Before and after buying a privately owned second hand car in East London recently, there were a few other things Tony and I needed to do too, before I could put the car into my own name. I hope that describing our own process of buying a privately owned second hand car in East London can help others.
Monies spent are included too, to help you budget accordingly – and some tips for privately owned car sellers too!
History, or why we needed to buy a second hand car in East London
my old wheels and my new wheels
We needed our own car now – and quite urgently, if only to get my children to school and back.
Luckily a friend let us use her bakkie for about 3 weeks, so we had temporary transport for sorting everything out – and also transport for going to the 2013 Christmas in July Hogsback Festival that coming weekend which we’d just paid for half an hour before our accident on the Monday.
What next?
Initial first few days, inbetween the freelance work that we do, was spent taking my two sons to school and back, getting more stock of our products ready for the Christmas in July trip that weekend, communicating with and sorting out car insurance stuff on behalf of my father, and working out how to come up with enough money for another car quite urgently.
Once that was all over, it was off to Hogsback for two nights in our friend’s bakkie. Monday was more sorting out of car insurance stuff, and a chance to start looking for a new car for ourselves – 7 days after our car accident.
Looking for a Privately Owned Second Hand Car in East London
Pretty much, the first place we started to look for an East London privately owned car was online, on Gumtree. We chose three cars that we liked, and contacted the three owners. We didn’t feel the replies of two of them were all that professional, but luckily the third was more professional, as well as being a reply for the car that we were the most interested in, of the three cars.
Tip for a private car seller: be professional in your communications with a potential buyer.
It was for sale for R25 000, but we had only R20 000. We decided to give it a shot anyway, and the owner agreed to let it go for R20 000 – if we were happy with it after seeing it.
Tip for a private car seller: advertise your car for more money than you might actually accept.
The owner of the car seemed new to selling a car, and we were fairly new to buying a privately owned second hand car. About 30 friendly emails between us and the buyer ensued, to make sure we were both happy with arrangements, and with what was expected from each other.
Tips for a private car seller:
Have your car registration and licence papers ready,
Have a certified copy of your id ready – and a copy of your marriage certificate if your surname is different to when you bought the car, and your contact details, all ready to give to the potential buyer should they buy the car
Have your bank details ready,
Have a change of ownership paper (yellow form) ready, or be sure that the potential buyer is bringing one,
Have a “sold as is” document ready for the potential buyer to sign,
if possible be prepared to allow the potential buyer access to your computer and Internet so that they can do an electronic funds transfer right in front of you,
have a receipt ready for the buyer,
to assist the buyer in making the decision to buy your car at the price you want, perhaps have a copy of the last (hopefully recent) receipt for a service that the car had, and copies of any receipts for fairly recent mechanical repairs, car parts, or new tyres, wheel balance and alignment etc, to help convince the buyer that the car will pass roadworthy first time round,
Ask the potential buyer to bring a certified copy of his or her own id that you can keep.
The morning of going to view the car
So it was the next day, Tuesday, that we planned to go and see the car at about lunchtime, on a farm outside East London. It was quite a drive, the owner had luckily agreed to R20 000 instead of R25 000, we didn’t want to lose out on the car if we liked it, and we didn’t want to have to drive the distance (over 70 km to the farm) again, so we needed to have everything ready if we wanted the car, to buy it and drive it away right away.
In case the owner of the car didn’t have a change of ownership paper (yellow form) ready for us, we went to the East London Traffic Department to get one. They didn’t have and sent us to the East London Licensing Department in Oxford Street – on the corner of Oxford Street and Caxton Street, with the entrance in Caxton Street – one block over from the Daily Dispatch Offices on the corner of Caxton Street and Cambridge Street.
Try not to go alone, as its difficult to find parking, and the driver of the car can drive around the block once or twice while the other goes in and collects a yellow form – collect a blue car registration form at the same time, and then you already have it for after your new car passes its roadworthy test.
Then we went to PostNet in the same road as Vincent Fruit and Veg, almost opposite Maclears Stationers and Bessies Fabrics. At PostNet we made a few copies of my id and had the copies certified as certified copies of the original – we added my drivers licence card alongside my id book at the same time, just in case somebody needed that too.
While at PostNet we also faxed some details and papers to my father’s car insurance place, like a sketch of the accident, a written description of the accident, details and contact details of the other driver, and my father’s car insurance claim number and his contact details, certified copy of my id and drivers licence, and my contact details. We had already emailed the quote for repairs to the car (none – it was a write off, but the quote still needed to be sent to the car insurance place before the assessor would go look at the car, where it had been taken to at Border Towing and Recovery Services)
Then to the bank to ask them to show me how to see online what my limit was on doing an electronic funds transfer payment in one day. Luckily it was more than the cost of the second hand car, so we’d be fine if we wanted the car, and could do an immediate electronic funds transfer on the seller’s computer, using her Internet.
Next it was off on the drive to a farm outside East London to see the car we might buy. We had a good idea that we’d probably be buying it, but of course we wanted to see it, test drive it, and be sure we wanted it.
Tip for a private car seller: display more than just one or two photos of your car wherever you are advertising that it is for sale, and be patient, professional, friendly and polite with the potential buyer even if they have many questions ahead of coming to see your car.
Viewing the privately owned second hand car
The owner of the car pointed out anything that she knew was wrong with the car, but they seemed like minor things, like a teeny bit of rust in one spot, a tiny chip on the windscreen that had been repaired, and two of the door locks difficult to grip due to their tops having broken off. She pointed out good things too, like the two recent new tyres on the back wheels.
We offered that she come with for a test drive, but she was fine with not coming with. We left my friend’s bakkie’s keys with her, and took the car for a short test drive on a dirt road. I drove about one kilometre out and then the one kilometre back again. I was happy other than struggling a bit with getting the car into first gear easily. Tony and I both assumed it was just because I was not used to the gears being so close together.
Buying the second hand car
We gave the car seller a certified copy of my id, and we did the electronic funds transfer on her computer.
We both filled in the yellow form – the change of ownership paper.
I signed the “sold as is” document for the seller.
We promised to meet the seller at the Gonubie Traffic Department two days later, so that she could see that we put the car into my own name – she didn’t want us taking long to do that and risk us getting any traffic fines while the car was still in her name.
She gave us my receipt, a copy of her id and marriage certificate, the car’s registration papers, the filled in yellow form, and a receipt of where the car was last serviced in case we wanted to use the same place.
We said thank you and I drove my friend’s bakkie, and Tony drove my new car – home. We got home safely, and were happy with our purchase.
Two days later, already have driven about 250 kilometres, we were almost home when there was a scraping sound coming from the left rear wheel. Got home and took the wheel off, only to discover that the car needed a new wheel bearing. Used my friend’s bakkie which we still had and went to Midas to get a wheel bearing kit, some grease, and a new wheel spanner as the one that came with the car had broken when we had tried to get the extremely tight wheel nuts off. Cost R170 for all three items. Tony changed the wheel bearing and all was fine again.
Going to the Gonubie Traffic Department
The seller of the car had communicated with us that she needed to change the meeting date to the day after the arranged date, the Friday, and we arrived at the Gonubie Traffic Department shortly ahead of her. When she arrived we’d already been in. It was only upon asking that we discovered that the roadworthy had to be done first, before we could register the car in my name. While in the Gonubie Traffic Department we also noticed that we could have gotten a yellow form and blue form there, ahead of going to view and buy the car.
We apologised for the inconvenience when she arrived, but it was no big deal as she hadn’t known this either (that the car first had to pass roadworthy before it could be registered in my name.)
We said we’d keep in touch and let her know when the car had passed roadworthy.
Getting our new second hand car through roadworthy
While at the Gonubie Traffic Department anyway, we asked what the costs of roadworthy were. It was R183 for the roadworthy application – and that was to have the roadworthy test done right over the road from the Gonubie Traffic Department at the roadworthy testing grounds there, and then when the car passed roadworthy, it would be R69 for the certificate ( a total of R252 )
I guess we could have had it done right away since we were there already, but we’d heard that the Gonubie roadworthy testing place was very strict, and we wanted to try another place. We left Gonubie and drove to the Cambridge Goods Sheds area at the top of Western Avenue near Hemingways Shopping Mall. We parked outside the Dekra roadworthy testing place to go inside and ask questions. There were quite a few cars waiting there already, even though it was only about 9am. It was first come first served, and we’d have to wait about 6 hours before the car was tested. The roadworthy testing would also cost about R445 compared to Gonubie’s R252. They did tell us that if we wanted it to go quickly we should be there at about 7.30am.
We left deciding that we’d give the Gonubie roadworthy testing place a shot first thing on Monday.
We were at the Gonubie Traffic Department by 8am on Monday, and paid R183 and applied for roadworthy testing, then over the road for the testing. We were the second people there, but the first car was nearly done, so we didn’t have to wait for more than about 10 minutes.
They did all the testing, and ticked off or made notes on a sheet of paper (a document that listed all the roadworthy checking or passing criteria.) The car failed its roadworthy test – but not for too many things wrong, and we were given 14 days to get the car fixed, and to bring it back for re-testing (or we’d have to re-apply.)
What the car needed done to it before it stood a chance of passing its roadworthy test in Gonubie:
one front spotlight replaced
two new inner cv boot rubbers
easier selection of first gear
more equal braking
two new front tyres and wheel balancing
wheel alignment
Our costs of getting these things done:
Car parts bought – new, not second hand:
spotlight at Merbeda in Chiselhurst, pretty much in the street behind Jumbo Bazars – for R228 – vs first quote from Midas in Vincent of R275 and second quote from Midas in Vincent of R235 – but Midas didn’t have the correct spotlight in stock anyway.
two inner cv boot rubbers – from Midas for about R157
gear linkage bush kit – from Midas for about R25
Phoning around to find an inexpensive mechanic to replace the two inner cv boot rubbers with the new ones, fiz the tricky first gear, and fix the unequal braking – found a mechanic who kept the car for two nights, working on it between doing other work, for R550 – got the car back the Friday morning, 4 days after the car had failed its roadworthy test. We still had ten days left to have a re-testing done. Tony changed the spotlight.
On the Monday we took the car for two new front tyres, wheel balancing and wheel alignment – at Auto Tyres in Cambridge, for R1 280.
The next day, the Tuesday – two weeks since we’d bought the car – we took it for its re-testing at the roadworthy place in Gonubie, at about 8am. We were the first people there.
The car failed again. Everything was fine except for the unequal braking. The roadworthy place suggested we go to Gonubie Mechanical Services, and we did. They could see us almost immediately, and fixed the problem in about 25 minutes, for R80.
Back to Gonubie roadworthy – and the car passed!
Over the road to the Gonubie Traffic Department, stood in the roadworthy queue, paid R69 and got our roadworthy certificate.
Registering my new second hand car in my name – at last!
Stood in the other queue next, and handed in all the papers (copy of id, change of ownership form, receipt from when I bought the car, roadworthy certificate, and the filled out registration form.)
Paid R102 for the vehicle registration paper, and R196 for the licencing (not sure if this amount would be different if the car’s old licence was expiring in a different month – it would have expired in November this year – 4 months after we bought the car) and R36 transaction fee = a ( total of R334 ) and finally got my vehicle registration paper, and my car licence paper!
Once home, took a good photo of the vehicle registration paper, and of the car licence paper and emailed the photos to the previous owner, to show her that the car was now in my name, and that she could rest easy about any traffic fines we might get.
Two weeks from the day of buying the privately owned second hand car, to getting it registered in my name. Seemed hectic during it all, but doesn’t seem so bad now that it’s all over 🙂
A recap of the costs:
Second Hand Car R20 000
Car parts and mechanical services R1 210
Two new tyres, wheel balance and wheel alignment R1 280
Roadworthy application at Gonubie Traffic Department R183
Roadworthy certificate R69
Registering the car in my own name R334
Total: R23 076
© Copyright Teresa Schultz 2013
