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How To Sell A Car In Australia. The Secret Saga.
Cairns, 15th to 20th February 2002
You'd think selling a car should be fairly straight forward. As long
as you can find a buyer, there'll be a standard procedure you'd
follow, then 'hey presto', the car's sold. But no. Selling cars is
Australia is, for want of a better word, a b***h of a job.
Australia is divided into 5 or so different states and each state
has its own rules & regulations . They are so incompatible with each
other, they might as well be different countries!
We bought the car in the state of Victoria, so the car was
registered in Victoria (Vic for short). Now that we're in Cairns,
we're finished with our old van, Custard, and we can sell it on. As
I wasn't sure about the procedure, I phoned up the Department of
Transport Office for Queensland (the state we're in at the moment,
QLD for short).
They told me straight away, that you cannot transfer ownership of a
Vic registered car in QLD. There were two possible ways to sell it:
1)Remove the plates and sell the car unregistered. This would be
really difficult to sell, because no one wants to buy an
unregistered car. Unregistered cars are usually dodgy, and the buyer
then has to pay the registration (about $300) before they can drive
it. 2)Remove the plates then re-register it ourselves, costing us
about $300. It would then need an RWC (Road Worthiness Certificate)
before it could be sold. This check could be difficult. We'd been
told that the QLD transport guy had made RWCs in QLD really
stringent because he wants to get all cars over 20 years old off the
road. Our van was very likely to fail on some minor things (it's
about 17 years old) but these could cost a lot to fix before we sold
it.
I decided to phone the Vic Department of Transport (called Vic
Roads) to check this out. They said the only way to transfer
ownership, while it was still registered in Victoria, was to first
get a RWC in Vic. An RWC done in QLD or any other state is not
acceptable. An RWC needs to be done each time the car is sold and it
expires after 30 days. Ok... we're over 3600km from Victoria. We're
flying out of Cairns. That means a 7200km round trip. That isn't
going to happen.
We were stuck. We had no idea how to sell the van. I decided, that
the first thing we'd need, however we go about selling the car, was
an RWC, even if it is a QLD one. I believed that you cannot sell a
car without an RWC.
I took the van along to a garage for its RWC test. After a nervous
hour, we were told that the car failed the RWC on a few minor
things. The mechanic said the car was in surprisingly good
condition, especially the engine. No major problems at all. However,
the problems added up to cost about $700 if we wanted them fixed.
After a few hours of careful thinking, we decided we didn't want to
invest even more money in the van, we just couldn't afford it.
Somehow, we discovered that if you sell the car to a dealer, an RWC
is not needed. That means we could just sell the van, as it is, to a
dealer. This looked like our only chance. So we toured a few dealers
in the city.
Most weren't interested. Eventually we found one guy, and the
initial conversation went like this:
ME: Hi, we're interested in selling our van, we were told
that you might be interested.
DEALER: What type of van is it?
ME: A Toyota Lite Ace.
DEALER: How much do you want for it?
ME: About 3.
DEALER: Hundred?
ME: Uhh...Thousand.
DEALER laughs profusely to his friend.
After he'd managed to regain some self-control, he said we'd be
lucky to get more than $400, from any dealer. I persuaded him to
have a look, and after checking it out, he said he'd buy it for
$900. (He was obviously impressed!). However, we'd bought it for
$3200. So we decided to keep looking. He did give us a few tips
though. He told us: do not sell the car licensed with the Vic plates
to anyone except a dealer. Only sell it unlicensed or relicensed in
QLD. If we sold it with the Vic plates on, the ownership cannot be
officially transferred (as I was told earlier) so if the new owner
speeds, runs red lights, cause accidents or whatever, I would be
held responsible because the car would still be in my time.
We were now very downhearted. The fact that the sun was shining
strong, meant that we were also very hot, sweaty and irritated. We
decided to have a lunch stop, so we went into the lovely,
air-conditioned shopping centre.
After our break, we decided to try one more place: a place called
Travellers Autobarn, a national chain who specialise in selling cars
to backpackers. When we talked to him he told us that they don't buy
cars directly. But, he did give us some very useful advice, that
restored our confidence & cheerfulness
He told us that most backpackers sell privately. An RWC is NOT
essential if you're selling a car registered in a different state.
The van could also be sold with the Vic licence plates still on. As
there is no standard way to sell a van in a state it is not licensed
it, there is another way to go about it. Most backpackers write up a
contract themselves, that is dated & signed by the seller, buyer &
possibly a witness. So, if the new driver causes any problems and
the government comes looking for me, I can show them the signed form
which should be accepted. This is very common practice because of
the way Australia is divided up.
I knew that backpackers sell cars registered in different states,
but I didn't know how they went about it. Now I know.
Looking around at other adverts and from our own experience, we knew
we could get around $3000 for the van. So made up some posters with
$3200 printed, but crossed out by hand and $2800 written. We then
put the posters up in hostels, Internet cafes, tourist offices and
anywhere else we could find.
By that point, our money had started to run low. So we wanted to get
to Bali and Asia as quick as possible where our money would go much
further. This meant we wanted to make a quick sale. As soon as the
van is sold, we'd take the next available flight out.
The standard thing is to have a poster with little tear off bits at
the bottom which have the contact name & number on it. People who
are interested in buying the car can tear one of these off (there's
about 10 on each poster) and keep it so they know who to
phone/e-mail. By looking at the Internet cafes & hostels, no posters
had bits torn off, which meant everyone was having a difficult time
selling. There's obviously many more sellers than buyers at the
moment.
As we wanted a quick sale, and we needed to generate interest in our
van, we dropped the price and replaced all the posters. Our new
printed price was $2600. We were willing to go as low as $2000, but
no lower, when the bartering began.
So, the others went to the supermarket while I popped into the net
cafes to put the new posters up. I then headed over to the
supermarket to meet them. They had actually stopped in a little
tourist gift shop and as I walked towards them, I noticed a young
couple looking at a parked car which had 'For Sale' posters in the
window. The posters had phone numbers on and the guy of the couple
pulled out his mobile and was obviously phoning the seller. Hmmm,
perhaps I should show them our car! I went into the tourist shop and
told Nat & Em. However, I was a bit nervous, so I got Nat to go to
them and give them a poster.
However, just after Nat had given them a poster, the seller of the
car had turned up (he was obviously nearby) and was chatting to the
young couple about his car.
After they'd finished talking, they were interested in looking at
our van. But just as we were about to take them to it, 2 young girls
turned up. They owned a car that the buying couple had looked at
earlier and wanted to know if they were still interested. They said
yes, but wanted to see our van first.
The van was parked round the corner so as we walked we got talking.
They were actually a couple from Northern Ireland touring Oz. Even
better, they were heading south to Melbourne. Because of the State
system in Oz, the easiest place to sell a car is the state it was
bought in. We bought the car in Melbourne, so for them, selling the
car on would be really, really easy! (Which we re-enforced to them).
They checked the van out, took it for a test drive and it handled
like a dream! No problems at all! No stutters, bad starts or
troubles putting it into gear! (Sometimes it takes a bit of work to
put it into reverse). They were very interested.
The guy, for some reason, wanted to check the radiator was full of
coolant. If there's one thing I've learned from my reading, its
NEVER TAKE OFF A RADIATOR CAP WHEN THE CAR IS WARM. But for some
reason he still wanted to check. I stood well back, but luckily, as
the engine was only slightly warm, only a bit of coolant spluttered
out and onto the floor.
Anyhow, he said he wanted to check the other cars again, the girls
we saw earlier were selling their car for $2300 which included $700
of camping gear (apparently). After some 'thinking' we decided to
better their price and offer our van for $2200. He said ok, and said
he would meet us in an hour. That would give him time to think &
check the other cars again.
For the next hour, we went for a drink and sat on the edge of our
seats. They were probably the only buyers in Cairns at the moment!
It's just like waiting for exam results! We needed a sale, but of
course, we weren't going to look desperate, we've got another 2
weeks here, plenty of time to find another buyer. (we hoped)
An hour later we met and they took it for another drive. He thought
it was nippy & handled well. They really liked the way the back 2
rows of seats could fold down to make a very spacious bed, perfect
for the 2 of them!
We were on the verge of making a sale. He said the others had
dropped to $1800 (yeah right!). We said $2100 was the lowest we
could go. We'd paid $3300 and it was still registered for another 11
months & etc etc, listing all the other pros.
He said today was the last day they wanted to be car hunting. They
wanted a purchase today. He said he had $1800 on him in cash for a
sale right now. We eventually agreed on $2000. Deal done. He pulled
out $2000 cash (the lying monkey, he had more than $1800!).
We drove to our motel place and asked the lady who owned it (who
we'd been getting on really well with) if she could be the witness
for the deal. She was only too happy. I checked his driving licence
to confirm who he was, then we signed the forms and the deal was
done! They drove off with the van!
So, we met them at 3pm, showed them the van at 3pm, and by 4:15pm
the car was sold! (We'd also grabbed them right from under the noses
of another seller, naughty, but that's what happens in this
business!) $2000 was a brill price that we were more than happy to
accept. Pure chance deal! WOOT! Yeah!
And that was the saga of selling Old Custard in Australia.
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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