Buying a car in WA

tezzy_v2

Can anybody give me a few pointers on the process for buying a car in Oz, specifically Perth? Myself and the missus are moving in a couple of weeks (after a 3 month tour of Asia) and im trying to get my research done this end to save time (and money hopefully) over there.

Is there any difference between the licensing and legalities re insurance and licensing between the different states? Obviously im interested in Western Australia.

Am i right in saying that once you buy a car with Rego all you need to do is make sure it doesnt run out, to avoid having to pay for an NCT type inspection to get it re registered?

We're going to be pretty short on money by the time we get over there so im looking for something in the $1-2k price range, which wont buy me much looking at current prices over there

How much (ballpark) would rego be for the year and does this include insurance? I'm thinking something around 2 litres (Accord, Camry etc)

Apart drom Gumtree, is there anywhere else recommended to look for motors at the lower end of the market?

I'd be very interested in a dual fuel LPG car as the prices work out about $0.70 a litre, do all the petrol stations sell this. looking at gumtree there is the odd car advertised within my price range with dual fuel so im just wondering is there anything im missing, why isnt everybody running big cars on LPG over there, or are they?

And finally, i know enough about European and Japanese cars to know whats a potentially good buy for my price range but what are peoples opinions on the Holdens and Fords available over there. Would they hold together as well as the jap machinery or should they be avoided?

Thanks all

ellaq

In WA you need to make sure that the car is rego'd otherwise it will have to go over the pits which is expensive and time consuming given the price bracket you are looking for. If you let your rego expire you get a grace period around 10 days I think where you are still covered for third party insurance (which is part of the rego). I believe that there is also another grace period (2 months ?? maybe) before the car has to go over the pits.

Rego would be around $480-520 per year. But you can pay 6 months at a time.

Obviously you know what you are going to get in that price range. We had a look their ourselves around Christmas and it is bleak. My OH is a mechanic so he knows what he is looking at. Ended up getting a 1998 Land Rover Discovery with low kms for $6K instead. We decided we wanted a car that wasn't going to need a lot of maintenance.

Quokka is a newspaper that local people advertise in. They have an online site too. They advertise their cars in the price bracket. Think they have one $2000k and under.

I am not really sure about LPG, I only know one person that has it. They drive bigger cars hear and where I live people drive long distance so it works out for economy. I think that with LPG you have to have a big tank in your booth. Could be wrong.

Nothing wrong with Ford or Holden, plenty of choice in that price bracket. European cars tend to carry a ridiculous reputation over here and it is reflected in their price.

Good luck.

ambasite

bought a car a few months back here in Sydney, an '89 Saab for $1500, it's got rego till May 2011. Have a look here for details on rego:

http://www.cars.com.au/glovebox/car-registration.html

bought the car from Gumtree, maybe have a look on ebay, seem to have a decent rage of cheap cars.

amybabes

Hello,

I work currently for Thrifty Car Hire in their national fleet department and pay registrations for their 9000 vehicle fleet in all states.

My advice would be: Do not buy a NSW registered car, WA/SA and QLD registries are much easier and much cheaper to deal with. You dont need a rego label if your car is rego'd in WA so makes life a lot easier. Could write an essay on why the above is good advice but please just take my word for it - i've been doing this 6 months now.

Good luck!

P.S - I spent $3,800 on mine after my original budget was 2k - i looked for weeks and didn't see anything but bangers for that much, but my bf struck lucky and got a diamond of a car for $950 -a 99 daewoo lanos, didnt give him a bit of trouble and he sold it on for 2 grand. You can be lucky!