Good luck! You should contact the seller and ask some serious questions about how the car drives, noises, clunks, etc, shipping and anything else you can think of. That will see if suspension has been sorted out and establish a dialog between you two. It will show if he is a serious seller and you are a serious buyer.
You do need to bid at least over $10,200 to get yourself on the board, don't go up to your max right away. You save that until your last bid 1 min before auction ends
If you do not put a bid in, seller will not have as much incentive to discuss the car with you.
I just saw the BIN price of $39,500, like I said he is looking for mid $30s to recoup what he spent.
I think this auction will not meet the reserve, which will give you time to continue the dialog and maybe go out to see the car and negotiate the old fashioned way using the flaws to get the price where it needs to be.