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Buying & Registering a Car |
It is helpful to read a car buying guide and have the car inspected by the RACQ before you buy it. The RACQ is the organisation that does the roadside assistance services for their members – if you break down, they come and help you. For a fee they will inspect cars before you buy them and give you a report. This can help you make an informed decision about the reliability of this major purchase. These evaluations are essential, because buying a car, especially a used one, can be very tricky.
When you buy a car that is registered it must come with a roadworthy certificate and a "certificate of ownership" or "certificate of title" must be transferred to you from the previous owner. It is also a good idea to get a REVS certificate. Car yards provide this as part of the purchase but private buyers do not. You obtain the REVS certificate for the vehicle from the Office of Fair Trading. This makes sure that the car is being sold to you with no encumbrances. This means that the person selling it does not still owe money to a bank or finance company – if they do they don’t actually own the car, the bank or finance company does and they could repossess it from you.
Car Registration
If you buy a car, you must register it and obtain license plates for it. This is done at the Department of Transport. As mentioned earlier, if the car is already registered you will need to transfer the registration and this will require a roadworthy certificate. Requirements for registering a car vary depending on whether the car is new or used and, if it is used, how old it is.
It is important to note that car owners are financially responsible for injuries to another person or damage to someone else's property.
Car Insurance
There are several types of car insurance:
- Liability insurance is the most basic type. It protects you if your car kills or injures someone else, or damages someone else's property. You are considered legally liable if a car you own (whether you or someone else is driving it) causes injury or death to another person or damage to someone else's property, unless the accident is clearly not the fault of the person driving your car. If you are legally liable for injuries, death, or damages resulting from an automobile accident, youcould face payments of tens of thousands of dollars. If you do not have liability insurance to help pay those costs, you will have to pay them yourself. This is whyyou will want to have liability insurance, even if your car itself is not very valuable. There is third part injury liability insurance included in your registrationfee. Third party property insurance, that is insurance for damage you do to other peoples property, is not included with your registration and must be sought froman insurance company.
- Collision insurance protects your car in case of collision with another car.
- Comprehensive insurance covers losses caused by storms, thieves, and vandals.
Buying Car Insurance
In the yellow pages of the telephone directory you will find a long list of insurance agents under the heading "Insurance." Unless a friend can recommend a reliable agent to you, you should talk to at least two agents about your insurance needs. The amount of insurance you buy for your car should depend on its value. Insurance rates vary from company to company, and they depend also on the value of the car, the amount it is driven, the age of the drivers, and the past driving records of the drivers.
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