The first thing you have to do is to find yourself a motivated seller. Your best bet for achieving this is to find a fellow traveller who is leaving Australia in a matter of days and hasn’t sold their car yet.

The place to go to find such travellers is the Kings Cross Car Market in Sydney. Hostel bulletin boards are another great resource, or the notice boards around Bondi Beach.

Example

Let’s take a look at an example. Say you see a 1990 Ford Falcon station wagon advertised for $2300. Because the seller is flying home in two days time, you manage to buy the station wagon for the round sum of $2000. You happily drive to Perth, Uluru and all around Australia for 6 months and sell the car for $1900 a good 3 weeks before you have to fly home. The net cost of owning a car for 6 months in Australia: $100 ($2000 – $1900). Of course, this doesn’t include petrol or other maintenance costs. However, try renting a car in Australia for $100 for 6 months!

How It Works

This only works because there will be hardly any depreciation in 6 months on such a cheap car. It also relies on you selling the car with plenty of time up your sleeve before you have to fly home. Otherwise you may be the one selling the car for $500 less than its real value!

I also recommend sticking with Toyotas, Holdens (General Motors / Opel) and Fords in case you need spare parts in remote areas.

Get It Checked Out Mechanically

What I will say about this technique is that you need to have the car checked out mechanically before you buy.

There is nothing worse than being stuck with a lemon of a car. The way to do this is to call out the automobile association for the state you are in (you don’t have to be a member) and have them look at the car for you. It costs about $200 AUD to receive a full written report on the car’s health.

Here are some of the automobile associations in Australia:

• New South Wales: NRMA (Phone: 13 11 22)
• Victoria: RACV (Phone: 13 19 55)
• Queensland: RACQ (Phone: 13 1905)
• Western Australia: RAC WA (Phone: 1300 797 078)

Check There Is No Finance Owing

Another important point about this very worthwhile technique is that you should check the car you want to buy has no finance owing on it or is not stolen. Each state has their own Register of Encumbered Vehicles (REVS) except for Victoria which has a Vehicle Securities Register.

• New South Wales: REVS Check (Phone: 13 32 20)
• Victoria: Vehicle Securities Register (Phone: 13 11 71)
• Queensland: REVS (Phone: 1300 658 030)
• Western Australia: REVS (Phone: 1300 304 024)

Why Is It So Cheap?

The Kings Cross Car Market is a place for travellers to sell their cars to other travellers. There are about 40 cars for sale at any one time.

You can pick up fantastic bargains. Travellers like yourself get sick of sitting in an underground carpark for a week or more trying to sell their car.

Backpackers also have planes to catch and some of them leave selling their car to the last minute – forcing them to slash hundreds of dollars off the price of the car in order to sell it on time.

How Much Are The Cars?

Most cars for sale are in the price range of $1500 – $4000 AUD.

How To Avoid A Lemon

All cars for sale in the Kings Cross Car Market already have an inspection report (otherwise known as a pink slip or roadworthy certificate). This means you know the car is either roadworthy, or you know which repairs need to be carried out before the car is roadworthy. (A list of repairs needed will be written on the pink slip if required).

Get A Mechanical Inspection

Please bear in mind that this pink slip is a roadworthy certificate, not a report on the car’s mechanical health. You will need a separate mechanical report if you want to know whether the car you are considering buying is in good nick. You can obtain a mechanical report from the NRMA (National Roads and Motorists’ Association; phone 13 11 22) for $239 AUD. A qualified Vehicle Inspector can come to the Kings Cross Car Market (or wherever you are) and inspect the car for you on the spot. It takes about one hour or less.

Check For Finance Owing

Finally, you will want to know whether the car you are considering has any finance owing on it (which you could be liable for) or is stolen (which means you could end up losing the car, even if you bought it in good faith and paid good money for it). The way to check whether a car has finance owing on it or is stolen is to ring the REVS (Register of Encumbered Vehicles) for the state the car is registered in. Here are the telephone numbers for the most popular states:

• New South Wales: REVS Check (Phone: 13 32 20)
• Victoria: Vehicle Securities Register (Phone: 13 11 71)
• Queensland: REVS (Phone: 1300 658 030)
• Western Australia: REVS (Phone: 1300 304 024)

Next Steps

The Kings Cross Car Market is located at the corner of Ward Avenue and Elizabeth Bay Road, Kings Cross, Sydney.