Over to Mandy ...

So how hard can it be to find a car?  Obviously good as gold but as cheap as chips does narrow it down everso slightly...   Funky, within 5 miles post code, taxed and MOT`d apparently puts it into the completely non existant department.

Thus far, as you will be aware, we have purchased two without actually taking ownership of either. 

The mission has entailed mainlining every internet site known to vend vehicles virtually to the outer limits of my internet allowance. 

I have trawled, gazed, drooled, guffawed and fallen asleep at silly hour in the morning at the screeen of my laptop in the increasingly desperate endeavour to find "The One".

You would not believe what is/isn`t out there.....or maybe you would.  I have been amazed at how cheap, how expensive, how ridiculously named cars are and the choice, oh the choice, it is a Libran nightmare of epic proportions.

I've considered classics from Triumph Herald to Humber Sceptre under the auspices of being old but of recognisable construction should a mid-way rebuild be required.

I spent time seduced by out-of-my-league Renault and Citroen and Audi as a mid-way rebuild wouldn`t be necessary since the the point of a bonnet catch is ..........?

I lusted after a BMW Drift.  A what?  Low, black and slinky and completely unfit for purpose was what it was in the picture - complete with a Clifford alarm.  Who was Clifford I wondered?   Presumably mad bad and dangerous to know!  Must remember to disable that if sucessfully purchased.

As the inability to choose began to overwhelm me I tried to maintain sanity by keeping to sole categories.  Colour ... purple, pink, neon green, fluorescent orange, but there are only a few of challenging hue.

Price, cheapest first, cheapest last, nearest first, recently listed, all in the end were hopeless.  The tantalisingly tawdry were, with relentless monotony, winking at me from  the Scottish Highlands, the Welsh Valleys or, one VW for added spice, Northern Ireland.

I tried sensible item specific,  Skoda Octavia ... nice but too few to maintain attention span,

I tried 'given names' like "Polly" the faithful family estate or "Dear old Donald" a wonderful Landy 101.

So there you have it, the search is still on, though I have now cast my net closer to hand asking anyone I meet if they know of a mechanically sound tatty bodied brightly coloured diesel estate with a tow bar, of champagne taste for a lemonade pocket.

That said I`m looking at an Astra van first thing tomorrow.

All shapes and sizes

Continuing our search, a few that got away.

Pink Ford Stargazer

'Donald'

Catmobile

Psychodelic Rolls

Turtle car

Yes you bought the car ... but we're not giving it to you!!!

These things happen for a reason.  Both Mandy and I were searching Ebay for a suitable entry for the rally.  Whatever car we got would be Mandy's runabout car after the event and so it was her call to buy a car she would want to keep.

She pinged me emails throughout the days with links to various 'character' cars and mentioning a BMW estate that looked like a bargain at £800.  She was thinking of offering £600.

Late that day, after a few glasses of Pinot, I was on Ebay and thought it wouldn't do any harm to put in a crazy offer of £400 on the BMW.  I didn't think any more about it.

I was unaware that Mandy had given up the idea of the BMW and bought a furry orange carpeted Peugeot 205 for the princely sum of £236.63 - which apparently looked just like Rupert, Mandy's cat!  As exactly as a furry orange car can resemble a furry orange cat.

At about the same time I received an email telling me I'd won the BMW.  We were the proud owners of not one, but two cars!

However ... when I rang to discuss picking up my BMW and foolishly mentioned the adventure that we were about to embark upon, the owner recoiled in horror at the prospect of our journey and proceeded to try and talk me out of the deal.  "Possibly not safe ... an MOT is the bare minimum you know", "definitely should not be leaving the UK".  Basically did not want to sell us the car.

Never mind, we had Mandy's 'Rupert' car.  The owner rang to let Mandy know he was just putting it on the trailer to bring it to her as it wouldn't start ... "Just a new distributor ... about £50 off Ebay".  Not wanting to be picky Mandy pointed out that she really needed the car to be running.  He decided he didn't have the time to do it and so wouldn't not be selling her the car.

Well at least we had each managed to not buy a car in the space of two days.   So now we just have to find a car that once we have bought, the owner will actually part with.  How hard can that possibly be?

An introduction

The last time Mandy and I did an adventure together was in autumn of 2010 when we went gorilla trekking in the Rwenzori mountains of Uganda.  The time before was the summer of 1990 when, as single mums, we took our four children, then aged 2, 4, 6 and 8 backpacking for six weeks in Turkey.  

Our entry into this charity rally came about after Mandy was telling me how disappointed she was to find out that she couldn't do another, longer rally later this year.  As we chatted on the phone, I Googled 'car rallies'.  Screwball Rally 2013 - it sounded as though it was designed for us.  What are the lyrics of that Eagles song?  "Life in the fast lane, surely make you lose your mind ...".  Too late, too late!

The more we read about it the more we liked the sound of it.  A rally through France, into Spain and back to the UK in five days in late September.  Vehicle to cost no more than £750.  Raising money for a good cause.  Meeting up with like-minded screwballers.  What's not to like? 

Bentley

First choice to consider was Bentley, Mandy's customised Ford van (avec la girafe).  Reliable, cheap to run, save on accommodation.  Sadly, Bentley's MOT had just run out and it was unclear how much would be needed to get him through.

And so the search began ...