How do i find out where and when local government car auctions are?

you either call up one of those greedy I 800 numbers and pay a fee to have the convenience of a list of addressess and phone numbers , or do it the old fashioned way and make your own lists. What you need to do is use the internet and look up each agency that you want to use find a phone number and call and ask if they are doing any auctions, and if so what dates? some agencies may give you a date, others may give you another number and still others you may have to get on a mailing list which will come out once a year or so ( like customs for example) each agency is different and the biggest problem is the battle for control of each others territory, so there is no cooperation among each other.

The reality is that most big cities have all the tow operators on an rotating call list. So if any cars get impounded who ever is next on the list gets the tow. Unfortunately if its a really nice car, the cops show up on the 30th day and "confiscate it" all the crap they dont want stays in the yard and gets picked over by the vultures at the tow yard first. NO GOOD CARS MAKE IT TO ANY AUCTIONS. important to note this, auctions are a way of getting rid of garbage cars that no one wants. Even if a auction is advertised as a drug forfiture , dealers can still put cars in there too, so who knows what kind of crap gets shoveled through the auctions. in reality, all you can bid on is what the body is worth. beyond that, most dealers will buy 5 or 10 or 50 or 500 cars, and hope they make a bunch of money of the good ones, and rerun garbage through the auction every week if necessary until it sells.this is not a good way to buy a used car.

Have you tried calling the local governments ?

Duh.

Or, pay a 3rd party for information that's free for the asking.

My county sheriffs department sells their seized cars on ebay. They bring retail.

The county sells surplus or leftover cars once a year at a big county auction that's usually advertised in the newspaper but they will tell anyone who calls about it.

Impounded cars are sold by the wrecker service that towed them. They were often abandoned, do not have keys, the owners chose not to pay the tow bill to get them out. They have occasional auctions. My large city has them once a month and they have a hundred of so pieces of crap most of which are sold to junkyards for parts.

Highly unlikely to get a great deal at any of the above.

Local Newspaper classified section. Usually a requirement to post government auctions.

you may get some extraordinarily stable bargains at police auctions and the cruisers are many times maintained so as that they are in great shape. they sometimes look a sprint grotesque reason each and all of the decals and trademarks have been stripped off. they are auctions, so certainly how plenty they sell for is despite somebody is keen to pay. My dad have been given a Police Interceptor for under $500 and it become in great shape and ran like a champ.