Which car inspection do you need?
People who search for a car inspection in Adelaide usually mean one of two things. One is the official inspection the state sends some cars to, the kind many people look up by the name Regency Park, a mainly industrial suburb about 6 km from the city centre. South Australia decides which cars need one, and sa.gov.au is where to check. Vehicle inspections in SA has more on that.
The other is a pre-purchase inspection: a check you ask for yourself, as the buyer, to find out what the car needs before you hand over a deposit. That's the one a local mechanic does, and it's what this page is about.
What a good pre-purchase inspection covers
- The engine, cooling system, fuel system and exhaust: leaks, smoke, noises and how it starts from cold.
- The transmission, and the wheels, tyres, suspension and steering.
- The battery, charging and the rest of the electrics.
- A road test at the speeds the car will really be driven.
- The service book: stamps at the right kilometres, and invoices that line up with them.
- A written report that splits what needs doing now from what can wait.
Buying a used car around Adelaide
Cars that have been up north
The Flinders Ranges start about 200 km north of the city, and beyond them the Oodnadatta Track alone is 614 km of unsealed road. If the seller mentions trips up that way, ask the mechanic to look hard at the suspension, the tyres, the underbody and the air filter.
Cars from the Hills
A car that has driven down the South Eastern Freeway into Glen Osmond every working day may have done more braking than its kilometres suggest. Ask for the pads and discs to be measured, not just glanced at.
A used Holden
Holden built cars at Elizabeth, in Adelaide's north, until 2017, and the brand stopped trading at the end of 2020. Inspect a used Holden like any other car, and ask the mechanic how easily parts come for that particular model.
The official check isn't the whole story
Where other states spell it out, their official inspection is a safety check, not a verdict on the car's overall condition. Queensland's transport department says that of its own safety certificate and points buyers to a motoring group for a full mechanical inspection, and WA says its inspection shouldn't be used to value a car.
Before the mechanic looks at it
Run the VIN through the Personal Property Securities Register first. It shows whether money is still owed on the car, and a written-off or stolen car is worth ruling out before you spend anything else on it.
Ask the seller where the car can be looked at. For its mobile inspections RAA, South Australia's motoring club, wants a flat spot off the public road with room for a trolley jack, and says some older or rare cars need a hoist, so those are done at a workshop. Allow up to two hours.
If a seller won't allow an inspection, Consumer Affairs Victoria's advice is not to buy the car, and that holds in Adelaide too. Buying privately also means buying at your own risk, because the Australian Consumer Law's guarantees don't cover a private sale.
If we were the buyer
We'd check the PPSR on the VIN, then have the inspection done before paying a deposit, with the seller's okay to look at the car where it's parked. And we'd treat the report's list of jobs as part of the conversation about the car, not an automatic reason to walk away from a good one.