Running a car in Australia

Fairly soon after arriving, we had to buy a car. It was great renting a different car every weekend, but financially unsustainable!

The decision process is pretty much the same as in any country - new or used; saloon, estate or SUV; price range; makes etc. There are also any number of places to do the research - websites, newspapers etc.

Having decided on the parameters, the actual buying process is also fairly straightforward - go to the dealer; have a test drive; haggle over price; arrange finance; pay the deposit and off you go.

We were fortunate to find the right car for us at a sensible price very quickly and (fingers crossed) it is still a good deal over three years later. We had arranged finance independently in advance but found that the dealer could offer us a better deal.

Insuring the car confused me for a while. Every car has to have basic 3rd party insurance, which is covered by the CTP green slip. This is needed to pay the road tax ('rego') each year and stays with the car. Therefore, if you buy a used car, you get the benefit of the CTP insurance for the balance of the year. The price for this is fixed each year by the state government.

Additional insurance is optional (unless, like us, you are financing the car and the finance company insists on it). This is personal to the owner and varies due to all the usual factors. Despite us having our no claims bonus from the UK deducted, this still seems quite expensive to us (and I did look around a bit). To help ensure that you get the UK no claims bonus deducted it is worth getting a letter from the UK insurer in advance.

Because I did not really understand the difference between the two insurances, I naively assumed that the comprehensive policy I took out covered everything. It was a little bit of a shock a couple of months later when we had to pay another $300 or so for a new CTP slip, just so we could pay the rego (which also costs about $300). The only positive is that the insurance companies and RTA do talk to each other so you can do it all online!

Running the car is roughly the same as in any country. Depending on your attitude to risk and mechanical ability you have to get the car serviced at intervals - either by a dealer or any other garage. The costs, whichever route you take seem roughly simlar to the UK. Similarly, new tyres and so on are roughly the same price.

If you go to the dealer, to ensure that you get the service history, you then have to accept that they will stalk you every six months or so until you book the next service. We do not seem to do the annual mileage that is predicted, so we are always later than the garage would like in booking the service. The stalking starts with email and escalates to voice calls and texts. They then act all surprised when I actually call them and book a date!

Other than paying for the petrol, the only other thing you have to worry about is getting the car tested for a 'pink slip' each year, once it is over 5 year sold. Depending on whether it passes or not, this is a relatively simple procedure - book the test, turn up and cross your fingers. Armed with the pink slip you can then procee to get CTP and pay rego as above. Again, it all works seamlessly online.