Articles by Stephen Corby

Now look, obviously telling anyone that a particular second-hand car will have bulletproof reliable is a bit like telling them that skiing is a totally safe hobby, or advising them to invest in blue-chip stocks.Sometimes, things just don’t work out and if your friend ends up with a broken leg, an empty bank account or a total lemon of a car on their driveway - it can be embarrassing, or a friendship killer.So, we must proceed with caution, and caveats. We’re also trying to live in the real world here. I have good reason to believe, for example, that Porsches are hugely reliable. I once asked a Porsche engineer whether it was true that every single part of the company’s cars was over engineered by 200 per cent, and he looked truly offended and said “No! No, it’s more like 400 per cent.”This might explain, at least partly, why Porsches are so expensive, and why they remain pricey, even as second-hand cars. So, by all means, if you can afford a used 911, it’s probably a good investment, it’s just not one we can all make (more realistically, if you want a second-hand sports car, it’s hard to go past a Mazda MX-5, of any vintage, because they are fantastic to drive, reliable and relatively affordable).At the other end of the spectrum, we don’t want this list to be entirely dull. There’s an argument, particularly from people who only buy Toyotas and believe in them religiously, for suggesting that all of the 10 cars on this list should be Corollas, Camrys, Yarises, Priuses and so forth.Yes, Toyota is fairly famed for its unbreakable reliability, and Top Gear certainly did its best to help that reputation with its failed attempts to destroy a HiLux.But here’s an interesting wrinkle for you. When Australians were asked by Canstar, to rate their own cars for reliability, just last year, the results were telling, and fascinating.Coming in first, by a clear margin, as the most reliable brand, was Mitsubishi. Sure enough, Toyota came in second, followed by Kia, Mazda, Suzuki, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Hyundai, Honda and Volkswagen.The less-loved five, hanging behind the top 10, were Nissan, Holden, Audi and Ford. So you won’t see any of their cars on this list, although we’d still like to recommend used versions of the VF Commodore to those of you who don’t mind taking a slight reliability risk, just because they were such fantastic cars, and clearly the last big sedans that will ever have been built specifically for our conditions.And just one other personal caveat. Whenever people ask me what sort of second-hand car they should buy I give the same answer - “whichever Subaru you can afford, and in whatever shape suits your lifestyle”. I still stand by this, because in my experience the brand has rock-solid reliability, combined with excellent driving dynamics, all-wheel drive and tough, hardy interiors. It’s just a shame they mostly lack visual appeal.Here, then, in no particular order are our careful recommendations.

Back before the wondrous invention of speed cameras - or “road-safety cameras”, sorry - a speeding fine would generally be in your hands within minutes of a police officer pulling you over for the offence, but today they are often sent out by mail, which is, to put it mildly, an inexact science.

The problem with cars is that all the ones you really, really want - the ones you'd have posters of on your wall if you were still young enough for that to be acceptable - are too expensive.

You might have heard that some points expire after just 12 months, but that’s not the case, once you’ve got them, you’re stuck with them for a full three years.

Buying a car that's subject to finance, however, rings more alarm bells than someone attempting to dance cheek to cheek around the Louvre with the Mona Lisa. It is, of course, just as viable to buy a car subject to finance as it is a house, as long as everything is above board.So the possibility of a private sale turning into a financing tangle shouldn't put you off; more than four million used cars change hands annually in Australia, and the benefits of buying privately are obvious.All you really need to do, as with any major purchase, is do your homework beforehand when it comes to finance, just as you would when looking at a car's maintenance issues, service record and so on.You need to be absolutely sure about a car's financial state, of course, because the onus is on you to do the checking, and if you don't you could be driving into a world of hurt.As we said in our article on selling financed cars, it all comes down to how car loans work. Because car finance uses the car as security, the loan is applied to the car, not its owner. The owner is still obliged to repay the loan, and until they do any unpaid amount on the loan is held against the car, not the borrower.This is where it can get a little murky for prospective second-hand buyers. While dealers and auction houses are obliged to provide proof of a clear title – and face stiff penalties for breaching their obligations – private sellers aren't subject to the same regulations.The big risk of buying a car that has finance attached is that you lose the carThis means that any number of problems can lurk beneath an ostensibly good deal, including hidden interests in the car. If you unwittingly buy a vehicle with money owing against it, you'll get slugged with the debt or lose your car completely when the finance company repossesses it to recoup its losses, as Justine Davies from loan-rating service CANSTAR explains."The big risk of buying a car that has finance attached is that you lose the car," she says."If that car has been used as security against the loan then the financial institution has ownership rights."It really is that serious. Australian law dictates that the buyer is responsible for checking the vehicle has a free title; if it all falls apart, you don't have a leg to stand on, but you'll need two to walk everywhere.You'll either have to pay out the balance of the loan, or the car will be repossessed and sold, leaving you with little more than empty pockets and a lot of time to regret your decisions as you wait for the bus.As long as any finance arrangement is out in the open, there's really no problem with buying a car that's still subject to a loan; it's only when a seller hides the fact that there is still money to be paid that everything goes pear-shaped.If the seller hasn't advised you that they still owe money on the car, it's a fair indication one of two things is going on. The seller is either purposefully defrauding you or, in a hugely unlikely scenario, simply doesn't know about the car's encumbrance. In either case, it's time to walk away.Check the Personal Property Securities RegisterWhile this all sounds daunting, there's a simple and cheap way to avoid coming to grief – check the Personal Property Securities Register, or PPSR.The PPSR is the new name for the old-school REVS (Register of Encumbered Vehicles) check, which was outmoded in 2012 (the government version at least, privately run sites like revs.com.au still exist).The PPSR is a vast, nation-wide register that keeps track of the loans held on Australian cars, motorbikes, boats and anything else of value, even artwork. The older REVS system was a state-by-state concern that only handled vehicles."You can visit http://www.ppsr.gov.au to conduct a check using the car's Vehicle Identification Number," Davies explains.Do your first check at the point that you're considering buying the car"If your potential car is under finance, the certificate that you receive from doing a Personal Property Securities Register search will detail the type of loan and who holds the loan."Running a check through the PPSR costs just $2 and gives you concrete proof of the absence or presence of a loan. It's so cheap, in fact, it's worth doing twice."Ideally, do your first check at the point that you're considering buying the car," says Davies."Do another check on the day of purchase, before you hand over the bank cheque or do the online transfer, just in case the seller has taken out a quick loan in between."If you do your due diligence beforehand and deal with an honest seller, there's no reason why buying a car that's still under finance should be any more difficult than buying one with a clear title. It's important, however, to make sure that when you sign your name to the bill of sale, there's no money left owing against the car."If you are going to buy a financed car – perhaps, for example, the seller can't pay off their car loan until they have the cash from the sale – then conduct the sale transaction in the office of the financial institution that holds the loan over the car," says Davies."That way you can pay for the car, the seller can pay off the loan and you can take unencumbered ownership of the car all at the same time."It's a lot like attending a real estate agent or a bank to sign the documents for buying a house, only the figures on the papers you're signing are slightly less likely to give you heart palpitations.

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