Travelling around Oz is obviously far more rewarding if you have your own transport. I t enables you to be so much more flexible with your destinations and see far more interesting places than you would if you were confined to busing it on the Greyhound ( believe me, I did that in 2007). There are so many options when it comes to choosing a vehicle. There are campervans galore from companies such as Wicked, Jucy, Spaceships, Hippie Camper , and for those with money you can get the 4wd monster off road range rovers and then lastly the humble station wagon. We chose to buy a station wagon purely because we intended to spend a lot of time in the city and felt it would be easier for day to day runs to work and parking. They are also the cheapest option and parts are readily available especially if you go for a Holden or a Toyota.
Firstly we looked at Travellers Auto Barn as they do have a warranty(though limited), however we had a limited budget and most of their wagons were around the $3000 dollar mark. Gasp! Surely not! -for a car 15 years old, this seems ridiculous coming from the UK where old cars cost only a few hundred pounds. Yes cars here are unfortunately that expensive, but do not let that put you off , it is worth it in the long run. We then headed to the car market at Kings Cross, a car park where backpackers set up to flog their cars before heading home. I have very little car knowledge and had only recently passed my test so I was just not keen to buy from someone whom also had little car knowledge and could possibly sell you a big piece of crap if it meant money for their flight home. If you know your stuff though, this may be the ideal place to grab a bargain. The other option is good old Gumtree. We happened across a wagon being sold for a bargain price by a Sydney native who was moving over seas. After meeting at his house, having a good test drive and looking at its pink slip certificate (bit like M.O.T cert.) we decided to hand over the $1800. This was an especially good price as it still had 10 months registration on it which can easily be transferred over into your name.
Firstly we looked at Travellers Auto Barn as they do have a warranty(though limited), however we had a limited budget and most of their wagons were around the $3000 dollar mark. Gasp! Surely not! -for a car 15 years old, this seems ridiculous coming from the UK where old cars cost only a few hundred pounds. Yes cars here are unfortunately that expensive, but do not let that put you off , it is worth it in the long run. We then headed to the car market at Kings Cross, a car park where backpackers set up to flog their cars before heading home. I have very little car knowledge and had only recently passed my test so I was just not keen to buy from someone whom also had little car knowledge and could possibly sell you a big piece of crap if it meant money for their flight home. If you know your stuff though, this may be the ideal place to grab a bargain. The other option is good old Gumtree. We happened across a wagon being sold for a bargain price by a Sydney native who was moving over seas. After meeting at his house, having a good test drive and looking at its pink slip certificate (bit like M.O.T cert.) we decided to hand over the $1800. This was an especially good price as it still had 10 months registration on it which can easily be transferred over into your name.
The selling basically involves you and the sellers signing a document of sale which you then take to the RTA to get the car registered in your name. If buying a car with no rego (note this is the Aussie term for registration in case you hadn’t guessed!) you will need to get a pink slip done at a garage for around $35,(this is a safely check) and also buy a green slip(compulsory 3rd party insurance) before you go to the RTA to pay for the rego. Getting some further car insurance is also a good idea.
I really hope this helps some people out, because we found it a really daunting experience since we had never been car owners in the UK.
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