The search begins...

Now that I have somewhere to put the van all fixed up - I have begun the search in earnest.  So that I can get a nice cheap flight deal I really want to get the van found and the deposit paid by the end of February.  My search criteria have now been narrowed down to the following...

• 2.4l diesel - I decided to go for the 2.4 over the 1.9l as Im hoping it will give me a bit better power considering the van will be pretty heavy when everything is in it.  Hopefully the added power will more than compensate for the additional fuel costs of the bigger engine
• 150 000 miles or less on the clock - no real reason for this figure, it just seemed like a healthy figure based on the mileages that I had seen
• €2000 maximum budget.  I had originally set a budget of £2000 - so this is about £1700 of that.  But with the import and registration costs as well this will probably push me just over the £2000 mark.  Which is ok as it was more a guideline than a budget!
• 1995 or later vehicle - again no real reason except that getting as new a van as possible seems like a good idea...
• Half panel model - this means there will be at least 1 window behind the front seats.  I think having a window on the sliding door will make the van a lot lighter and nicer to spend time in.  This is more of a nice to have so I will just take what I can find if necessary.
• Dealer-owned vehicle.  Just to give me a little bit more security really, though I will be getting a TUV inspection done on the van as well anyway.

 And that's my requirement list - I think it should be pretty achievable.  I found one decent looking van on the mobile.de site today so that's promising.  I sent them an email more as a test run than out of genuine interest, I think its a bit early really to be asking a dealer to commit to holding a vehicle until April for me.  But I wanted to test the water regarding the whole English-German communication thing.  I went with my introduction and closure in (very bad) German and the important questions in mainly English.  I figured their English was most likely a lot better than my German.

Having not studied German for 6 years, writing anything in German except my preferences regarding pets, colours and siblings was a bit of a challenge.  This was made worse by the fact that for at least 3 of my 5 years of studying German, we had a teacher who we respected just enough to lock him in his own cupboard on a regular basis.  And we were the good kids!

I guess I wish I had listened to the poor guy a bit more now.  It always amazes me that he didnt have a nervous breakdown - maybe I could learn something from his tenacity...though not from his teaching skills.  I certainly could of learnt a bit more German that's for sure!