Top 10 loose ends for used-car buyers to tie up

All the due diligence has been done, money has been exchanged, the keys have been handed over, you’ve sat yourself down in the driver’s seat and motored off into the sunset.

As tempting as it is to park the car in the driveway, slip inside for a coldie and admire your latest purchase from the comfort of a lounge chair near the window, there are matters that you should address at the earliest possible moment.

These are our tips for welcoming a new arrival to your home.

This is critical. You may have arranged a cover note or the 21st century online equivalent for the car, but the insurer will possibly want from you a written proposal – an application for insurance  – to issue a policy.

On the application form they’ll ask all sorts of things, including the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) – a 17-character alphanumeric identifier that distinguishes your car from all the others.

It’s best to make sure the proposal is submitted, and ideally with the first year’s premium, before the cover note expires.

Take particular care when transcribing the VIN – it’s easy to get it wrong when you’re dealing with 17 letters and numbers.

Hopefully, the previous owner will have supplied a roadworthy certificate and receipt for the car, to facilitate the easy transfer of ownership.

As a general rule, don’t buy a car without a roadworthy certificate, unless the car is unregistered as well, or it’s very cheap and your friendly expert mechanic has given it the once over and worked out how much it will cost you to make it fit for the road.

The previous owner should submit to the pertinent registration authority a notice of disposal, but you, the new owner, should also submit a notice of acquisition.

Even used cars incur stamp duty when ownership is being transferred to a buyer. The registration authorities collect this sum of money on behalf of the state government.

Expect a bill to be sent within a week or two after taking delivery of the car.

It’s possible that the previous owner has changed address recently, or they’re slack about having safety problems fixed.

You may find that if the car you’ve just purchased has been serviced by independent workshops, the car may not be up to date for all safety recalls.

For peace of mind, why not check for recalls on the ACCC website, which can be filtered for results specific to the make and model of your car by selecting the relevant information from the left of screen.

Car companies will track you down as the owner of the car through the registration authority, but that contact from the car company may be delayed by changing address or change of ownership.

So be proactive and find out for yourself whether you need to contact the importer to have the car fixed for any outstanding safety flaws.

There’s a limit to the number of phones you can pair with a car through Bluetooth. This may be as few as five or six.

If you plan for your partner and/or your kids to pair their phones to your car, you may need to delete the phones previously paired to the car by the former owner.

If your car rides on attractive and expensive alloy wheels, they may be a target for thieves.

To deter thieves, many owners have lock nuts fitted. These require a special key to unlock before the wheels can be removed.

Unfortunately, if thieves find the wheels locked to the car, their next recourse is to smash a window and go rummaging through the glovebox in search of the key.

You need to have the key with the car, so that service techs can remove the wheels to fit new tyres, replace brake pads or align the front-end.

But don’t make it easy for thieves. Use tape to fasten the key somewhere out of sight and not easily found by people who have no authorised reason to be in the car. The tape will prevent the key from rolling around and rattling or clanking over bumps.

Don’t forget where you’ve secreted the key though.

Leave a spare key in plain sight at home and you’re inviting burglars to drive off in your second car while you’re out at dinner or at work during the day.

If you can’t take the spare key with you, conceal it somewhere you’ll quickly recall if you should happen to need it.

Don’t hang it from wall hooks inside the front door in the kitchen – you’re just making it too easy for the neighbourhood Beagle Boys.

We all like to think we’re tech experts and that working out how to enable voice prompts for the satellite navigation will require just 10 seconds of trial and error.

But there are plenty of instances when you’re forced to read the manual – for the precise 16-step procedure to activate and use launch control, to adjust the clock for daylight saving or even to find out where the car’s jacking points are located.

The used car you’ve just purchased is a known quantity for thousands of cyberspace pundits who own the same make and model, but for you it’s the great unknown.

If there’s one sure-fire way to learn all the car’s flaws and quirks, it’s through a community of fellow owners.

Sometimes the depth of information available through an online owners’ forum is truly amazing.

Where to buy aftermarket replacement strut cartridges for a bargain-basement price, what’s the best workshop for strengthening your car’s transmission internals, how to drive the car on track days…

These are all items of information you can pick up from a forum, but the contributors aren’t just focused on modifying and ‘tracking’ their cars.

There’s also plenty of useful consumer information available, although readers sometimes have to sift through a lot of information that’s not so useful as well.

A diligent owner has likely kept all the receipts for work done on the car while in their possession, but if you don’t need that paperwork to prove a point, why not remove it from the glovebox and file it in a cabinet or some other appropriate place for the storage of documents.

You won’t need the receipts again until such time as you’re ready to on-sell the car, which may be years down the track.

Keeping the receipts in one place – perhaps stored with registration and insurance paperwork – will mean more room for the other stuff you actually do need to place in the glovebox.

If you’re a bit old-school, that could mean a street directory or music CDs. On the other hand, you may need the glove box left free for gloves... if you’re really old-school.

Your ‘to do’ list after purchasing a used car
• Make sure it’s covered by insurance – comprehensive or extended third party at the very least
• Ensure the registration authority is aware the vehicle has changed hands at the earliest opportunity
• Pay the stamp duty
• Check for any outstanding recalls applicable
• Read the owner’s manual for information you may need to know
• Keep secure – but in a handy location – anything that you may need in a hurry, but don’t want to be lost to theft
• Remove from the car any paperwork you may want to keep for a later date, but is just cluttering up the car in the meantime