Mobile Roadworthy Certificates in New Farm

Your local roadworthy inspector in New Farm

New Farm is a straight run down Brunswick Street from our Newstead base, and it's one of the suburbs we know best. It's also the one where the houses, rather than the buildings, decide how the job goes. Where the Valley and Newstead are basements and boom gates, New Farm is timber Queenslanders on stumps, narrow streets lined with figs, and cars parked underneath the house on a driveway that drops away toward the road.

Between the character houses there's the other half of New Farm: the low-rise brick walk-ups from the sixties and seventies along Bowen Terrace, Moray Street and the Brunswick Street end, usually with open carports or a rear parking strip. Those are the simplest jobs in the suburb, because the car is at ground level, out in the open and easy to get around.

Either way we come to you. The only thing worth thinking about beforehand is where the car will be standing when we get there.

The cars we see in New Farm

New Farm is an established suburb, and cars stay in the same hands here for a long time. A big share of our New Farm certificates are for a car that's had one owner for a decade or more, lived under the house out of the weather, and covered very few kilometres a year.

Those cars are usually mechanically sound, and the things that catch people out are age rather than wear. Tyres are the big one: a tyre can have plenty of tread left and still fail because the rubber has cracked and perished with age, which surprises almost everyone. Same story with wiper blades that have gone hard, perished suspension and door rubbers, a park brake cable that's stretched over the years, and seat belts that no longer retract properly. If the car has been sitting a lot, surface rust on the discs and a sticky brake caliper are worth expecting too.

The other New Farm pattern is the modern dual cab or large SUV bought for a house built around a 1960s sedan. There's nothing wrong with the vehicle, it just won't fit under the house, so it lives on the street or on the front pad, which is honestly the easiest place for us to work anyway.

Roadworthy questions, answered

• When do I need one? When selling or transferring a registered vehicle, transferring interstate rego to Queensland, or re-registering an unregistered vehicle.
• How long is it valid? A QLD safety certificate lasts 2 months or 2,000 km (whichever comes first) for private sellers.
• Do I need to be there? We need access to the vehicle and keys for a short test drive. As long as keys are accessible, you don't have to wait around.
• What if it doesn't pass? You get a clear list of what needs attention, get it fixed by any mechanic you like, then we re-check it.
• My car lives under the house on a slope. Roll it down to the kerb before we arrive if you can. We need flat ground to check the park brake properly and room to get underneath the car.
• It's a low-kilometre older car that's always been garaged. Will it pass? Usually the mechanicals are fine. It's the age items that catch people: perished tyres with tread still on them, hard wiper blades, seat belts that won't retract, a stretched park brake cable.
• My street is permit parking. Not an issue, just tell us when you book so we know whether to aim for your street or the next one over.