2014 Suzuki Swift

What an offer is

An offer is an approach to buy a vehicle outright, either before its auction opens or while it is running. It is not a bid, and making one does not enter you into the auction.

Your offer is binding on you

By submitting an offer you commit to buy the vehicle at that price if we accept it. You may withdraw an offer only before we accept it.

We are not obliged to accept

The seller and Carbid may accept, decline or ignore any offer. Where an auction is already running we will only accept an offer that beats the current bid by a margin, and we may let the auction run instead.

The upfront payment

If your offer is accepted, it is accepted provisionally. The vehicle stays listed and keeps taking bids until you have paid the upfront amount shown on the listing and a member of our team has confirmed it has arrived. Only then is the vehicle held for you.

At that moment the auction closes. Everyone bidding is told that the vehicle has been sold through a direct offer, and anything they paid upfront is reimbursed to them in full.

If the upfront is not confirmed within the time shown when your offer is accepted, the acceptance lapses, the vehicle carries on as normal, and you are free to offer again or to bid.

Refunds of your upfront

The upfront is adjusted against the purchase price on completion. If we cannot complete the sale for a reason that is not your fault, it is refunded in full. If you walk away after your offer has been accepted and the upfront confirmed, we may keep it.

How the money moves

Carbid does not take card payments on this website. You send the upfront to one of the accounts we publish, give us the reference, and a member of our team confirms it by hand. Nothing is held in escrow.

Everything else

The auction terms apply to an offer as well, including the sections on inspections, vehicle condition and behaviour.