Monday, September 27, 2004
White Van Man
We are now the proud owners of a 2002 Peugeot Boxer 2.8 hdi, 330M bought at auction today. It was actually amazingly simple, if very nerve racking. I've been to an auction in the UK once before and just found it much too daunting and never went back. Here was much easier even though it was all in French. I can still hear those quick fire numbers rattling in my head, huit mille six, huit mille huit, neuf mille, vendu, and the friendly glowing LED display spinning round like a fruit machine.
The auction was open all day Sunday for viewing with the sale today. For each vehicle for sale they allowed access to the vehicles to check things if necessary, run the engine, check oil etc. The service book was available and they performed a a full controle technique (like a UK MOT) on each with the results listing all the faults stuck on the windscreen. Also shown was the estimated sale price and the 'book' value and whether you could claim back (our business can reclaim) the TVA (Value Added Tax @ 19.6%). They also provide a 12 month guarantee for an extra couple of hundred Euros. The only down side was an additional 10.7% auction fee on top of the hammer price.
We spent about an hour familiarising ourselves with the bidding process and then took our positions in the 'ring'. I sat on my hands daring not even to scratch and Caroline bid for lot #220, our white van. We knew it was going to be ours, we could feel it in our water. Well there was definitely something going on in our water. A shake of the hand and a couple of subtle nods of the head and bingo, Caroline secured the winning bid. One of the auctioneers runners releived us of a blank signed cheque and then it was off to the 'checkout' to receive the ownership documents and the keys. The book value of our van was 13,800 euro and we paid (fees and 12 months guarantee included) 10,200 euro (about 6,800 pounds) and we get to reclaim nearly 20%. Not a bad days work.
Let the renovations begin.
| 8:21:26 PM
White Van Man
