Buying a car from interstatw

IrishPete said :

As vehicles in NSW have an annual roadworthiness check, they will generally be in better (or safer) condition than ACT ones that have been in the one owner’s hands for a few years.

Is that true?
I wondered why the cops are so bothered about speeding, but they seem to turn a blind eye to old cars that are falling to bits, or have headlights out. You’d think the garages would be screaming out for that legislation so they could get more business.
Amazing for a place with not much streetlighting, lots of cyclists and the chance of hitting an animal in the dark that the system seems so negligent.

Rach_13 said :

I have recently done this with a second hand car (2006 build) took it to get cleared for rego, once cleared went and transfered it all to ACT. As it still had NSW rego on it I didnt have to do this straight away but I think they give you 3 months.

No they don’t. They give you 14 days to get the car inspected, any defects fixed and the rego transfered. Where the hell did you get 3 months from?

All the three cars that I bought from interstate where from private buyers and I didn’t need to have the car inspected at Dickson Motor Registry. They were all more than 10 years old.

Having a read of the info on http://www.rego.act.gov.au it says a vehicle identification check is required at the Dickson Motor Registry if the vehicle if the vehicle is less than 10 years old and is from interstate, but is not required for vehicles older than 10 years. That may explain the different experiences people have had. Not sure the relevance of the 10 year age.

Solidarity said :

Rusalka said :

We did this in November. You have to get it inspected by a particular group of mechanics in Canberra for a road worthy inspection. Not any one like if you were doing a transfer with ACT rego. A small group of particular mechanics. These guys are pretty harsh as if they pass anything that gets picked up as wrong at the registry, they can loose their accreditation.

You then need to take it to Dickson to the registry for it to go over the pits there and have another roadworthy inspection. I don’t know why it has to be done it twice, it just does.

If it passes you have to take off your plates, and take them into the shopfront. Make sure to bring your own screwdriver, shifter and screws. That caught us out.

Then you pay lots of money, get shiny new plates, crawl around in the carpark again to put them on, and you’re good to go. We managed to get it all done in 24 hours, as we “needed” 2 more tyres.

Good luck.

That is the most wrong thing i’ve ever read on this site.

You go to anyone who does an ACT roadworthy, once it passes you go to the shopfront and pay rego. Done and done.

The only reason a car needs to go over Dickson is if it’s for hire (cabs etc) or if it’s modified (disability cars, performance cars etc)

The only bit that Rusalka said was wrong was that they had to go to Dickson for another rego check, this would have been an identity check because they presumably bought the vehicle from a private buyer.

So there is another reason (as stated by other people) for a vehicle to go to Dickson.

Sandman said :

Solidarity said :

MonarchRepublic said :

True on going over the pits part, but if up to 10 years old, second hand, from interstate, and being registered in another name (ie, bought second hand from interstate), then it needs to go through Dickson for a vehicle identity check.

Nope. 2011, 2004 Renault Clio, bought from QLD, passed by a normal workshop, rego the same day.

You got lucky then. I’ve been down there 4 times in the last 12 months for my less than 10 year old vehicles from interstate to have an ID check.

Is there any particular reason the OP is buying a car from Sydney? From my experience Sydney cars tend to be a bit beat up unless theyre nearly new. I’ve always thought Canberra cars were some of the best and cheapest around. Most of my Sydney friends will ask me to find them a nice Canberra car when shopping for new wheels.

Sydney cars always wear more quickly than Canberra cars. The hills and constant stop-start traffic take their toll.

Solidarity said :

MonarchRepublic said :

True on going over the pits part, but if up to 10 years old, second hand, from interstate, and being registered in another name (ie, bought second hand from interstate), then it needs to go through Dickson for a vehicle identity check.

Nope. 2011, 2004 Renault Clio, bought from QLD, passed by a normal workshop, rego the same day.

You got lucky then. I’ve been down there 4 times in the last 12 months for my less than 10 year old vehicles from interstate to have an ID check.

Is there any particular reason the OP is buying a car from Sydney? From my experience Sydney cars tend to be a bit beat up unless theyre nearly new. I’ve always thought Canberra cars were some of the best and cheapest around. Most of my Sydney friends will ask me to find them a nice Canberra car when shopping for new wheels.

I do apologise if you find my information incorrect. I am not trying to lead people astray.

This was our experience in November 2012 with a 2007 car. I was attempting to help by passing on our personal experience with the advice we received from the Motor Registry and the process they told us we had to go though. I will admit that I may have the exact names of the processes slightly wrong. But that’s what we had to do to change it from NSW rego to ACT.

I do apologise again, and still wish the OP the best of luck 🙂

MonarchRepublic said :

Solidarity said :

Rusalka said :

We did this in November. You have to get it inspected by a particular group of mechanics in Canberra for a road worthy inspection. Not any one like if you were doing a transfer with ACT rego. A small group of particular mechanics. These guys are pretty harsh as if they pass anything that gets picked up as wrong at the registry, they can loose their accreditation.

You then need to take it to Dickson to the registry for it to go over the pits there and have another roadworthy inspection. I don’t know why it has to be done it twice, it just does.

If it passes you have to take off your plates, and take them into the shopfront. Make sure to bring your own screwdriver, shifter and screws. That caught us out.

Then you pay lots of money, get shiny new plates, crawl around in the carpark again to put them on, and you’re good to go. We managed to get it all done in 24 hours, as we “needed” 2 more tyres.

Good luck.

That is the most wrong thing i’ve ever read on this site.

You go to anyone who does an ACT roadworthy, once it passes you go to the shopfront and pay rego. Done and done.

The only reason a car needs to go over Dickson is if it’s for hire (cabs etc) or if it’s modified (disability cars, performance cars etc)

True on going over the pits part, but if up to 10 years old, second hand, from interstate, and being registered in another name (ie, bought second hand from interstate), then it needs to go through Dickson for a vehicle identity check.

Nope. 2011, 2004 Renault Clio, bought from QLD, passed by a normal workshop, rego the same day.

I have bought several interstate used cars in the last two years, two from NSW and one from VIC, all over 10 years old. All were currently registered interstate.

All I had to do was take the car to an authorised ACT inspection station, i.e. most larger mechanic shops, and get a Certificate of Inspection, which is just a mechanical safety check that costs about $60 from memory. Then attend the one of the government shopfronts hand over the Certificate of Inspection and the plates, pay the appropriate rego fee and it is all done.

The Certificate of Inspection is the same whether you are transferring the rego of an ACT car or if you are establishing the rego of an interstate car for the first time in the ACT. It’s the same form, they just tick the “establish” or “transfer” box on the formt, depending upon which it is.

As vehicles in NSW have an annual roadworthiness check, they will generally be in better (or safer) condition than ACT ones that have been in the one owner’s hands for a few years.

I don’t think NSW likes you to wait as long as three months to transfer the rego, so even if that’s OK by the ACT authorities, I’d be doing it sooner. As soon as possible really. The seller in NSW is obliged to notify the authorities of the sale of the vehicle and who they’ve sold it to, so they will know.

IP

Solidarity said :

Rusalka said :

We did this in November. You have to get it inspected by a particular group of mechanics in Canberra for a road worthy inspection. Not any one like if you were doing a transfer with ACT rego. A small group of particular mechanics. These guys are pretty harsh as if they pass anything that gets picked up as wrong at the registry, they can loose their accreditation.

You then need to take it to Dickson to the registry for it to go over the pits there and have another roadworthy inspection. I don’t know why it has to be done it twice, it just does.

If it passes you have to take off your plates, and take them into the shopfront. Make sure to bring your own screwdriver, shifter and screws. That caught us out.

Then you pay lots of money, get shiny new plates, crawl around in the carpark again to put them on, and you’re good to go. We managed to get it all done in 24 hours, as we “needed” 2 more tyres.

Good luck.

That is the most wrong thing i’ve ever read on this site.

You go to anyone who does an ACT roadworthy, once it passes you go to the shopfront and pay rego. Done and done.

The only reason a car needs to go over Dickson is if it’s for hire (cabs etc) or if it’s modified (disability cars, performance cars etc)

True on going over the pits part, but if up to 10 years old, second hand, from interstate, and being registered in another name (ie, bought second hand from interstate), then it needs to go through Dickson for a vehicle identity check.

Rusalka said :

We did this in November. You have to get it inspected by a particular group of mechanics in Canberra for a road worthy inspection. Not any one like if you were doing a transfer with ACT rego. A small group of particular mechanics. These guys are pretty harsh as if they pass anything that gets picked up as wrong at the registry, they can loose their accreditation.

You then need to take it to Dickson to the registry for it to go over the pits there and have another roadworthy inspection. I don’t know why it has to be done it twice, it just does.

If it passes you have to take off your plates, and take them into the shopfront. Make sure to bring your own screwdriver, shifter and screws. That caught us out.

Then you pay lots of money, get shiny new plates, crawl around in the carpark again to put them on, and you’re good to go. We managed to get it all done in 24 hours, as we “needed” 2 more tyres.

Good luck.

That is the most wrong thing i’ve ever read on this site.

You go to anyone who does an ACT roadworthy, once it passes you go to the shopfront and pay rego. Done and done.

The only reason a car needs to go over Dickson is if it’s for hire (cabs etc) or if it’s modified (disability cars, performance cars etc)

We did this in November. You have to get it inspected by a particular group of mechanics in Canberra for a road worthy inspection. Not any one like if you were doing a transfer with ACT rego. A small group of particular mechanics. These guys are pretty harsh as if they pass anything that gets picked up as wrong at the registry, they can loose their accreditation.

You then need to take it to Dickson to the registry for it to go over the pits there and have another roadworthy inspection. I don’t know why it has to be done it twice, it just does.

If it passes you have to take off your plates, and take them into the shopfront. Make sure to bring your own screwdriver, shifter and screws. That caught us out.

Then you pay lots of money, get shiny new plates, crawl around in the carpark again to put them on, and you’re good to go. We managed to get it all done in 24 hours, as we “needed” 2 more tyres.

Good luck.

I have recently done this with a second hand car (2006 build) took it to get cleared for rego, once cleared went and transfered it all to ACT. As it still had NSW rego on it I didnt have to do this straight away but I think they give you 3 months.

You can’t just “transfer” the rego, you need to re-register the vehicle in ACT. If the vehicle has 3 months or more NSW rego left you can cancel it and get a partial refund (not sure if you need to go to NSW Motor registry for this or if ACT can do it). then you will need to have a roadworthy inspection (not sure if you can get an approved workshop to do this or you may need to take it to Dickson or Phillip motor registry) and perhaps the vehicle ID check as well and when all these hurdles have been jumped over then you pay the money and get ACT rego.

On two occasions I have bought NSW vehicles and have had problems with window tinting not meeting ACT regulations. They NSW regulations are exactly the same, but must not be rigorously applied or something, because I’ve heard about other people having the same experience.

On both occasions the tinting had to be removed to pass the ACT inspection, which was annoying. I have bought other NSW vehicles without window tinting and the process of registering them in the ACT was completely painless (just a little running around with paperwork).

MonarchRepublic said :

Depending on the age, you will need to have a vehicle ID check done.

tl;dr

A bit over 10 years ago I bought a brand new car from Sydney and drove it back on a 7-day RTA interim rego. I had to get the car inspected prior to getting it registered in the ACT.

All the info can be found at:
http://www.rego.act.gov.au/registrations/regobuyinginterstate.htm

Depending on the age, you will need to have a vehicle ID check done.
From the rego ACT website:

Vehicle Identity Inspections
Information relating to vehicle identity inspections in the Australian Capital Territory

Road transport and enforcement agencies throughout Australia are working together on a range of initiatives to reduce vehicle theft. As a part of these processes, the ACT has introduced a new inspection to check the identity of vehicles that are in high risk categories.
Rebirthing generally takes place in a state or territory other than the one in which the vehicle was stolen, and mainly involves late model cars. It can also provide new identities for vehicles that have been imported into Australia duty free for dismantling or other purposes and that are not permitted to be registered here.
The vehicle identity inspection is in addition to the roadworthy inspection that is required when registering an interstate registered or unregistered vehicle in the ACT. You must obtain a roadworthy inspection report before an identity inspection can be conducted.
Which vehicles require a Vehicle Identity Inspection?
An identity inspection will be required if your vehicle is used, less than or equal to 10 years old and/or fits one of the following categories.
Note: The 10 year requirement is based on the year of Manufacture only – not month/year.
1. Is an interstate registered vehicle being registered in a different name in the ACT;
2. You do not have any documentation for the vehicle to establish its history;
3. Your vehicle does not have clear identifiers such as the vehicle identification number (VIN) or engine number;
4. Your vehicle is a repairable write off and was registered in the ACT at the time it was written off.
Are there any exemptions to the above?
Yes, you do not require a Vehicle Identity Inspection (unless indicated by an Authorised Inspector) if:
The vehicle was bought or sold by a Licensed Motor Vehicle Dealer or from an auction house that also has a licence to operate as a motor vehicle dealer (e.g Pickles or Fowles).
In all cases the tax invoice must display the seller’s licence number (e.g. LMVD, LVD, MD, LMCT)

Or
Your vehicle is duty exempt
Or
Your vehicle is being registered in the same name or names as the previous state.
How will I know if my vehicle needs to be inspected?
You will be told if an identity inspection is required when you apply to register the vehicle or transfer its registration, or when the vehicle is undergoing its roadworthiness inspection.
What does the inspection cost?
Click here to view the current fees.
Where can the inspection be done?
Identity inspections are conducted by specially trained government inspectors and can only be done at the Vehicle Inspection Station operated by Road User Services in Dickson. To make a booking for a vehicle identity inspection, phone 13 22 81.