The Quick or the Dead

It seems I was wrong.
$19 000 will be enough to purchase a turbo diesel ST-R Navara, after all.

It's all in the timing. When perusing the Trading Post or Carsales.com, the trick is to check daily and be on the ball. If you find a potential vehicle (right car at the right price with low kms) and you don't phone straight away, you will probably find that it has already been sold by the time you get around to it.

After spending Saturday night down the coast, catching up with old friends for North Kirra Surf Club's 60th Anniversary celebrations (Steve's an ex-lifesaver), Steve returned home about 3pm and sat down at the computer to look for a new car. Jackpot! He found a likely candidate in an ad that had only been uploaded Saturday evening. A 2005 model, silver, style-side tray, turbo diesel ST-R Navara with only 150 000 kms on the clock (which is practically new for a diesel engine), at Labrador, for $20 000. It even comes with polished chrome carry bars, for carrying ladders, etc. "You'd get that for $19 000, easily" says Steve. I've said it before... his middle name should be 'haggle' - he will never pay the asking price. So he phoned the seller and asked about the car and whether he'd take $19 000 for it (yes, he would) and told him we'd be down in about an hour to have a look at it. So off we went, to a street at Labrador that Steve had driven right past on his way home earlier! Oh well... you get that!

The paintwork isn't perfect since it has been used as a work vehicle, but most of the scratches (from toolboxes and cabinets, since the current owner is a shopfitter/cabinetmaker) are confined to the inside of the tray. It has a small crease dent on the top of the right front guard, next to the bonnet. He had booked the car in to the panel beaters to get that fixed before selling.

We took it for a test drive, and as you'd expect from a four year old car, it drives perfectly well and has plenty of power. We decided to take it.

Rather than wait another two weeks (the earliest he could get it booked into the panel beaters), Steve asked him if he'd take $18 500 for it and we'd get the dent fixed ourselves. If you know Steve, you know he seems to know someone in every possible trade, and yes, we know a panel beater. He accepted our offer and we gave him $500 deposit. All he has to do now is get the road worthy done (hopefully today) and pay out the remaining amount owing on his lease to release the finance interest. Once the finance company processes his payment and advises him that it is officially "financially unencumbered", he'll give us a call and we will be able to go down to pay him, sign the transfer papers and pick up our new Navara.

At least the search and acquisition process was quick and painless... and did I mention the best bit? It's not white! Thank goodness we won't look like we own another "commercial vehicle". OK, so that might seem minor to you, but trust me, we don't really want to do that again. Not to mention white is too hard to keep looking clean!

After being Toyota owners for the last ten years, we have now crossed over to the 'dark side' and become the owners of a... gasp! ... Nissan. That might take some getting used to.

I'll post some pics when we bring it home.