How to buy a used car safely

The Personal Property Securities Register is a national register of security interests. Search it with the vehicle identification number, which is on the compliance plate, the registration papers and usually visible through the windscreen.

The certificate tells you three things that matter enormously. Whether there is a registered security interest — money owing — against the vehicle. Whether it is recorded as stolen. And whether it has been recorded as written off.

Money owing is the one people underestimate. A security interest attaches to the car, not to the seller. If you buy a car with finance still registered against it and the seller does not clear the debt, the financier can lawfully repossess the vehicle from you, and you are left chasing a seller who has your money.

Buying a car that appears on the PPSR as encumbered generally strips you of the protection you would otherwise have as a good-faith purchaser, because the register exists precisely so you can check. Not checking is not an excuse.

Where finance is showing, do not proceed on a promise. Either the seller clears it and provides a fresh clear PPSR certificate, or payment is made directly to the financier for the payout figure with the balance to the seller.

Keep the PPSR certificate. It is timestamped and it is your evidence of what the register showed when you bought.

Check the VIN on the certificate matches the VIN on the car itself, in every place it appears. A mismatch between the compliance plate, the chassis stamp and the papers is a serious warning sign.

Buying from a licensed dealer brings consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law. The vehicle must be of acceptable quality, match its description, and be fit for any purpose you made known. These guarantees cannot be excluded, and a sign saying 'sold as is' does not remove them on a dealer sale.

What 'acceptable quality' means for a used car takes into account its age, price and kilometres — a fifteen-year-old car is not expected to be faultless. But a major failure shortly after purchase that a reasonable buyer would not expect is a guarantee breach, and the remedy for a major failure is your choice of refund or replacement, not merely repair.

Most states also give a statutory warranty on dealer sales for vehicles under specified age and kilometre limits, running for a set period or distance. This is separate from and additional to the consumer guarantees.

Some states provide a cooling-off period on dealer sales, generally short and sometimes with a small forfeitable amount. It does not apply to private sales anywhere, or to auctions.

Private sales carry no consumer guarantees and no statutory warranty. The car is sold as-is, and mechanical problems are yours from the moment you drive away.

What still applies in a private sale is that the seller must have clear title to sell, and must not actively misrepresent the vehicle. Odometer tampering and lying about accident history are offences and give rise to remedies — but recovering from a private seller is a civil claim, which is why the pre-purchase checks matter so much more.

Auctions are their own category, generally with no cooling off, limited or no warranty, and vehicles sold without the chance to test drive. Buy at auction only if you can assess the risk yourself.

Get an independent pre-purchase inspection from a mechanic you chose, not one the seller recommends. State auto clubs and mobile inspection services do this, and it costs a small fraction of the purchase price.

Check the written-off vehicle register for your state as well as the PPSR. A statutory write-off generally cannot be re-registered at all; a repairable write-off can be, but its history affects value, insurability and safety, and must be disclosed by a dealer.

Check the registration is current and matches, and understand that in most states registration transfers with the car while compulsory third party insurance arrangements differ by state.

Check for open safety recalls using the vehicle recalls service — recall repairs are free from the manufacturer and some open recalls are serious.

Look for signs of accident repair: inconsistent panel gaps, paint overspray, mismatched colours between panels, replaced bolts, and fresh underbody sealant. Check the service history against the odometer for consistency.

Test drive properly — cold start, highway speed, hard braking, full lock in both directions, and every electrical function. Many faults appear only when the engine is hot or the car is at speed.

Verify the seller's identity against the registration papers. A seller who is not the registered owner, wants to meet somewhere other than their home address, or pushes for a fast cash deal is a pattern rather than a coincidence.

Never pay a deposit before the PPSR check, and never pay cash to a stranger's account without seeing the car and the papers. Payment redirection scams and non-existent vehicles advertised at attractive prices are both common — Scamwatch publishes the current patterns.

Pay in a way that gives you a trail. A bank transfer to an account in the registered owner's name, made after inspection, at the handover, is the standard safe approach. Buying sight-unseen from an interstate seller who cannot meet is the highest-risk pattern there is.

Complete the transfer of registration within your state's time limit — typically a short window — and pay the stamp duty. Failing to transfer leaves the previous owner receiving your fines and, in some states, exposes you to penalties.

Arrange insurance before you drive it away. Compulsory third party is handled through registration in most states, but that covers injury to others only — not the car itself, and not damage you cause to other property in some states.

If a dealer sale goes wrong, complain to the dealer in writing citing the consumer guarantees, then to your state fair trading or consumer affairs body, then to the state tribunal, which handles motor vehicle disputes at low cost without lawyers.

Where the dealer is licensed, most states run a compensation fund for buyers who lose money through dealer misconduct — worth asking about.

For a private sale, the routes are the state tribunal or small claims court for misrepresentation or title problems, and the police where the vehicle turns out to be stolen. Both are considerably harder than the checks that would have prevented it.