buying a car in Australia - Victoria

[devon67]

can anybody advise me on tax/insurance processes in Australia, as im sure its different to the UK

ive heard of REGO, etc but i need specific help

cheers

[Petals]

Cars are registered and its approximately five hundred odd dollars a year, this covers people who are hurt in accidents. You need to take out some form of insurance as well. We have full comprehensive and its about another five hundred a year. Of course it really depends what car you are driving as to cost.

 

If you buy privately you need to be very careful and do checks with Vic Roads to see that the car is not on hire purchase etc. You will pay changeover costs etc. Also prudent to have the vehicle checked by the RACV.

 

If you buy through a dealer they will handle it all for you.

 

Second hand cars hold their prices here in Aus as we do not have the rust problem so cars last a lot longer. We keep ours until they cost us money then buy a new one. At present we have an eight year old, ten year old car which have no problems.

 

Most people here in Melbourne drive automatic cars. Remember my oh saying oh I will not drive an automatic. Took him a couple of years and he was driving one, traffic lights drive you bonkers here in Melbourne so automatic makes it so much easier.

[rikyuu]

As above plus sometimes s/h cars will come with a rego and RWC, Road Worth Certificate (MOT), sometimes not. You don't need a RWC until you transfer a car (the reason why there are so many cars on the road in shocking/dangerous conditions).

 

No rego, no RWC - you will need a permit to drive it to your home, then another to drive it to the RWC centre. But this doesn't give you any insurance (only TAC) and insuring a car with no rego (ie. plates) or RWC is tricky, if not impossible. Most people take the risk and drive uninsured. Once you get the RWC, Vicroads will then want to inspect the vehicle before they give you a rego.

 

Rego, no RWC - you can drive it home and should be able to get insurance (as long as it is actually road worthy). You have to transfer it to your name within a certain time (3 weeks?), when you do this you'll need the RWC. No Vicroads inspection needed.

 

Rego and RWC - the best option, just take your receipt to Vicroads to transfer it to your name.

 

Make sure the seller fills out the sellers part of the transfer form in all cases.

 

s/h cars are generally 2-3 times mores expensive that UK, but rust is not an issue generally. Expect high k's especially on big cars. Most are autos. Very few diesels (compared to Europe). LPG is less than 1/2 price of unleaded, but cars use 20-30% more lpg and sometimes make less power, depending on the system, but it's nice to pay 58c/l (29p/l)!