Buying a car without an SA Licence...

[scooterdan]

Hey all,

We are going car hunting this week.....but have heard that when you buy a car they wont let you drive away until you have a SA Licence...

Is this correct?

Dan and Steph

[suziewozie]

Hi Dan & Steph

You do not need a SA Licence to buy a car. We used our UK one with no problems.

Good Luck

Susan.

[morgie@51]

Hi Dan & Steph,

Would be surprised if you needed an SA licence. I bought a car after being here a week and had an SA licence but the garage was absolutely stunned that I had one.

Also getting a licence is really quick. I arrived on the Sunday and went into the city on the Monday. Went to the office (on North Terrace if I remember right) and after about 20 minutes and filling in one form, handing over $65 to cover 2 years, giving a sample signature and having a photo taken I had a temporary paper licence. The permament photcard version arrived in the post by the end of the week in time to go car hunting on the Saturday.

To say I was impressed is an undersatement.


Morgan

[jamesholmes_@hotmail.com]

Hey all,

We are going car hunting this week.....but have heard that when you buy a car they wont let you drive away until you have a SA Licence...

Is this correct?

Dan and Steph


Hi Dan

It was me who told you couldnt buy a car without an SA licence and i may have got this a bit wrong.

James told me that you could buy the car without the SA licence but once you have purchased the car you have 2 weeks to register the car and you need an SA licence for that.

He may be wrong here but the guys at the garage made it clear that we needed our SA licences (i just got the wrong end of the stick) and when James went to register our car in my name they asked him for my SA driving licence and his Passport to prove what his relationship was to me.

Anyhow we could be wrong so sorry if we are.

I will call you tomorrow anyway to arrange a meet up.

Emma

[scooterdan]

Hi Dan

It was me who told you couldnt buy a car without an SA licence and i may have got this a bit wrong.

James told me that you could buy the car without the SA licence but once you have purchased the car you have 2 weeks to register the car and you need an SA licence for that.

He may be wrong here but the guys at the garage made it clear that we needed our SA licences (i just got the wrong end of the stick) and when James went to register our car in my name they asked him for my SA driving licence and his Passport to prove what his relationship was to me.

Anyhow we could be wrong so sorry if we are.

I will call you tomorrow anyway to arrange a meet up.

Emma

Hey,

Thats fine....just wanted to double check things before we go ahead tomorrow!!!

Look forward to hearing of you....

Dan

[cormcvcr]

Hi Dan & Stef,

We bought two cars with our UK licence, we also took along our passports and proof of our address here (ie rental agreement!)

We were driving around in the cars for a good couple of weeks before we applied for our SA one. There is stamp duty that is added as costs not included in the price of a car that you buy. We did a fair bit of haggling and said we would pay x amount for the car on the road, all duty and tax included. At the end of the day for the sake of a couple of hundred dollars, they either want the sale or they don't.

It worked!!! They sent away all the documents and gave us a copy of our purchase document for the car, just in case we got stopped by the police. The legal documents for the car registration arrived a couple of weeks later by post.

Our tax on one of the cars even ran out before we had all the documents, but we still managed to get the rego without it.

So don't worry, just go and find the car you are looking for. Good luck x

[Tyke]

I don't think so - but you must have solid proof of where you are living (rental agreement/service bills).:)

[Angela]

UK licence is fine, I think you have 3 months or something to get an SA one. We completed the forms at the reg office & got an SA one really easily, but you do need proof / rental details.

Good luck

[lippy]

Hi

We bought our car the first day we arrived in Adelaide.

We had no money! Stil hadn't transferred it over at that point. The dealership took a $500 deposit told us to come back on the Monday af ter dropping our hire car off and they would give us a loan car - at no cost - until our money came through. It took 2 weeks for the money to come through - went in handed back the hire car and got our own.

We still don't have a SA licence - will get one soon though! Just make sure you have some proof of your address either a bank statement or rental agreement when you go to register it.

Good luck

Julie

[cribber]

Here's a piece of noteworthy information.

In addition to Permanent residents having to apply for their SA licence within 3 months as required by the State Gov, some insurance companies also require this of all their customers, even Temporary residents.

Looks like i'll be off to the Rego office next week then!!!!!

[local lad]

hi guys
no you dont need an sa licence to buy a car but may need to transfer it over after purchase you have three months on uk license i think,need to no more contact eddie at adelaide consignment centre hes real helpful and mention this site,hes english and has been thru what you are and has great cars phone him on 83767075.