212,618

Thought it was time Angie's car was got rid of as it has been de-registered for a week. The local garage had said we could put it on his yard as he does a huge business in old/accident cars with the eastern EU states, Poland, Rumania etc. He reckoned we would be lucky to get €200.

So spent quite a bit of time writing a huge ad for eBay classifieds, a free service & using photos Angie had taken. I should have put the summer Mag wheels on rather than the winter steel ones with Audi plastic caps.

Did a bit of research on what was on offer for the year, mileage & condition & went for the upper end at €990. Called in Angie to proof read & when she nodded, hit the "publish" button and just as the message came "Your ad will be online in 2 minutes" appeared on the screen, the phone rang!

A "dealer" from Berlin. I could write a book about what happened in the next 24 hours but it was very much as expected. I kept 99% out of the whole thing but was ready to give my thoughts & help at any time and left it to Angie - her car, her money.

She did a good job in the circumstances especially with the knowledge that €200 was considered a good price by someone she trusts. She eventually got more than double that.

I did learn something new and I am sure it is a standard trick.

All car dealings in Germany use as the crucial age date, the day on which the vehicle was first registered "Erstzulassungsdatum". All the internet portals with used cars whether commercially run by the manufacturer's dealerships or the many Used Cars portals all use this date. In the eBay service we used, it is part of the standard obligatory fields. Nobody talks about the year of manufacture.

In the initial call with the dealer doing his hard sell, he agreed on a price with Angie, asked that we mark the ad "Reserved" but then said no please remove it completely & he would send a binding email contract which he did. Angie (& the next day I) read it and it looked fine to agree to.

Not a second after she ended the call did the phone ring again with a very different number asking about the car & she replied it was sold. No sooner had that call ended when the original dealer called to ask why we hadn't removed it, still showing it as "reserved". Naturally, it was the same person/organisation checking up on us.

Next day, a public holiday for Ascension Day, Angie picked up the young lad who had taken the train from Berlin and would be driving it back there. A very pleasant Lebanese lad - he doesn't have German citizenship - and no doubt works for a pittance on such jobs to keep his wife & lovely looking young daughter (mobile phone photo shown) in Germany while trying to get citizenship. He spoke excellent German and was throughout very quiet & correct. After putting on the "temporary transport" plates, he took a test drive with Angie but then when checking the papers noted that the manufacture date which is indeed in the log book (although I didn't know this) was November 2005 but it was first registered in 2006 and indeed as we then checked, the email contract quoted simply "Build year 2006". So he was on the phone to the boss and as was then to be expected the price dealing started again with Berlin.

I suggested no more haggling as the details in our ad had been 100% accurate & truthful. In the detailed description, I had even said the car would not pass its MOT due next week and was only drivable with caution in its current condition.

The dealer did start on he would contact his lawyer for breach of contract but I know that there was no way he would let his guy leave without the car especially given the cost he already incurred. Apart from which we have a lawyer's insurance to cover all such matters (very common in Germany). It was clearly a very common technical hitch used to reduce the price. Even clearer when the driver started loading the four summer wheels into the boot while the discussion was going on in the background. He knew he would be leaving with the car.

I walked away taking the papers & went back to cleaning my bee equipment on this wonderful first proper day of spring. Eventually, Angie asked me to bring the papers, money was exchanged, we all shook hands & I gave the still cheerful lad (who took no part in negotiating but had said to his boss that we were a very nice friendly couple), a jar of honey as he had mentioned how much he missed the honey from his father in Lebanon. Angie also gave him a dozen eggs for his family. The poor lad now faced 600km in the bank holiday traffic & not having taken any food or drink since leaving Berlin in the early hours and with no prospect of any until evening as it is Ramadan!

Then learnt the price had been dropped further but still a great result according to our garage in the village. I was quite sad to see it go as it had been my daily companion for over four years commuting to Munich, clocking up 1,000km a week, much of it at over 200km/h.

It was super to drive, very economical & had all that one could want back in those days except automatic but on the motorway which was 90% of the drive, not a big issue. Shame the multitude of "minor" electrical problems but above all the brakes/rust on the undercarriage were so grave. 212, 618 km later it is now heading on a car transport ship, returning to Japan/Korea & will be offloaded in Africa, be done up & sold as a luxury item. Hope they understand Bavarian Radio that was still tuned in.