Buy car in Melbourne and drive over to Adelaide?

[etch123]

Hello all,

 

I've been scouring carsales.com.au and drive.com.au for well over 6 months now to get an idea of the car market down under, I have seen that used cars in Victoria are consistently cheaper than in SA, the price difference on the particular model i'm looking at is about 3-4K. I think because its a supply and demand thing. So my question is, is it advisable for me to buy a car Melbourne and drive it over Adelaide? If so what is the procedure for registration and stamp duty etc?

 

While googling the subject I found this,

So if you are buying from Vic, but don't have a Vic address you can

1. ask the seller if they will let you drive the car back to SA and then cancel the rego and re-register in your name, pay stamp duty in SA (assuming it is already registered).

2. transport the unregistered car back to SA and arrange a RWC and register it in SA, pay stamp duty in SA.

3. obtain a unregistered vehicle permit in Vic, drive the unregistered car back to SA and arrange RWC, pay stamp duty and reg in SA.

As far as I know, you won't have the option of transfering into your name in Vic.

Also, there is no such thing as an actual 'transfer' of registration between states.. it is always a case of – cancel rego in old state – re-register in new state.

 

 

Thanks in advance

[Ktee]

We have transported a car from Melbourne to Cairns and whilst recently in hospital in Sydney we purchased a car and drove it back to Cairns. Now every state is different but for Queensland when you buy a car you have two weeks to transfer it in to your name, driving up from Sydney took us longer but Queensland Transport didn't bat an eyelid. Now what does get me is that although the car has to have a RWC in the state you buy it from when you bring them up to Queensland they insist on another before they will do the transfer. It's a pain in the backside especially as I found out NSW are not strict at all on RWC and even a cracked windscreen can pass. thankfully we knew this wouldn't be the case when we got it home so we factored this in when bargaining with the car yards.

I presume you will be driving it back rather than transporting it. Also I'm not sure if you have noticed on carsales but some dealers will ship Australia wide.

[Ktee]

Also forgot to mention with the rego, for Queensland if we are buying a car out of state we don't really care if it has 1 month rego left on it as once we bring it in to Queensland it's like you said, it's a case of cancelling the current rego and taking out a new one. The Queensland Transport do this for you. You can then try and put a claim in to the state you bought the car for a refund on the balance left. We have never bothered to be honest, but the option is there.

[Ktee]

This link may help https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/transport-travel-and-motoring/motoring/vehicles-and-registration/vehicle-inspections/interstate-vehicle-transfer-identity-inspection-tier-2. Although it sounds a pain, I totally agree with you that cars are a lot cheaper in the larger cities like Melbourne and Sydney and there is lots more choice.

[etch123]

Hi thanks, yes I plan on driving it from Mel to Adl. Need to look at how to get a unregistered vehicle permit in Victoria and the RWC in Adelaide.

[Ktee]

Hi thanks, yes I plan on driving it from Mel to Adl. Need to look at how to get a unregistered vehicle permit in Victoria and the RWC in Adelaide.

You shouldn't need one, the car will still have Victorian rego unless you buy one which has expired then yes you will need to pop in to Vic Roads and ask for the permit.

[noworriesmate]

I'll be surprised if you need a RWC in Adelaide

 

see:https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/transport-travel-and-motoring/motoring/vehicles-and-registration/vehicle-inspections/roadworthy-inspections

 

NWM

[Ktee]

I'll be surprised if you need a RWC in Adelaide

 

see:https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/transport-travel-and-motoring/motoring/vehicles-and-registration/vehicle-inspections/roadworthy-inspections

 

NWM

No it doesn't look like you do, on the link I gave it just states tier 2 inspection whatever that is

[Toni]

I bought a car in Melbourne, a few years ago now. I bought from a used car dealer. I recommend you get the RACV (Victoria equivalent to RAA) to do a check of the vehicle before you commit to buy. (It costs you something). It was worth it for me as it highlighted a brake problem and airconditioning issue which would have cost me a bit to have repaired and the dealer agreed to fix those before purchase.

 

It worked really well for me and the cost of the car was far cheaper than buying in Adelaide (I also wanted to go to Melbourne, so a double bonus there.).

[Gwen]

we bought also a car in melbourne and i am quite happy about it. I really think it was cheaper there. We registered the car there at a friend's address.... we are waiting until the rego expires and we will register it in Adelaide.

[etch123]

we bought also a car in melbourne and i am quite happy about it. I really think it was cheaper there. We registered the car there at a friend's address.... we are waiting until the rego expires and we will register it in Adelaide.

 

 

Hi Gwen I'm new to this, you brought up an interesting point, so if I buy a car with some rego remaining in Mel , I could transfer it to my name at a friends address (my sister lives in Melbourne)? And then use itin Adelaide until the rego expires?

[Ktee]

we bought also a car in melbourne and i am quite happy about it. I really think it was cheaper there. We registered the car there at a friend's address.... we are waiting until the rego expires and we will register it in Adelaide.

Gwen that is a very good point. Did you need a Vic license to do that or were they happy with your SA one.

[Gwen]

hi,

 

etch123, that is what we did. Mainly because when we bought the car, we were in melbourne and not yet in SA. So we did not have any address. We asked our SA driving licence last month (we used our international driving license until then, so no VIC license), and they did not ask anything about having a car or not, so I thought we could wait until the rego expires in May.... not sure this is very legal now .