Maybe you are the one...

I think (hope..pray...believe) that this might just be the one.  The One!  THE ONE!! My van.  My home.  My kingdom.  My FREEDOM.  Its a 1997 LHD VW T4 2.4l diesel which has done 120 000 km. No window on the side door but it has pretty much everything else I want.  After 2 months searching, this one is definitely in the top 10% of what I have seen, and the garage guy's English is decent and he seems pretty helpful and genuine.  Its in Endenkoben which is a bit south of Cologne, so not too far to go either.

Though...I may just be counting my chickens before they are hatched.  After many long and confusing and very German phonecalls, I have managed to arrange an inspection on this van for tomorrow.  So far I would say buying a van from abroad is by no means the easy option, and I am seriously so grateful for the limited amount of German I can speak.

Technical inspections in Germany can be arranged through ADAC (motoring club) or TUV (MOT people), TUV didnt email me back but ADAC did and they recommended the local TUV source anyway.  You need to specify where the vehicle is when asking for a contact number.

I havent been able to extract from the people doing the check exactly what they are going to be testing, I think its going to cost about 100 Euros so Im hoping to get something fairly comprehensive for that.  And some form of results that I can understand and actually get something out of.

So...if the results are all ok, and if I can convince the garage guy to give me the VIN (how do you define VIN to a German!) and some suitable form of legal document in return for my 2000 Euros (apparently anyone who offers to just take a deposit in Germany is a scammer)...then this baby shall be mine!

Im super excited.  My dreams are so close I feel I can almost touch them.