One Van Down

One Van Down
Adelaide, Australia

Adelaide, Australia

So here we were in Adelaide, living in the moment that we had discussed god only knows how many times along the way. How long was it going to take to sell La Toya, what would we do whilst we tried to sell her and what would we do if she didn’t sell??!!??

We were checked into a campsite in Adelaide with a month on the clock before our flight and we had a selection of people who had contacted us and were awaiting our arrival in Adelaide to lock in a viewing slot. I am pretty sure that the people parked in the vans around us thought that I had a pretty serious case of OCD as I spent all day every day cleaning and washing La Toya as it just happened that there was a massive storm hitting Adelaide and being parked so close to the beach meant that every day she was coated in sand, great.

We loved La Toya and genuinely believed that the first person to look at her would buy her as there are not many 24 year old vans on the road in as good condition as our girl. Even when we first put her online we had call after call, one woman was ready to buy her unseen and was coming to drive her home to Perth, but she got cold feet and pulled out.

We had one call from a man, lets call him John (because I can’t remember his name) he was really serious, he knew his stuff, he knew what to ask and he was obviously very interested in La Toya, unfortunately he lived in Melbourne so had to rely on his wife who was coming to Adelaide to have a look at the van. We booked them in and still calls kept coming.

Next up was Bob, we will call him that because it is his name and I will never forget Bob. Bob lived in the Barossa Valley and so called and asked to see La Toya that night. He arrived with his wife and both were keeping their cards close to their chest. I got the feeling that the wife was not really interested in buying a van and wanted to hire a van to see if they like the camping lifestyle, but Bob seemed quite smitten with La Toya. They looked at the paperwork, took her for a drive and all in all stood around umming and ahhing for a good 3 hours. We suggested that they sleep on it and have a think but Bob was not having it and offered us a price. After a bit of negotiating we agreed, papers were signed, deposits were exchanged and everyone went off happy.

We started to formulate a plan for the next few weeks and had a lovely relaxed sleep knowing that we no longer needed to worry about La Toya.

Sadly the next morning the relaxed glee was quickly replaced with shock and surprise when Bob rang at 8am to say he had changed his mind and didn’t want to take La Toya as he had nowhere to park her. I am pretty sure his wife blew his head off when he got home and he had no choice but to call us, but it was not meant to be. La Toya was back on the market and we had a cash deposit in the bank.

The next day we had a call from a lady called Meredith, she didn’t really ask too many questions and only lived up the road and made an appointment to see La Toya in 2 days’ time, we marked it in the calendar and carried on taking call after call from John. Eventually John’s wife Mary called and came to see us. She had a good look around La Toya, drove her, asked the list of questions that her husband had given her and left. That night we had a string of calls from John asking this, that and the other, all things we had been over a million times before. He was keen but wanted to offer a derisory price so we passed. He didn’t like it and kept on about all the things that he would have to pay, Victoria registration fees etc. We left him to it and the following day got La Toya cleaned and ready for Meredith. Tim was not at all convinced that this lady was going to show but I was confident and had La Toya in her Sunday best.

So Meredith and Sue turned up bang on time and with a quick glance around La Toya there was no hiding their glee, they were in love and they wanted her. They just needed to check with the registration department whether there were any checks or fees to reregister her in SA but aside from that it was a done deal. We could not be happier especially that the features of fairy lights, a dashboard koala called Monty and Goofy from Disney as the tow bar cover were all the cherries on the top that sealed the deal, these were our sort of people and we knew that La Toya was going to a good home.

A couple of hours later with confirmation that La Toya didn’t need to go over the pits and just needed new plates it was agreed that she would be waiting for them in town to collect the following day. We spoke to John and Mary who didn’t take the news well and sent us odd texts saying ‘for your sake I hope the sale of La Toya went through’ and ‘we are still disappointed about the miscommunication of price’. With our bags packed for the first time in 5 months we were homeless and wheel-less, for about 5 minutes until we booked into a hotel and hired a car.

We had been keeping every fuel receipt over our journey and did the maths on La Toya’s last day. We worked out that we spent $1,617 on fuel and travelled 9,759 kilometers. With the help of Bob’s deposit we were able to give Meredith and Sue a bit of a discount on La Toya and we still got back what we paid for her, meaning that even with her trips to the garage for new bits and bobs she was definitely the most cost effective way we could have travelled.

The nice thing about selling a van that you know is in good order is that you can stay in touch with the buyers without fear of retribution. So we are still in touch with the lovely Sue and Meredith and know that our girl is having a lovely time in Adelaide visiting the Murray River with Monty and Goofy.

We still miss you Toy Toy, give her a kiss from us Sue &