How to sell a car in Tasmania

The three ways to sell, the paperwork Tasmania actually requires, and how long each route takes.

Your three options

There are really only three ways to sell a car in Tasmania: privately, to a dealer, or to a wrecker. Private sale can fetch the highest number on paper, but you do all the work — the ad, the calls, the test drives, the haggling, and the risk that the money never lands. A dealer buys it outright in one conversation and handles the paperwork. A wrecker is for cars that are genuinely at the end of the road.

If the car runs, drives and is registered, it is almost never a wrecker car — a dealer will usually pay meaningfully more than scrap value, because they can recondition and resell it.

The paperwork Tasmania requires

When a registered car changes hands in Tasmania, the seller lodges a Notice of Disposal with Service Tasmania as soon as the sale is done. That is the step that protects you: until it is lodged, fines and tolls on the car can still find their way to you. The buyer then transfers the registration into their name and pays the transfer duty.

Before any sale, run a PPSR check on your own car (it costs a couple of dollars at ppsr.gov.au). It shows whether finance is recorded against the car, which every serious buyer will check anyway.

Unlike some mainland states, Tasmania does not generally require a roadworthy certificate to transfer a registered car — but a recent service and a tidy inspection report do lift the price, because they remove the buyer's uncertainty.

How long each route takes

Private: typically two to six weeks in a regional market like Launceston, longer for unusual cars or over winter. Dealer: an offer usually the same day, and paid the day the paperwork is signed. Wrecker: a day or two, at scrap value.

If the car is finance-encumbered, the dealer route is also the simplest, because the payout to the lender can be settled as part of the sale rather than by you juggling two transactions.

What to have ready

Registration papers or proof of ownership, photo ID, both keys, the service books if you have them, and a payout letter from the lender if there is finance owing. With those in hand, a dealer sale can be done and paid in a single visit.

Keep reading

• Should I sell my car privately or to a dealer? →An honest comparison — money, time, risk and effort — so you can pick the route that suits you.
• What documents do I need to sell my car? →The short list that makes a sale take one visit instead of three.