09/11/2017 - We buy a car

The previous day we spent visiting three different car dealers/garages. The route took us through the southern part of Auckland. We were able to locate the first workshop thanks to good reviews on Facebook. 'Chilli Rentals' is located in the Puhinui/Manukau district and works with a German placement agency. The cars that were in the workshop at that time all made a well-groomed and orderly impression. The owners (father and son) were also very pleasant to us. They showed us various campervan models and how they could be converted so that you can sleep and cook in them. Senior car mechanic showed us his fleet on his smartphone, which is parked in front of his house. With a good feeling but without a final decision, we made our way to the next workshop.
'Auckland Campervan', in the Takanini district, also had a large selection of vans. It was interesting to see how a campervan can still be converted and used. The friendly Pakistani car dealer made a great effort to make his cars appealing to us. However, we did not like the general condition and age of the vehicles. The desired prices for them were simply too high for us.
Then we had a slightly longer journey to the last selected car dealer. In the Shelly Park district, we met with the owner of 'Edcar' at 6:00 p.m. Edgar had a much smaller selection of cars. The few that could have been considered, however, exceeded our budget.

After a long, walking-intensive day, we decided to sleep on the impressions we had gained.

The next morning, we made up our minds. 'Chilli Rentals' will handle it for us. So we made our way to the workshop again and arranged an appointment at 2:00 p.m. to clarify everything else.
On the company premises, we spotted a striking red van that the father had already shown us on his smartphone the day before.
His son presented us with a few cars that would be suitable for us and our plans. After three different car types, he brought out the newly discovered red van. It quickly became apparent that this van matched many important characteristics for us (including size, year of construction, mileage). It is a spacious Mazda MPV, built in 2001, with only 110,000 km on the clock. After a thorough inspection and a short test drive, it was clear - this is the one! So we went to the dealers and signed the purchase contract. Super happy and with the best feeling, we left the workshop.

On Tuesday, November 14th, 2017, the car is ready for conversion (including bed) and equipped with camper utensils and fresh TÜV (MOT).

We are already looking forward to the first trip ... #leftdriving ;)