British Expats - How to Buy a Car?

Quote:

Originally Posted by darrenps (Post 5400112)

Dear All,

Not sure if this is in the right forum however I am struggling to find out what the process is for buying a new / used car. We are going to Gold Coast in November (1st) and would really appreciate some help i.e good insurance company, what state taxes do we pay, registraion, roadworthy (MOT) just the process..

Thanks in advance..

We bought new after a week of haggling between retailers.

Didn't have a clue with regards to the Car Registration and CTP [Compulsory Third Party] and anyway the Retailer told us that their Insurer was Suncorp and as a consequence we had an excellent deal as they were part of a big group.

We simply provided the proof of our No Claims from our UK Insurance provider and gave the usual details as we required Comprehensive.

Suncorp do a special deal at the moment for named drivers over 40. But there are others that advertise like RACQ and NRMA.

Buying Used [in our case privately, was hassle free too. We made sure that the seller provided us with a roadworthy and service records and as the Car Registration with CTP had a few months left before renewal we just completed the transfer of ownership document which needs to be submitted to the Queensland Transport peeps within 14 days together with a 2% tax on the purchase total of the car.

You do get a Car Registration renewal reminder and we didn't bother faffing about with getting a quote on the CTP part but did go with another Insurance Provider for our Comprehensive Insurance and saved around GBP40.00

So shop around once you become aware of the system which is a tad different from the competitive nature your probably used too.

Just take care and use your gut instinct, if it looks too good to be true, then its probably a nail or if the salesman is too pushy, well you get my drift;)