Above: Mt Taranaki on the flight from Auckland to Wellington.
Landing at 0910, we were met by David, the seller of the Lexus ES300H. I was surprised that he had parked and came into the terminal for us, holding a rose. At his age, maybe 80, I expected him to pick us up at the pick-up area or carpark.
We gave the car a good look-over at the carpark before leaving the airport towards the city using the coastal/waterfront road with David at the wheel.
The car was very smooth and quiet but felt a little jerky at times and Kim enquired as to the problem, only to learn that David suffers from Parkinson’s Disease.
David indicated that the car probably needed a new battery and offered to get one straight away. Apart from some scratches on the wheels and a slightly colour-mismatched door from repainting, we were very happy with it.
We negotiated the price down a little near the city-end of Oriental Parade and made a bank transfer to David. As we weren’t with the same bank, the transfer wasn’t instant but would take a couple of hours with New Zealand’s antiquated banking system. He was happy enough to see us performing the transfer rather than see the funds in his account.
We dropped him off on Jervois Quay where he would meet up with his wife who was shopping.
The car started beeping as David had taken the key. I ran after him and fortunately at his age, I was able to find and catch up with him easily.