Buying a used car in NSW.
The registers, the transfer, the duties and the insurance — in the order you actually need them, with a plain-English guide behind each step. Then the part the paperwork can never answer.
Five steps, in order.
Run a PPSR check before you drive out to see it
The government register shows finance owing, written-off status and whether the car is reported stolen. A lender's interest survives a private sale, so this is the cheapest protection you can buy.
PPSR checks explainedDecide whether a paid history report is worth it
Commercial history reports bundle the PPSR data with odometer records and insurance claim summaries. Useful, sometimes duplicated — here is what the free and paid checks each cover.
Free vs paid history checksKnow what the registration transfer involves
Who lodges it, the 14-day window, what happens if the seller does not submit a notice of disposal, and the documents Service NSW wants from you.
Transferring NSW registrationBudget the stamp duty and registration costs
Stamp duty is charged on the purchase price or market value, whichever is higher, and it lands on top of the transfer and registration costs. Work it out before you negotiate, not after.
Stamp duty and rego costsSort the CTP green slip
A NSW vehicle cannot be registered without compulsory third party insurance. Here is how the green slip works, when you need it, and how the price is set.
CTP green slips explainedWhat the paperwork can't tell you.
Every register above describes the car's legal and financial history. None of them has ever looked at the car.
- Mechanical condition — a tired engine, a slipping gearbox, a blocked DPF or a weeping head gasket leave no paper trail at all.
- Accident repairs that were never written off. Straightened, resprayed and sold looks identical on paper.
- Odometer tampering, unless it happened around a recorded write-off event.
- Flood and water damage the insurer never saw.
- EV and hybrid battery state of health — the most valuable component in the car, invisible to every register.
- Service history gaps, overdue timing belts and the kilometres a car did on a rideshare platform.
Book the inspection before you sign anything
A mobile inspector comes to the car anywhere across Sydney, the Central Coast, Newcastle or Wollongong. 150+ checkpoints on Comprehensive and Elite, an OBD-II scan on every tier, and the report handed over on site. From $199.