Buying A Car From A Private Seller

"Gumtree is your friend.", everyone says. Who doesn't want a shiny new car or 1 that's relatively new? In Singapore, with the additional cost of COE, a car can easily cost above 100k. So to fork out 10-20k for something pretty new or brand new is considered a steal for Singaporeans migrating to Australia. But for piss poor people like us, that amount is equivalent to asking for the sky. Heck, anything more than 3k is an astronomical sum. You won't be able to get anything decent from the dealers at this price. The only option left is to go to private sellers. 

The 1st decision you have to make is the exact car you're after. It definitely narrows down the search & make it more conducive. When we 1st got here, hubs couldn't decide what he wants & we would get hundreds and hundreds of hits on gumtree. There's no way you can go through every single ad. Even when he finally decided on a Mit Lancer (somehow all guys I know like this car), we're still getting lots of hits. 

2nd thing is to determine your budget. Under Nix's influence (we haven't met up with him then but through reading his blog, we knew getting a car around 2k is possible), we made the cut off point at 3k. There won't be that many cars in an acceptable condition at that price. So now is the time to go through all the ads, read the specs & decide if you can accept the mileage, exterior, interior condition etc. If you can, it's time to contact the seller. You can check if the rego has lapsed here.

It'll be wise to consolidate a list of all "acceptable" cars & contact all the sellers at the same time. You'll encounter people who refuses to reply (coz they've sold the car but didn't take the ad down & don't have the decency to tell you so) or who are not available for you to view the car until a later date. It's not uncommon to only be able to view & test drive only 1 car out of a list of 10 on the day itself. There're only 2 days to the weekend & most people have to work during weekdays. You don't want to view the car in the night. So squeeze in as many viewings as you can to increase your chances of finding 1 that you can actually buy.

If you have someone who knows cars, bring him/her along. We're very fortunate to have D checking the cars with us every single time. This is what D always check though I don't know the rational. Always test the car with a cold engine, preferably not having been driven at all that day. If there're problems, it usually shows up with a cold engine. Pop the bonnet & start the engine. It should not have a "click click click" sound when the engine is running. Open up the radiator cap (this is why the engine has to be cold coz you can't open it with a hot engine) & you'll see the coolant. Trigger the catch to rev the engine. Some overflow of the coolant is acceptable but it should not shoot up into the air. Repeat several times. Check around the engine for oil leaks. There're other basic stuff like check the engine oil & ATF. Get down on your hands & knees & look under the car to make sure that there's no oil leak. Go to the back & have a look at the exhaust pipe. It should not be emitting water or smoke. Make sure the tire threads are not worn off. 

Time for a test drive. I've never gone with them for a test drive before so I don't know what to look out for. But I do know on a manual, clutch pads need replacing if the car jerks when changing gears (exclude insufficient revs) & CV joint needs replacing if there's a "cluck cluck cluck" sound with full turn of the steering wheels (early wear) or when moving off from a stop position (advance wear). You also get to check the brakes & whether the car is giving out excessive smoke while driving.

If you're satisfied with the condition of the car, make an offer, citing various required repairs to push the price down. If the deal falls through, both seller & buyer have to fill up the transfer forms. You can mail the buyer form to the licensing centre & wait for the letter asking you to make payment of the transfer fees. We usually just head down to the centre & get it done on the spot. That's all there is to buying a car from a private seller.