Ready to roll! January 2009

It's a 1994 Peugeot 405 GTX TD purchased from Ebay for the grand sum of £380. It had only done 117,000 which is nothing for this 1.9cc engine, I'm told they go for 250,000 before anything needs doing to them - let's hope so! Nice shade of grey with a small dent in the bonnet and a tow bar. Tyres are all good and hardly a spot of rust on her. No smoke from exhaust and seems to run OK.

Had a current MOT which ran out in mid December 2007. With Christmas being so close, and the fact the car didn't stop very well, it was decided to MOT it again in August so anything wrong could be repaired now and not the week before we left. Discovered a torn steering arm gaiter and a leaking rear brake cylinder on the offside. So had it all repaired, together with new brake shoes to replace the fluid sodden ones, and guess what - it stops a lot better now. And we have an MOT until August 2008 which won't really help the purchaser of the car in Mali, but it sounds good. Now have to get a new one for 2008/9 this August.

Fuel comsumption is fine appearing to be around 45 mpg (we're old so couldn't care less and don't want to know about kilometers per litre) and doesn't use any oil or water - well, not much!

So we're crossing our fingers and toes and hoping it does the 4500 miles to Mali without too much trouble.

But we'll let you know.........