Part 5

Well, emails passed back & forth between us and Germany. The seller sent some interior photos and a copy of the 'Fahrzeugschein' which gives details of the vehicle, including chassis number, and equipment fitted.

The 'Fahrzeugschein' also gave the date of manufacture of the vehicle at 1991, whereas it had been advertised as 1992.

I thought it appropriate, as you would in the UK, to make an offer for the motorhome given that it was a year older than had been advertised, pending seeing it of course, but this didn't seem to go down very well. It had been advertised at DM39,900 and I offered DM34,900, expecting some negotiation to take place, but I had a firm email back in reply saying that no reduction was possible and that he would keep it rather than sell at a lower price.

I decided to wait a while.

On April 18th I emailed again to check if it was still for sale, it was and the seller agreed to sell for DM39,000.

Time to get things moving!

The earliest we could get away was 3rd May, so we booked a flight with Buzz to Cologne (return, just in case!), where the motorhome was located. The plan being to spend the day in Cologne, then go to see the motorhome at about 5 pm, when the owner would be home from work. We could then agree to buy (or not!), book into a hotel for the night, and then have the next day to sort out the paperwork and start the drive home.

We arranged insurance with MotorcaravanWise, the brokers who handled the policy for our old motorhome (the policy had been suspended when it was sold) this would give us comprehensive cover for the drive home and was arranged on the chassis number. We had learned that an extra third party insurance would be required in Germany, this could be obtained on the spot from the German motoring organisation ADAC which has offices in most main towns (3 in Cologne).

The seller wanted paying in DM in cash and would not accept any alternative, so we arranged to get DM40,000 from our bank the day before the flight. I understood that it might be possible to get a better rate if I took GBP and changed it at a bank in Germany, but was unsure how a German bank would react if I turned up with GBP13,000 and asked to change it. Also it would be one less thing to have to do when we got there.

2nd May:
Early to bed, as we had to be up in time for a two & a half hour drive to Stanstead to get the 7am flight.

Part 6 ------->