The trip for VW T4

Yesterday we went to Włocławek to buy Volkswagen T4 bus. The car was supposed to cost $3,000 and because of that was in the range of my savings. Tomek talked to the seller on the phone, we were going to meet him at 7 PM. We were about 20 minutes late, to late to buy the car.

There were three people standing next to the van as we arrived, we asked them if one of them was the guy Tomek spoke to. As we were told, they also wanted to look at the car. We waited for the owner for a few minutes and when he finally got there there were two people with him. They bought the car. The guy was kind enough to give us $30 for the fuel (we spend about $50 :( ).

Tomek said that he'd encourage me not to buy this car. In that case we'd have to go home for free, since he sold the car we got a part of the money we spent -- better this than nothing...

The third purchase failure

Yesterday I went with Tomek to Kielce (a city 180 km, 110 miles from Warsaw) to buy a VW T3. I phoned the guy who wanted to sell it at noon, we decided to meet there at 8 PM. At 7:45 PM he calls me and asks me if we left Warsaw already. "Yes, we're 32 km (20 miles) from Kielce at the moment", I replied. Why did he call me? Because he sold the car.

I don't know if I am trying to buy the car from idiots. This one is surely an idiot. He could tell me that someone is going to see the bus, I'd leave Warsaw later or stay at home if he sold it. Now I guess he needs to refund me the trip costs since diesel fuel in Warsaw is not free.

YouTube - Vw Bus Crash Test

This is VW Doka (doppelkabine -- double passenger compartment and open space for cargo) crash test. Doesn't look nice...

The senseless trip to Kraków

The first T3 I mentioned last time(Vanagon) was sold very quickly, before I got a chance to meet the guy and see the car. I tried to phone him but his phone was offline. I checked the ad the next morning just to see that it was sold. No wonder he turned his cellphone off.

Yesterday we went with Ania and Tomek to Kraków. On the internet the car looked very nice, but with rather unfortunate photos:

The outside, front:

The outside, back:

Inside, you see almost nothing. I don't know if the guy who made this photograph was an idiot, because it shows nothing important. Or maybe it was made this way on purpose?

The front seats:

When we saw the car it looked a bit less interesting. The bumpers were painted without removing the license plates. The engine was wiped with a cloth in the places where one could put his hand, I guess to hide the oil leaks. The front dampers and the rear tires need to be changed. The engine makes some strange noise, like some metal parts are hitting each other while they're not supposed to do so. I asked the owner how much oil the engine losses and he said that it leaks the oil through the turbocharger but didn't answer my question. The engine was said to be used only on a distance of 35,000 km (something around 17,000 miles) so it is very interesting why the turbine leaks oil. Tomek drove the car for a moment and after that the guy asked me to decide.

"2.3", I said.
"What?"
"$2,300", I replied.
"Good-bye then".
"Good-bye".

So we went home. We had to stop on a petrol station and Tomek tried once again to discuss the matter with the guy. He spoke to him for more than 10 minutes, trying to convince him to sell this car for no more than $2,600, with no success. The guy did not want to change his starting price for a bit!

This leaves me with $100 charged on my credit card for fuel for Tomek's mercedes vito and with 10 hours of my time used for nothing.

Since I will not buy the car before the summer vacation (it started week ago), I will have to use my prescious fiat 126 for all the trips we (Ania and I) plan. I'll try to save another $1,000 or more and check if I can buy something better. Now there's now rush since I'm already late. :)

T3 purchase: failure

On friday the guy who sells the T3 called me to say that the car was towed to a police parking. His friend borrowed the car to go somewhere and was halted by a police officer. As the car was not registered in Poland yet (and was brought from Germany), they towed the car to the parking and the guy was asked to visit the police station for questioning.

Seems that I won't buy this car. The guy said that he'll send me the money I left him back, along with some cash to cover the trip.

At the moment there are two T3s I want to see.
* First is a Vanagon (version of T3 for american market), with 2.9 liter engine, 200 HP and a lot of rust. It costs less than $1,500. The car is somewhere near Warsaw. It has LPG autogas tank and installation.
* Second is a camping version of T3 -- along with bed and table it has a sink, stove and few cupboards. The guy wants to sell it for $3,000. The car is in Kraków, 300 km (180 miles) from Warsaw.

I guess that I will go and see the first one, if I'll like it, I'll buy it. It'll be a very frightening experience to drive a car with 200 HP after using a fiat 126 with small, 24 HP engine...