Nowhere of its own to plug in? In Melbourne that is a question, not a discount.
A car that has lived in an apartment carpark, on a permit space or on the street may never have had anywhere of its own to plug in.
Sellers apologise for that on the first call. It changes what is in the boot on the day and it changes nothing about what the car is worth.
- Or bring it to Thomastown
- Australia wide
- Finance settled directly
4.9/5 from 500+ sellers across The Car Buyers group
Charging in the city
The apology is the only part of this that costs you
Nobody here needs your car to have had a parking space with power in it. The reading is taken on the day and the number comes off the reading.
The call often opens with an apology. There was no spot to plug it in, the building never got around to it, the space came with the lease and the lease did not come with power. Sellers say it the way people confess to something, and a buyer who is looking for a reason to open lower is glad to hear it. It is worth understanding what has actually been said: that the car was charged somewhere other than at home. That is a fact about a parking space. It is not a fact about a battery, and it is not the same kind of thing at all.
What it genuinely changes is what is being handed over. There is no box on a wall in this deal, so the charging equipment is whatever is in the boot, and that has a page of its own at the cable in the boot because it is worth more than most people think. If your car has had the opposite life, a driveway of its own out in the suburbs and a charger bolted to the garage wall, then the question is a different one and it is worked through on the Werribee page. The other thing this changes is the paperwork. A car in this city can be registered to one address and parked at another, or have followed its owner through two moves without either being told, and that is a short conversation at the start of a sale or a stalled one at the end.
What it does not change is the valuation. State of health is a measurement taken in front of you, at your home or at your work, and on an electric car it moves the value more than kilometres do. Anyone prepared to price your car down from a story about where it parked is not reading anything. They are guessing, and a guess always lands in favour of the person doing the guessing. We would rather ask you five questions about the space and then go and read the battery.
What we want to know
What we ask about a car parked in the city
Not one of them decides whether we are buying. Each one decides what goes in the number, or what we bring on the day.
- Where does the car actually sit overnight, and is there power near it?
- A basement bay, a stacker, a carport off a lane, a permit space out the front, or wherever there is room that night. This is the answer that shapes the visit: whether a bay has to be booked, whether anybody has to be let in, and what the inspector needs to know before turning up.
- How has it been charged since you have had it?
- A lead run out to the space, a plug at work, a fast charger on the way home, or some mix that changed when you moved. There is no answer here that is worth less than another one. It tells us what is likely to be handed over with the car and what to ask you about before the inspector is standing in front of it.
- Has anything charging related gone missing along the way?
- A lead left at an old place, an adapter lent to somebody, a bag that never came back from a holiday. Say it early. It is a line in the offer rather than a problem with it, and the version of this conversation that goes badly is the one that happens in a carpark with everybody standing around.
- Has the building ever installed anything, and is any of it yours?
- Some buildings put something in, some let owners install their own, and some have a shared point in a corner that nobody talks about. What matters is which parts of it leave with you and which belong to the building. If none of it does, that is a clean answer and it changes nothing about the car.
- Is the car registered to the address it is parked at?
- In this city those two easily stop matching. It does not stop a sale and it does decide which documents we ask you to have ready, so it is worth checking now rather than on the day. Do it while you are looking for the second key, which is the other thing everybody hunts for on the day.
Getting to your car
Three things that hold wherever it is parked
- Public charging is not a deduction. Nothing about the way the car was charged is subtracted from the offer. The state of health reading is taken on the day and the number follows the capacity that is actually there.
- A carpark is a normal place to do this. The inspector comes to where the car is, at home or at work, and works around a visitor bay, a swipe card or a tight ramp. If the building is genuinely awkward, the street outside is fine.
- Money owing on it is our paperwork. Tell us on the first call and the payout is settled directly with your financier, including a novated lease and including negative equity, with any shortfall put in writing before anybody signs.
We work out of 374 Settlement Rd, Thomastown VIC 3074. The inspector comes to you, and if you would rather bring the car to us instead, you are welcome to.
Still wondering
Three this usually raises
It has only ever charged at public chargers. Does that count against it?
No. The offer is built off the state of health reading the inspector takes at your place, and that reading is the same reading whatever the car has been plugged into. Where it charged tells us what to expect in the boot and nothing else.
The car lives in a basement carpark. Can the inspector get to it?
Usually yes, and it is worth sorting out before the day rather than on it. Tell us if the visitor bay has to be booked, if there is a swipe card, or if the ceiling is low enough to matter. If the building is difficult, the kerb outside works perfectly well.
The registration is still at my old address. Does that hold things up?
It does not stop the sale and it does change which paperwork we ask you for, so say it on the first call. Sorting it out at the start is one short conversation. Finding it at handover is the thing that turns a signed deal into another appointment.
Get the number on the car, not on where it parks.
Or call us on 03 9000 0075 and talk it through first.