger side. It seems that this will have enough connecting points to all go back on well enough! Good enough for me. All the needed pieces seem to be there and it looks like all the pieces will fit/work well enough.
2010 Mercury Milan Premium 4cyl with 103k miles. The interior is completely clean. No funky smells, pet hair or evidence of kids. The back seat seems never used. There are 3 quality brand, matching tires with great tread and one more recent Douglas Brand (Walmart tire on the back.) The spare tire and jack were out of their regular storage place. I suspect there was a flat that resulted in the quick purchase of this WalMart tire. Not sure if this was part of what took the car off the road. I can not understand what really caused the car not to be fixed. Mechanically the car seems fine. No airbags ever went off.
I had my max bid set for $1,650 all in after fees. I thought I was keeping this max bid low because I did not want to risk too much and leave room for replacement dollars. I was amazed when bidding ended at $700 resulting in an all in price after fees of $1,048