So.. About Those Vehicle Status Checks..

[Borci88]

If anyone has been looking to buy a car in the last few days and has been doing their research on particular cars on whether they are written off or encumberanced, they may have noticed that it now costs money to find out those last two details.

Does anyone else find it absolutely insane that what was once a free check to ensure you don't buy anything dodgy, now costs money and less and less people will now bother to pay to know the current status of the car? Sure it may be stupid not too but why change now? Revenue raising at its best.

http://vre.vicroads.vic.gov.au/

Borci88.

[Johnie]

Yeah u gotta pay to check if its stolen/written off now, that sucks good on ya vicroads

Then again its only $3.70 and also checks if it has money oweing but adds up if u keep car shopping

Edited January 30, 2012 by Johnie

[Jack-]

I checked last week and it's free online, it's only if you want a peice of paper saying so.

[CrispyFries]

The http://www.ppsr.gov.au/Pages/ppsr.aspx became active today

There's goes checking the status of ebay cars I was mildly interested in

[Borci88]

I checked last week and it's free online, it's only if you want a peice of paper saying so.

Yes this changed from last Friday, now it costs $3.70, while it doesn't seem like much, Crispy is right in that I take a few that I like and check them and if they're good then I go further.

[Birds]

It's an arbitrarily silly charge for them to make for what was a free service, but...can't see how it should affect you too much, short of being a minor speedbump when buying. If you're serious about buying the car then $3.70 is nothing in the scheme of things and it shouldn't really matter at what stage the background check is done, as long as it's before you hand over your big wad of cash / put down a deposit. Realistically, how many cars are you going to come across where the seller hasn't been honest about the status of the vehicle...just go check them out and if it seems all good hand over your $3.70 for a background

[w34ponGT]

absolute GERMS

[mistamidget]

If this is all good, so what do we pay tax for then?

if all government departments become profit making centers then will we pay no income tax in the future??

and, so when did society shift from the "what can we do for you" to the "what can we do you for" paradigm"

talk about have your cake and eat it too!!!

EOR

[Odium]

They should keep this free, $3.70 is a joke... absorb it into the crazy taxes and fee's we pay to transfer a car into our name...

It costs VicRoads a hell of a lot more than $3.70 to recieve a phone call from someone complaining that they have bought a stolen / written off / etc car.

Surely it would be in their best interests to keep it free and encourage people to use the service?