Buying an Import from Interstate .....

[poita]

Has anyone here bought an already complied and registered (or non registered) import from interstate and gone through the process of registering it here in SA?

Regency tol me the following:

if its registered in another state (not sure what happens if its complied but never been registered before) and it has been complied under the new RAWS scheme (burgendy coloured complience plate, not a green one), then all you need is to drive the car in and get an ID check to make sure the engine/chassis numbers etc all match up and its not stolen etc. You do not have to do a roadworthy.

The thing that Im worried about, is that if I go in there with tinting, sports exhaust and mags, they will defect it and I will have to do a full Roadworthy anyway!

What sort of experiences has anyone here had doing this? Do they just check the ID and leave it at that or will they slap a sticker on it if they are having a bad ahir day?

Cheers

Pete

[P1E]

I brought my car in from Sydney, so I can answer your questions.

As long as the car in question is currently registered interstate, all you will need to do to transfer the registration into your name is take the car to either Regency Park or a place next to the Sturt Police Station for a vehicle identity inspection. I wouldn't recommend taking the Regency Park option though...

Regarding having your car defected during an identity inspection, it all comes down to how lucky you are on the day. I have heard of a number of people being defected, however my car went through without a problem. I had a 97db exhaust (keep in mind they inspect your car inside a tin shed), turbo timer, A-pillar guage and a number of other obvious defects. All they picked up were my tinted windows (even though they were down for the inspection), for which I received a 'formal caution'. To this day, I'm still not really sure what a 'formal caution' is. The caution did require a fair bit of sweet talking however. On that note, I would recommend you find out where all your engine numbers etc are so that you can point them out to the inspector. You might even want to give the numbers a bit of a clean so that you can clearly read them. You want to minimise the time the inspector spends under your bonnet. Also, be nice and talk to them about the weather or something. It'll help.

If you are unlucky, then yes, you will be sent to Regency Park for a full roadworthy inspection. If you don't want to take the chance, remove the obvious defects and you should be fine. I have never heard of anyone actively searching for defects during an identity inspection.

And hey, it's easier than buying from Japan...

[poita]

sweet, thanks for that.

Bout the only thing they might not like is the exhaust, as there is no turbo timer, guages etcetc. So that shouldn't be so bad after all then.

Whats this place next to Sturt Police Station? Ive never heard of it or Sturt before for that matter. Is Sturt a suberb in Adelaide or a town?

[Ronin]

Sturt is a suburb. The place next to the Sturt cop shop is on Sturt road funnily enough. Ive taken a ton of cars through there and regency when i used to work in car yard. Stay away from regency.

[STEALTHY]

just up from marion shops, and yes, i've heard they have persoanilties at sturt, no such thing at regency!

[poita]

Sounds like the place to go then! Thanks.

[turbo1]

Yeah, ive been down sturt and they were all good - I have to take my car down through regency though. Have a list of things they check and so forth, so hopefully all will be ok.

[Maxx]

i spot yr car in autobarn today

the paint looks good

[P1E]

What paint? The green? Or has it been resprayed purple? Or is that just a similar car I've seen?

[Maxx]

mainly purple with different angle shows green, those special paint