Auto Auction

Driver may have confused accelerator and brake pedals.

Collector car insurance company Hagerty estimates that $1.3 billion in classic vehicles crossed the auction block in 2014 in North America, up slightly from 1.2 billion in 2013. About a third of that was just during the Monterey Car Week.

The world is replete with private auto collections that rival the best any museum has to offer. But no one person could have compiled the kind of spectacle that is the Milhous Collection – the embodiment of the life's work and collective wealth of brothers Bob and Paul Milhous of Boca Raton, Florida.

It seems we just can't keep unintended acceleration incidents out of the news these days. The latest report of such an occurrence comes from Ellijay, Georgia, where a 1995 Volvo 960 (nope, not a Toyota this time) barreled through the crowd of bidders at Blue Ridge Auto Auction at about 8:15 in the evening on Tuesday.

British motoring enthusiasts and car collectors have come to know Coys as one of the preeminent auction houses in England. They've been in business since 1909, and operate several locations in the U.K. as well as offices in Italy, at Germany's Nürburgring and in Monaco. Until now, the auction house – whose recent notable consignments have included championship-winning motorcyc

Word 'round the auctionhouse campfire is that the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration is attempting to put the kybosh on a planned sale of many General Motors Heritage Collection vehicles this weekend. NHTSA is apparently calling for the halt because it fears that many of the vehicles slated for sale at Barrett-Jackson's Palm Beach auction are not road legal, yet new owners may attempt to drive them on public roads anyway.

Just because your car has been repossessed doesn't mean you don't still owe the bank money on it. If that vehicle gets sold at auction for less than the bank is owed on it, the difference is called the "deficiency." And as MSNBC informs, banks are increasingly suing to get that deficiency amount back, plus applicable attorney's fees.

It's the end of the run for the McLaren SLR Roadster, but Mercedes wants to give Yanks another shot at owning one. Beginning November 1, those of you who still have bank accounts can sign up for the auction of the final topless SLR to be sold in the U.S.