On the Mornington Peninsula, the car that sits is still a car we want.
A car down here can go weeks without moving, parked at a house nobody is at, and then do all of its driving in one weekend.
That is a history with its own questions, and every one of them is easier told than found on the day.
- The inspector comes to you
- Australia wide
- Finance settled directly
4.9/5 from 500+ sellers across The Car Buyers group
Weeks at a time
A car that has sat still is not a car with something wrong with it
It has lived differently, that is all, and the difference turns up in places nobody thinks to ask about until somebody is standing next to it.
The pattern down here is its own thing. A house that gets used at the weekends and over summer, a car that belongs to the house rather than to the person selling it, and long stretches where nothing about it moves at all. Then a run of school holidays where it does everything, in and out all day, full of people, and after that it goes quiet again. There is no average week for a car like that, which is why the questions a buyer normally asks get nowhere near what it has actually been doing.
What standing still genuinely changes is a short list, and it is a list rather than a verdict. The small battery under the bonnet, the one that runs the locks and the screens, is usually the first thing to give up in a car nobody starts. Tyres that have not turned in a long while sit differently on the ground. Servicing comes around on a date rather than on a distance, because distance is not what is accumulating. And a car kept near the water gets looked over underneath, and around the fittings, in a way a car doing the school run does not. If the car in question is a plug in hybrid that stopped being charged somewhere along the way, that has a page of its own, and it works on the same principle. The thing you were bracing yourself to explain is the part that helps us most.
The other thing about selling from down here is that the car and the owner can be at two different addresses. The car is at the house, you are not, and the person who can open the gate is a neighbour or whoever holds the spare key. Say that on the first call and it stops being a complication, because it decides who the inspector is meeting and what has to be arranged rather than assumed. It also means the signing does not depend on you standing next to the car while it happens.
A car that sits
What we ask about a car that goes weeks without moving
Every one of them decides what gets looked at first, and what anybody should expect on the day when the car is started.
- How long does it usually go between drives?
- Weeks is an ordinary answer here and so is a good deal longer than that. It is not a mark against the car and nothing is deducted for it. It tells the inspector what to expect before a key goes anywhere near it, and it decides what gets checked first on the day.
- Where does the car actually live, and will you be standing next to it?
- A holiday house, a carport at a place you let out, a relative's driveway, a garage somebody else has the key to. This matters more than anything else on the list, because it decides who the inspector is meeting and whether the car can even be opened when they get there.
- What state do you leave it in when you walk away from it?
- Plugged in, left at whatever charge it happened to be on, or switched off at the wall until you are next down. There is no wrong answer here and nobody is marking it. It tells us how the car is likely to be when somebody arrives, and whether it will be awake.
- Has the small battery ever gone flat, or been replaced?
- The little one under the bonnet that runs the locks and the screens, not the one that drives the car. In something that sits, it is usually the first to give up, and a jump start you had to organise once is a perfectly normal thing to mention. Told, it is a line. Found on the day, it is an hour of everybody's morning.
- Is it serviced on a date rather than on a distance, and who does it?
- A car that hardly moves reaches its service by the calendar, and it is often whoever is closest to the house rather than the dealer who sold it. Neither of those is a problem. Have the book and whatever invoices exist in the car on the day, because a history somebody can read is worth more than a history you can describe.
Getting to the car
Three things that are true from down here
- Sitting still is not a deduction. Nothing is taken off because a car has been left alone. The battery is read at the car on the day, and the offer is built on what that reading says rather than on how often it was driven.
- The signing does not depend on where you are. The paperwork happens on your phone, which is what makes this workable when the car is at one address and you are at another that morning.
- What is owed on it is our job. Say it on the first call and the balance is paid out directly to the financier, negative equity included, with any shortfall put in front of you in writing first.
We work out of 374 Settlement Rd, Thomastown VIC 3074. The inspector comes to you, which is the part that matters from here.
Worth asking
Three worth answering first
It has not moved in weeks. Should I take it for a run first?
Only if that is easy. A short drive the day before does no harm and it means the car is warm and awake when the inspector arrives. If moving it is a job in itself, leave it exactly where it is. We would rather see the car the way it normally sits than the way it looks after an afternoon of preparation.
The car is down there and I am not. Can this still go ahead?
Yes, and it is worth sorting out on the first call rather than the night before. Tell us who will be with the car, who has a key, and who is actually selling it, because those are not always the same person. Once that is clear the rest of it is straightforward.
Does living near the water count against it?
It is something the inspector looks at rather than something taken off in advance. A car parked near the water gets a longer look underneath and around the fittings, and whatever is there is priced as what it is. What nobody should be doing is assuming the worst of a car because of the address it sleeps at.
Get a number built on the reading, not on how long the car sits.
Or call us on 03 9000 0075 and talk it through first.