Becoming car owners in one day

The title is misleading because yes - we bought ourselves a car in less than 24 hours, but this was preceded by months of headaches and daily FB group surfing. Since it's high season here, there are many transactions happening, and most good vans were already sold before we had woken up living 11 hours "in the past". Just checked - I've chatted with over 30 different sellers on Facebook in the last month alone...

Wait... but why not rent? Because renting for 3 months during peak season costs the same as buying. And unlike renting, with purchasing, you can sell the car afterwards and recover some costs(Rauno: I mean... technically we could sell the rental as well, but that wouldn't look great on our "resume" next to the big fat cucumber-strike). Plus the fact that by the time we started thinking about getting a car a couple of months ago, most rental companies' vans were already booked (again - peak season).

For the car purchase, three serious options remained on the table:

• Kieran, a local guy who just had his second child and knew his old van would be too small. He was selling a simpler but also 10K cheaper ride;
• German guy Janis, who was selling a professional (RDS) converted van that he had bought himself 2 months ago;
• Buying directly from RDS - the most expensive option, but they offer a 1-month warranty and constantly convert new vans.

Rauno had a painful memory from last time, being forced to take the car to repairs in the first week, so this time we definitely wanted a thorough pre-purchase inspection. While it meant spending several hundred dollars, compared to the sale price of the car, it was worth it. It would be nice not to end up having to tow the car somewhere in the mountains with a baby...

Pre-purchase inspection is surprisingly rare here. Seems like most travelers look at listings and think "oh, they're selling a surfboard with the van - sweet, I'll take it!" or "oh, the curtains are exactly my favorite color, I want this!" So people buy a pig in a poke and then hope it doesn't kick the bucket during their trip. That's how we missed out on Janis's van, as we wanted to check a few more things and 15 minutes later it was sold.

Flying to Auckland, we were set to buy our home on wheels from Kieran. I had been communicating with him for a couple of months, had Marian (Rauno's Kiwi-sister, Rosemary's daughter) check it out, and we ordered a thorough inspection. The car was not in a perfect condition, but considering the price, it was a decent machine, and Kieran was very open and great to communicate with. Even though we both had doubts, we knew that with such a big purchase, you might always have some lingering concerns - eventually, you have to make a decision and deal with the consequences if something comes up later. However, as Plan B, we had arranged a meeting with RDS for Friday afternoon, just in case. Primarily so we'd have a backup option if any surprises came up with Kieran's van. We weren't seriously considering the RDS option at that point, although the pre-purchase inspection came back quite clean.

People of lists and excel sheets - as we are - we decided Friday morning before making the final decision to make a list of pros and cons and think through different aspects one more time. Kieran vs RDS. It was absolutely the last moment, as RDS needed an answer by noon about the car they were holding for us. At the end of the day, the deciding factor was the lack of a stove in Kieran's van. We could have bought one, but it's such an important and daily-use item that a half-baked solution would have been a daily burden. Additionally, RDS had a larger bed (so we could better fit with our master-sprawler Pauline) and more storage space, which is definitely a big plus for such a long trip.

Done deal - we took a taxi to RDS, checked out the car they had just started building, and after discussing everything, we made the sale. We'll get the car in a week.

After such a long search, it was somehow strange to not worry about it anymore. What a relief! We'll definitely share photos and videos once we have the car. At the moment, we can't even imagine the final result ourselves, but I believe we'll be happy with it overall.