For several years, more and more of my mates going to Glastonbury were doing it by campervan. I wanted to get one of my own, but the cost was an issue. Campervans are not cheap! Then one day on my way to work in August 2015, I T-boned someone else's car after I went when the light was green, and he went when his light - at 90 degrees to mine - also went green, so he said. A likely tale, you may think? But when the council finally replaced the light several months later, it had mysteriously turned through 90 degrees and was now a REPEATER for the direction I was travelling in.
Was it always supposed to be that way? I never found out. I was due to be a witness in the court case for the guy who jumped the "red" light, but I was countermanded and not called. So I don't know what happened to him, maybe it was incorrectly installed and he got off on the grounds that sure enough, he saw a green light. Rather tellingly, the guy from the council who turned up to make the lights safe and turn them back on said that pole was getting knocked over "all the time". It hasn't been knocked over since. Hmm ... I don't like to participate in the "blame culture" but perhaps I should find out if I am due some compensation from the council.
My beloved (well, I liked it more than most of the other cars I'd ever had, apart from the Honda Civic Coupé I'd had which was like sh*t off a shovel) X reg automatic Mercedes-Benz E200 Elegance was toast. It was a total write off.
So, I had a Vauxhall Corsa on the insurance as a courtesy car until the claim was settled and they paid out a mere £1200 - minus £250 excess! for it
. Coupled with savings in the bank, this gave me about £3000 to spend. And I didn't want the hassle of a bank loan. So, off I went shopping at the lower end of the market, until I found my van ... The van was bought off AutoTrader back in August 2015. It was bought off some guy who sells Transits on a farm in the middle of nowhere in the Lake District. So, a long drive down there to see the van and I bought it for about £2500 in Bank of England twenties (I cleared out the bank vault of English £20 notes at my nearest branch
... it's all Scottish funny money up here usually, remember?). And thus I acquired the van ... Lily, as I sometimes jokingly call her, "because she's like Lily Savage - a big Tranny".First I had to drive this huge thing back to Scotland. I'd never driven a van this size before in my life! But, I reasoned ... it's not much longer than the Merc was, it shouldn't be a problem, you've been driving for 14 years so just get on with it you big wuss. It did take a while though. The engine, I think, had not had a decent thrashing in a long time, having been owned by a succession of sedate owners (I am the 13th Registered Keeper
). Over the next few weeks, the van began to run better as I thrashed it hard. But the steering was SO heavy! OK so there's no power steering but still ... is it supposed to be this bad? (Turned out the answer was 'no', and the steering rack eventually bust itself and had to be replaced).Here's a couple of pictures of her, several months after purchase:
So it had rust problems. It's a Transit. It got welded, MOTed. I went to a few festivals in it, and even went for a weekend down to York (nice Camping and Caravanning Club site).
And then, after going to Solfest, the windscreen cracked. And thus began the tale of The Money Pit ... to be continued
