Frequently asked questions

The description of "starts" or "drives" means that either it did so when we collected the vehicle OR someone (a customer or a member of staff) has started or driven it. It may be that the car has been interfered with while on display and that it may not run now.

Drives will usually mean that it moved backwards and forwards and should not be taken to mean that the car has been driven any distance whatsoever.

If there is nothing stated about "starts"/"drives" in the damage description, this generally means we don't know - usually because nobody's tried it.

All salvage is sold as seen, without warranty.

Most insurers check MOTs before they pay out on a claim. This means that the cars will have been taxed & MOTd at time of theft/accident but the tax is personal to the owner and is not passed to us. The Insurer usually retains the MOT, this being the only means they have to make sure that a car is checked over before being used on the road again.

Our parts department is enormous and have parts available for most vehicles. To promote car sales, we offer a 20% discount on used parts supplied to repair cars purchased from us. You really need to speak directly to the parts sales team who will give you prices & availability. If it's simply plug leads (etc) that are needed to get a repairable car running (as these are often removed by the Police to stop stolen cars being re-stolen) then we don't mind you getting some from a car in the breakers yard, but insist that they are NOT removed from another sales vehicle. Close Circuit Television monitors the entire site, and anyone found rifling through cars would be asked to leave.

The majority of cars that we sell do not require jigging, but some of the more heavily damaged cars do need jigging, although this is not always the case. We do offer a jigging service that is extremely competitive, but only work on cars bought from us. We will be pleased to quote on any car that you are seriously interested in.

We would recommend that every salvage car be thoroughly checked over before being driven, as we will have no knowledge of the history of what has happened to the car or whether it may have been tampered with. Many people choose to ignore this advice and do drive cars away, particularly so in the case of cheaper cars. We recommend bringing your own trailer as the most cost effective option, but we do offer a very competitively priced delivery service. We have a minimum charge of £25 + vat. We will gladly quote for specific places. Delivery is always from one of our car transporters, so it is important that delivery addresses have sufficient access. Company policy is that cars must be paid for in full prior to delivery.

Cars do not attract VAT - the price you see is the price you pay Vans & commercials are subject to VAT: add the current rate of 20% Bikes & Caravans do not attract VAT.

We take all the usual: cash, cheque with valid bank card, debit & credit cards, but credit cards do attract a small surcharge (usually 2%) but in line with fees levied to us by the credit card companies. In keeping with industry practice, all customers must provide valid ID and all credit cards will be thoroughly checked. All cars £300 or less are fixed price.

Amazingly, some people think that we must get a delivery of cars on a certain day, say Tuesday morning as an example. This is totally incorrect! We are contacted directly to several major Insurance companies, which allow us to pass the savings on to you! (You're not paying two dealers' margins!) We collect cars for Insurers shortly after the accident/theft and store them securely until the claim is settled. The Insurers then e-mail us (or fax us) with clearance details. This means that there is a steady flow of vehicles coming more or less all the time. Can you contact me when you get a certain car in? We do not hold cars back for preferred buyers (as many other salvage companies do) which allows everybody an equal opportunity to buy any of our cars: it's simply "first come first served". Because of our high volume turnover, it is impossible for us to contact people individually. If you want something specific, then you're as well to keep you eye on the website. Please be aware that the Auto Trader advert is never less than 6 days out of date because the copy is sent on a Friday morning for publication at the end of the next week.

Silverlake Garage is a responsible and integral company. We value our customers and our enviable reputation within the salvage industry. To ensure that our auctions are run fairly and that no false bids are placed we only allow visitors that have proven their identity to bid in our auctions. We have taken this un-usual step to ensure that when you place a bid in the auction you are not going to be bidding against anyone that is trying to break into our systems and spoil the auctions for others. We realise that this is a little inconvenient but it does only take a few minutes to send us your ID (either via e-mail, fax or post). It is also an industry standard that ID is required when you collect a vehicle you have purchased.

We try very hard to make our site accessible to everyone. We recommend that you use an up to date browser (Internet Explorer 8 or Firefox 3 which are free to download. If you are using one of these browsers and have experienced a problem please contact us and we'll let our developers know.

A proxy bid is a bid that we place on your behalf. Each auction has a "bid increment". If an auction has a current winning bid of £100.00 and you place a proxy bid of £300.00 we will check to see if your proxy needs to place a bid and if it is a high enough amount to match the winning bid + the bid increment. If it is we will place a bid on your behalf.

Please note that if 2 proxy bids are placed in an auction for the same amount, the proxy bids will bid against each other until one of the proxies loses.