The world famous Kings Cross Car Market that operated since 1991 from the Kings Cross Car park is sadly no longer. The old Car market was an institution, a place where backpackers would arrive with the most amazing array of aussie automotive buckets you were ever likely to see in one place. Good cars, cheap cars, outrageously over-priced cars, cars full of camping gear and outdoor gadgetry, cars on their last legs, cars that entered and never left, vans, bloody Kombi Vans, 4×4’s, and lots of Ford Falcon Stationwagons.

The old Car market was just that a car market. Sellers would arrive and pay for a parking spot, they would register their details and the car’s details in the Car Market Register, pay their fee and wait for someone to come along and buy their car.  Most sellers would tart their cars up with photos and design an eye catching poster “Long Rego included”, “New Engine”, “20,000kms without a  single flat tyre”, “One old lady owner previous”.

Just like any captialist free enterprise market place, the fortunes of the sellers, waxed and waned according to demand. Some people would sell in 5 mins, others spent 6 weeks in the car market, trying to secure their best price of $3000. I mean 6 weeks working in a bar would get you $3000 and be more fun, but hey, each to their own.

An institution it was, “no dealers” declared the car markets dated advertising. The car market was a place where backpackers sold to other backpackers. Only dealers rip off people, another backpacker would never do that! yeah right! I was the first ever manager of the KX Car Market and I saw many a backpacker buy a vehicle that was more f*cked up than a night out with Amy Winehouse, Kate Moss and Pete Docherty. One example was a VW Kombi, the absolute worst EVER vehicle to buy on the cheap and expect to drive around bloody Australia!! First mistake.  Anyway, along comes a couple, deadset on buying a Kombi camper, they fall in love with the bed, the cupboards, “OMG it has a Fridge Kevin!” and don’t even bother to do a mechanical check. Every seller in the place knows it’s running on 3 out of 4 cylinders! Did anyone tell them? No. The sellers in the car market had a code. Do not interfere or in anyway try to sabotage another sellers potential sale. To do so would have meant every other seller in the place would have spread the rumour that your car was RS and you’d never sell it.
One of the traditions that started way back in the beginning was whenever someone sold their car, once they had the cash in their hand they bought a carton or two of beer and gave a beer to every remaining seller in the car market. My original office in the car market was an old VW Kombi (only thing they are good for), it was packed to the rafters with single beer cans accumulated over time.

All this action went on right under the noses of the hustle and bustle of Kings Cross. Most locals in the Cross, and Sydney, barely new of it’s existence. It was on the second lowest level of an underground car park. Despite the comaraderie of the sellers, the place was bleak city, working there was horrible, the sooty particulate matter that settled on everything daily is still probably ticking away in my lungs. Bleak, dark dingy and cold. Cold in Summer and freakin’ freezin’ in Winter.

It was a highly emotive place, many punters had a lot invested in their cars and the tension as each day passed without a sale was not just palpable it tapped you on the shoulder and said “Are you talkin to ME!”.  Joy when a car sold was and  tears when the day came to fly out and the car wasn’t sold. It was brutal and for better or worse it’s over.

From a buyers perspective it was quite exciting, so many cars to choose from, all filled with camping gear, broken fishing rods, boogie boards and surfboards, tools and maps. Bargains everywhere or so it seemed.

The most popular backpackers car of all time- the FORD FALCON

Many buyers were predatory knowing full well that many sellers had sell-by-dates, fixed airline tickets and would simply lead sellers up the garden path hoping that as each day passed one of them would crack and slash their price dramatically.  Other buyers knew so little about cars it was scary. Young buyers, eager to make the biggest purchase of their lives, ticking all the boxes as suggested by the Lonely Planet Guidebook.  (For years the Lonely Planet ran the line ‘Buy a car that is registered in the state in which you plan to sell it”… this one little line screwed up so many young minds that it made life for dealers such as Travellers Auto Barn much easier, of course it was well meaning and kinda true but at the same time way way over simplistic, but what the Lonely Planet says is Gospel, right? Bless their patronising publishing souls and thank God for the Internet!). Anyway like any sample group in society there were winners and losers. Some got bargains that never broke down…..sounds like a song….I got a bargain that never..broke down, from Newtown to Perth and old Campbelltown but not matter how far or how wide I roam I still call me Falcon home”. Others bought cars and were back 2 days later trying to sell it in the Car Market, pretending they’d owned it for months, “yeah it’s been super reliable”, hoping to sell it to a sucker as dumb as they were a couple of days previously.

It was bleak city in the dungeon

On the whole the majority of buyers bought and sold for a reasonable loss, they wasted a week or so deciding which car to buy, they spent a week or so (better spent at Bondi or Byron) trying to sell, they had a few breakdowns along the way, breakdowns which in years to come will become great dinner table yarns, but they did it all themselves. It was more like a ritual of youth, as they could have acheived all of that just by going to Travellers Auto Barn and getting a serviced vehicle, with warranty and buyback guarantee (Shameless plug, I know, but relevant so forgive me).

But all that is history.

Today there is a Kings Cross Car Market located nearby. It’s the old Car Market in name only. When the Sydney City Council installed new operators at the Kings Cross Car Park, those new operators, being excellent car park business operators where not interested in this quaint backpackers car market that had been quietly going on underneath Kings Cross for all those years.

So the original operators and holders of the Kings Cross Car Market Operators License decided they would open up as a licensed Motor Dealer.

It’s important to note that as a Car Market Operator the only thing the original operators sold was a parking space, and it would be illegal to trade in cars while operating as a Licensed Car Market. To operate a Licensed Car Market you must hold a Car Market Operators License. If you hold a Car Market Operators Licence you can not hold a Motor Dealers Licence.

The new Kings Cross Car Market, which funnily enough, just happens to be located half way between the Travellers Auto Barn Workshop and our flagship showroom on William St, is a small garage that fits about 8 cars, and after many months of operation they’ve yet to put up any decent signage, so it can be a bit tricky to find.  The important thing to rememeber is that it’s no longer a place where you will find backpackers patiently waiting to sell their car to you. All cars for sale are owned by the Kings Cross Car Market, and the Kings Cross Car Market is a now the new kid on the block, a newly licensed inexperienced car dealer that has to compete in the real world with every other car dealer out there. Yes, setting up as car dealer offering similar services to Travellers Auto Barn could be called imitation or flattery and yes it’s nice to be imitated… whatever, Travellers Auto Barn has been a Licensed Motor Dealer since 1993, in the same premsies at 177 William St, we’ve sold over 10,000 cars, not 20, 000 places to park your car. A little less stretching of the truth in the current Car Market advertising would go along way. Man up guys!

Had fun writing this, hope you got a laugh out of it, and more than anything I hope I’ve stirred things up enough to get some feedback as I’d rooly like that.

Cheers,

Peter Burke – Managing Director, Travellers Auto Barn. First ever manager of Kings Cross Car Market and completely unco-ordinated at all ball sports.