Selling The Van

After six months travelling in my Mazda Bongo Friendee it’s time to sell. 1996, 140,000kms, 4WD, shaken 11-2007, pictures online. ¥200,000 neg

090 9751 4087 – randomcow@hotmail.com

It’s finally time to sell the van!

Six months of sightseeting, crazy adventures, making new friends, meeting old friends, searching for a place to park or have a shower, driving through mountain ranges, along the beach, discovering bars and ramen stores where I’m the first foreigner EVER to set foot in there, over 10,000km, hundreds of litres of petrol, more illegal parking spots than I care to remember, about half a dozen incidents with the friendly local police,… quite an adventure, if I do say so myself.

And now you too can have your own similar adventure in my trust steed! Here are the specs:

Mazda Bongo Friendee 1996

4WD petrol (ie ok in Tokyo/Osaka) V6 (powerful!)

about 141,000kms

Shaken until November 2007 (so you could travel for a few months and you’d still be able to sell the car at the end to another like-minded traveller with that adventure spirit)

No accident history

A few dings, from the previous owner (ok, there’s one scratch that is my very own work)

A little rust on the bottom but I had it checked out by a car exporter and he said that it’s not even worth worrying about.

The same guy also said that the engine is a good engine.

All-weather tires (you *could* use them for the snow, but you’d probably want to change them to winter tires if you were thinking of doing a snowboarding adventure. Also, they’re a little worn. Not dangerously so, but I’d say you would have to change them before putting the car through shaken next November)

CD player

Pop-top roof (more about this later!)

Adjustable rear seats (I’ll also talk more about this)

Automatic side curtains (I’ll throw in the front and rear ones I stitched together for free)

And I might as well throw in the fridge that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket, as well as the inverter which gives you two Japanese powerpoints (up to I think 120W)

I’ll also throw in a few other things if you want them. Things like cans of food and ingredients.

* * * * *

Ok, time for some pictures:

The Bongo Friendee. I took this when I woke up on the Izu Hanto Penninsular one morning because it was the first time I had seen Mt Fuji (you can see it, tiny, in the background).

Back in Gifu, before I started the adventure, cleaning the interior. Note the triangular tear in the white mosquito netting on the pop-top.

The rear seats. These seats, plus the row of seats behind them, are very flexible. In that you can fold both sets of seats down and make a huge double bed, take them out, spin them around, slide them back and forth, etc.

The cab. That thing that looks like a car navigation system might actually be one. I personally suspect it’s just a TV, but I don’t know because I never got it working. If you can get it going, or maybe modify it so that it does something, fantastic!

Not a good shot of the upstairs interior, but it gives you an idea. I was travelling alone,but you can fit two average-build people up there. I put my single futon up there and there was about 10cm space at the base and about 3cm on either side of the futon.
(the arm in the photo is not included).

Me cooking up some lunch in the supermarket carpark. If you don’t want people looking in then there are electric curtains which you can deploy with the push of a button.

Ok, not a picture of the car, but this should give you an idea of what dinner involved. I’m in a carpark there, where I met a few Japanese people who were doing a similar thing. I gave them some curry and they gave me some alcohol.

My Bongo Friendee has a friend! (mine’s the one on the right)

My hand-made tatami seat covers. Note the tear in the drivers seat at the bottom of the picture.

The open road through the farmlands of Tohoku. Nice weather.

* * * * *

The car itself is in Chiba at the moment. I’ve put my contact details at the top of the page, so if you’re feeling adventurous then please give me a call and we’ll organise a viewing.

I said that the 200,000 yen asking price was negotiable. I’d prefer not to sell the car and extras (camping fridge, inverter, etc) for too much less than 200,000, but I’d be willing to negotiate if you had some other stuff that you were looking to sell, for example furniature.

I’ve mentioned all the bad things about the car (rust, dents, awning tear, slightly worn tires, also needs an oil change soon, and one of the wipers is a little old) because I don’t want you feeling like you got ripped off further down the track. I’ve had a great time in the thing, and I’d love to sell it to someone else who loves travelling on the cheap with a sense of adventure.

Just to give you an idea of how much you would save in accommodation while travelling, the cheapest places are on average 2-3,000 yen a night. So you would have covered the costs of the car in about two or three months. If it’s two of you travelling then you could cover the costs in a single month! (not to mention that you’d still have a car at the end of it).

Once you are finished your adventures one of the options available is to import your car back into your home country and keep it for yourself or sell it. I’ve never done this, but one gentleman I was speaking to said that the money he made when he sold his car back home helped pay for his adventures.

Feel free to post questions here, and I’ll answer them if I can.

RC

update: I was out with the van today, taking some photos and making sure the battery doesn’t run down. Here are the pix (thumbnails – click for enormous version):

RC