Should you buy an orphan car?

You’ve been scouring carsales.com.au for a used car and you find a model you’ve never seen before.

It has low kilometres, looks immaculate and it’s something that either wasn’t sold new in Australia or was in only small volumes.

Even better, it’s mystifyingly cheap compared to anything similar -- and more common -- you’ve been looking at.

Such a vehicle can be a pleasure to own, a unique car in a sea of vanilla lookalikes on the road.

Often it’ll be not only cheaper to buy but also fresher and better specified than you could otherwise get into, with the added bonus of attracting curious looks from other motorists or even an appreciative thumbs-up from car buffs.

It can be fun owning something different to anyone else.

We’re not talking about buying a classic car — that can have its own problems — or a hero-model low-volume performance car, but rather modern run-of-the-mill vehicles, up to say 15 or 20 years old.

For example, a Japanese-market used import, such as the Toyota Crown Majesta or even more obscure right-hand drive ex-Japan US models such as the generation five Cadillac Seville SLS or STS and Chevrolet Blazer.

One-off private imports cover almost anything imaginable, from a 2005 Volkswagen Phaeton we saw recently advertised on carsales.com.au to a Peugeot 807 people-mover.

Then there are the official imports that didn’t sell well, such as the 1991 Audi V8 quattro (14 imported), the 1991 Volkswagen Passat GL (14 imported) or, more recently, the Fiat Panda (about 650 imported).

Even if the car is already registered in Australia, it pays to check that it can continue to be.

Firstly, you have to check the vehicle’s compliance status, especially if you’re buying from interstate. If you believe it was sold new in Australia as an official import, still check that it has an Australian compliance plate fitted.

If it wasn’t sold here though official channels, check that the vehicle has a either a personal import plate, Registered Approved Workshop Scheme (RAWS) compliance or a low-volume import plate fitted.

Otherwise, without this compliance/registration approval, you’ll be buying a very large and expensive garden ornament. You won’t be able to get it registered anywhere in Australia without such a plate.

Even if it has a federal import/registration approval plate fitted, you can be in for extra fees if re-registering in another state. NSW charges an extra fee for a safety and identity check (formerly blue slip) on low-volume compliance models -- instead of $66, it’s $154.

Unless the mechanic doing the inspection has seen a model like it before (unlikely), he or she will be silently cursing you while trying to check things for the inspection such as where on earth the engine number is.

When comprehensively insuring such a vehicle, you might soon find that you have to pay a premium for it being so rare, because the insurance company knows that getting accident-replacement parts is going to be a nightmare.

Even worse, if it’s a real oddball, major insurance companies in particular might not insure it at all.

Getting parts can be a headache. If you’re lucky, your rare car will share mechanicals with a car that’s popular here, so that replacing routine maintenance items such as filters will be easier, but if not you might be waiting weeks with your vehicle off the road while the components come from overseas.

Even if maintenance parts are easily obtained locally, if you ever need panels, trims or switches, for example, you will have to import them from overseas. You will become an expert at scouring overseas websites for the parts you need.

Other spares and maintenance curveballs include tyre replacement -- if they’re odd sizes -- and windscreen replacement. While these parts usually can be sourced locally with some digging around, they won’t be cheap.

Often overseas parts will appear really cheap on the ‘net -- until you add shipping and duties, which can easily double the cost of the part once it’s at your door.

Then there’s getting work done on it. Sure, an oil change shouldn’t be too hard, but if something goes wrong that requires specialist knowledge, you might find that such specialists don’t exist in Australia.

As with the parts situation, you’ll become an expert at finding internet forums where enthusiasts discuss models such as yours and how to trouble-shoot its problems.

Of course if you tire of your orphan car and decide to sell, you aren’t going to shift it as easily as you would a more popular car that was sold new in Australia.

For most enthusiasts who buy orphan cars, the enjoyment of owning an obscure model far outweighs these challenges.

But if you’re simply looking for a good-value buy out of an orphan, you will be in for a lot more money and time to keep it on the road than you might have bargained for.

* Phil Lord is an orphan car tragic who has owned some of the cars pictured here [Ed]