After 2 years plus without a van, my fingers started twitching and I was weekly keeping an eye out on eBay, Gumtree and any local papers to see if there were any vans.
The only thing I had noticed was they were getting more expensive, including the vans that were not far from heading to the scrap yard. Nothing had really sparked my attention until a holiday, and happened upon a van less than a mile from where we were staying on gumtree that looked very good although pricey. So called up instantly for a viewing.
Straight away you could see this van was not used an abused, looked very tidy and the inside being bare gave a good indication that it’s not had a hard life. Looking in the usual spots around the windscreen, fuel filler, arches, rear floor and under rubber door seals there was no rust a few bits of flakey paint but that’s wear an tear and nothing to worry about.
Secondly the exterior paintwork had had some touch up’s including part of the sliding door resprayed in an off white but other than a couple of car park dings it was very straight, doing my best to look underneath all the same story good condition and what you would expect for the age.
Taking it for a test drive again no major problems arising, this was looking like a diamond in the rough. A quick look through some documents and belts have just been changed and some money spent on mechanicals this all looked to be a tidy 180,000 1.9td. The asking price was way above what I was prepared to pay, and well above what I thought it was worth minus the VW Tax but as we all know that VW Tax has to be applied as there are not many out there but plenty of people to snap them up.
So I left the van to have a think and check on the finances. The following day I made him an offer of what I was willing to pay far below his price but higher than I personally valued it at as I new the VW Tax would apply heavily here due to the scarcity of vans in good condition.
After having another offer fall through on the van at a higher price we had a haggle and met in-between my price and his, with me owning a Van and him having the cash two happy party’s.
Now the holiday turning into get the van ready to take home, the next day was spent taking the van to the garage and getting it up on a lift to see if there was anything we missed, again nothing of note so pressure washer and a waxoyl underneath to keep it fresh on the underside.
To make use of the ramp I freed up the rear strut bolts ready for lowering springs, and also wound down the front torsion bars to bring the front down 50mm. Not needing anything else to be done it was just left to sort the documentation out and my first go at the new car tax system and not having to put a tax disc up which went smoothly it was time to take it home.
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