Great place, experience and staff. Will be back again, the office and yard help was excellent and made the buying process a breeze. Highly recommended operation,
I’ve had another great experience at Pontiac Public Auto Auction! Everyone in the office is professional and helpful, and the whole process always runs smoothly. The yard guy deserves a special shout-out — he’s always quick to help with loading, super polite, and clearly takes pride in keeping the lot organized. You can tell he knows the cars and keeps things moving efficiently, even on busy days. Definitely appreciate the teamwork here — from the office to the yard, they make it easy to do business!
Buyer Beware: Not completely transparent about car conditions. Car was stated that it “starts” and there was breaks issue which would have been fine, turns out it has other problems.
Update: Problem turned into a simple fix, and car is indeed a good deal. Very happy with my purchase
I had a great experience with Pontiac Public Auto Auction. From browsing the inventory to picking up my vehicle, everything was smooth and professional. The staff was friendly, helpful, and very transparent about the “as-is” condition — no hidden surprises. The auction process was well organized, and the prices are really fair. I also appreciated how easy it was to bid online and inspect vehicles ahead of time. If you’re looking for good deals and honest service, I’d definitely recommend them!
Never picks up the phone even when they're selling your car.
They don't return calls or emails.
This place has gone to shitz.
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You can't start the cars or drive them around the yard even. The prices after fees are basically private party prices. In my mind you'd be better off just getting on marketplace. At least you'd be able to road test a vehicle. Seems like more of a hassle than private party purchases in my opinion. No one ever answers the phone at this place either. If you leave a message, no one's going to call you back. On top of that they have limited hours. They're not open on the weekends. So if you work during the day, guess what? You can't go pick up your car on the weekend if you purchase one. I'm sure it's fine for somebody but first time last time for me.
Recently I took part in one of the online auctions and won a really nice car at a very low price. From start to finish my experience was wonderful. The office staff were all very helpful and nice & the gentleman who was running the yard was very nice and accommodating. He was busy shuffling around cars and taking care of other people picking up cars and yet still was extremely happy to help me air up a tire and jump start my car and made sure I was good to go. I appreciate you guys you got a customer for life!
I call few times nobody answer need more information about the Auaction what does it mean it starts ? Does that mean it run to bc I didn’t see a car says running . How many cars can you check out and do they jump the car for you can you test drive in the lot what’s the deposit? Why no info on the site emails not responding
They now have reserves set on their vehicles. You can be the high bidder, and still lose out on the vehicle. And a there are a lot more fees. You buy a car for 800, expect to pay out 1200 to 1300 for it, due to the fees.
You can only hear them run, via a video, and that's usually taken from inside of a garage, so you hear the echoing effect. In short, you can't really hear how the vehicle runs.
In years past, you could go and look the vehicles over, between 9 and 5 Friday before, now it's noon and 4 pm, start them, move forward and back, just to make sure they would start, and move.
Anything that you do buy there now, BUYER BEWARE!!!
My friend purchased a car from them, but they did not explain the process of receiving their title. Also, my friend was not able to get a hold of them by phone. Once my friend went to PPAA ( Pontiac Public Auto Auction) the lady at the desk told they are the only person in the office working, that they should have read the papers given to ( even though the lady told them to come back for the title ?). That my friend should have said they wanted the coat of the title included when they paid the balance. The lack of quality customer service is lacking here and as well as compassion. My friend eventually figured it out and went to theSecretaet of State to pay for the title that was not included in the price When they used to have a car lot, Ron, who used to work for VOA, would make sure things like what's described above was explained and, if needed would walk the customer down to or call the office to ensure it was done. Regarding the car that my friend bought, so far, it runs well.
needs more detail on times and days for pickup, kinda high reserves on basically junkyard cars. They use the reserve to try to boost bid prices. I think everything had a reserve, even though they start everything at 100, seems scamish. Why wouldn't just start at the reserve.
For their first online auction, everything ran smoothly for me. I am extremely happy with my purchase and I will definitely participate in future auctions.
Please don't be fooled don't waste your money. The Pontiac lot has a horrible history of selling cars that break down within a couple of weeks.
I am a 19 year old young man. I work hard and go to school. My grandmas car broke down so we had no transportation. We were spending lots of money on Uber getting back and forth to work, so I tried to help by buying a car.
I've only had it for 3 weeks but it' had only been on the road for 2 weeks and it will cost around a thousand or more to fix it.
I know the cars are donated but they are taking advantage of the very people they claim to help. I talked to many people last night and this morning and all said the same thing "their car broke down quickly and they were left with nothing" How can they continue to hurt people yet claim to help. All of us are in worse shape now financially then before we spent our hard earned money. SHAME ON YOU VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA (PONTIAC, MI)
THANKS FOR NOTHING
Sincerely,
Caleb Swalwell
Pontiac.
I received a car from VOA via Here to Help Foundation. Unfortunately the car experienced electrical issues. I ended up going almost 2weeks with out a car. But Rod and Dave were about to get into another car with less then 50,000. I'm thankful for Here to Help Foundation and VOA staff.
GREAT auctioneer, fun and fair. Good crowd of people. Sometimes !!! you can get a great deal. Long time bidder,( bidder # in the 3000's,about35 years), have bought over 50 cars throughout the years.
I got a great car at a great price. I also got to spend the day with a bunch of people that really like vehicles (cars, trucks, motorcycles, and boats) as much as I do.
Even better -- the money goes to a great cause.
I fell in love with the vehicle I purchased as soon as I seen it and the prices are very reasonable here! The guy that directed my eyes to the car that I bought was very sweet and very helpful! Love the staff and I love my car! Highly recommended!
Been going there off and on with my stepdad since I turned 14.the people have ALWAYS been great to deal with.just answering your questions and helping you get set up pre & post sale.its a great place doing great things for very deserving people! If you've ever been interested in auto auctions,stop in they'd be happy to show you the ropes.
I have purchased 2 cars from VOA. Both Cars were well worth the asking price. They also ran over 300,000 miles. Ron is honest and a great salesman. Coming back this year for another car soon :)
They didn't have quite the car I was looking for, but this was a GREAT place to deal with. They were honest about everything. Easy to deal with. They don't hide what's wrong with something. I needed a 2nd, low budget- vehicle. While they didn't have quite what I needed, it was no fault of anyone's and certainly no hard feelings. These people were great. I had forgotten all about this place until I was reviewing something else and it popped up and asked me if I wanted to review this too. I hadn't even considered rating em after my visit, but they definitely deserve a 5 Star. When looking at low budget vehicles, and probably some of the bigger ticket ones too, you're going to run into some shady people. These guys are the exact opposite of what ya think when ya think of used car salesman.
They get car donated free to help veterans. Veterans still have to buy them at regular price. There not helping vets. When you donate a car to VoA the only one helped is the car lot who is getting the cars they sell free.
Don't buy from them. There crappy vehicle's are horribly over priced. The $5500 I spent on a older model vehicle was by far the worst car buying experience ever. I would go to Detroit to buy vehicles if I were you. My car broke down within forst 15 days of buying from these ppl
Big inventory of vehicles under $5000 that actually run, granted they may not be perfect but what can you expect from a donated vehicle. Ive bought Motorcycles, RV's, etc from the retail lot and auction lot and knowing my money is going to fund their non-profit side of the charity is nice. Highly Recommend!
Don't donate your car to these people. The cars are unsafe and they want top dollar for cars that they paid nothing for. If you are a poor person who need a car cheap you are better off getting one from CraigList. Don't believe their hype about caring to help people. They are out to help themselves. Snakes.
Do not buy a auction vehicle from these people!!!!!These are not vehicles that will provide "HOPE" for people, like their commercials state, but will provide nothing but misery and a loss of your hard earned money. VOA has nothing but a used car salesman mentality with NO CONSCIENCE! STAY AWAY!!!!! I've personally seen women with children, broken down on the side of the road after buying one of the VOA vehicles.
VOA used to be a great place. Cars donated for a great cause, and sold with that in mind. Over the years, VOA has changed. The $200 minimum bid they show on all of their signs is a good way to get verbally abused by the auctioneer unless your name happens to be Hollywood. If you are looking for a cheap car/truck, you might get lucky. If you are looking for a good experience with good people and peace of mind, you are better off almost anyplace else. It once had the feel of a place that got cars for free as donations, and then took great pride in selling those cars to help others in need. Now it feels more like a business that wants to make sure they get paid, with the bare minimum going to those they supposedly support
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