Finally a member....and how I bought our van

[MJB]

It's been a long time coming for us. First and foremost I have to thank everyone on here for being such fantastic people offering the amount of help you do is fantastic. I have to say that I've been hiding out as a guest since pretty much the beginning of this site, but we never had the money to buy so i thought I would only really become a member when we took the plunge.
So seven years ago in New Zealand I'm resting in a hammock in a remote backpackers when this tuff looking minivan rolls up with bars on the front and goes ahead and parks in a huge mud pit that everyone else was staying away from, and that was it wanted one ever since.
So I know for some its also hard to decide where to buy from. I figured that i would try to share how we came to buy our Deli. First off I was to chicken to import one myself, plus having a little 3 month old and a 5 year old there's no time to get everything done. So I went with what was already here. And now its more of a buyers market being that there is so many dealers now. We manage to save the money but still had a budget to stay in, I've also never bought a car for more that 5 thousand before and I've owned to many as my wife would say. I wanted to buy from the island first, I do not like going over to the mainland nothing against all of you who live there its just big it gets my heart racing when I have to drive there.
I started with http://www.coombscountryautos.com/ I have never talked with glen but man oh man you hear so many good things about him he sounds fantastic and I am sure someday I'll get to meet him. http://www.fivestarautosales.ca/ there selling partner he seems really good but, you have to go with your gut and after trying a van I like he was willing to do some of the work and lower the price the 13,900 plus tx for a van was out of my range so i had to go with the cheaper. So a couple days later we get a call at home and then I call back we said we were interested but still going to take time. Couple days later get a call to talk about the van then he gets another call and its glen to ask how much should he do so that they know how much to do on the van, Its like the other buyer on the line routine, I went with my gut and said no thanks I wasn't going to make that leap that fast.
Then http://www.tyeeimports.com/ but they don't do any thing else but make them compliant.
http://enviroimports.com/ Noel seems great but didn't have anything that we wanted now
http://www.bonsaimotors.ca/ they are new and seemed alright
http://www.vicustomcarimports.com/ a friend bought and wasn't so happy
http://www.globalgarage.ca/ didn't try them
http://www.luxuryimports.ca/index.php Wayne seems like a great guy does tons for the ivoac and has nice stuff but to far and to much for us
which wayne led me to JDM wholesale because he stuck up for james a couple of times on different forums. And with Jdm i was real close nobody had posted anything bad about them prior to this stuff happening. So we had been in contact with Deb for a couple of weeks and when I made to trek to the big city we were going to see them. I have emails up until Thursday saying can't wait to see you hope we can help, So Sat afternoon we are there only to find as my daughters says maybe the midnight tow truck took them dad. lucky I guess.
In they ended We with Sabbir from http://www.maxoverdrive.ca/ I know some people have had opinions on Sabbir and yes he does need a new place to sell his cars but, he had enough to choose from and he had the service work done at CVI auto which is from what I read the place to take your Delica. Thats was something big for us over the little bit lower price of http://www.silkroadautos.com/. We want the Chamonix with a high roof. Sabbir gave us the keys and left us alone to do our car seat test, jump around each car that sort of thing. He was also one who got back to my emails quickly and there were lots. I was alright dealing with them and he manged to make me a decent offer on the van and roof rack and ladder for it as well and tossed in some filters to keep me going. I went back on a sat evening didn't get there till after 6 they put the ladder and roof rack all together gave me one last look and I found that the radio wasn't working properly, Sabbir said no problem have you got 45 minutes and was on the phone a guy shows up with a brand new sony cd mp3 with remote in 5 minutes and they start installing the stereo no extra cost to questions ask just does it, I go get insurance come back its 8:10 and they finish on a sat night and I'm ready to roll make the ferry all is good so far put 150 kms on today getting my wife comfortable with driving so so far the butterflies have left my stomach and I may get some sleep tonight. \
So I hope this helps someone out there and I hope to now become a little more involved in this little community.

[mdrive]

Thanks for your business, hope you will have fun with the chamonix.

[MJB]

After reading My post I just wanted to clarify that this was just my experience. Also with how I said what happen with fivestar. It was not glen who was talking to me, it was just what the sales person said to me when he called. I was on the line and he recieved another call so two lines going and bascially asked what amount of service he coould let the person know to do so he could sell it to me at that price. i believe that fivestar is a good place to buy from the have done wonders for many people and again there is nobody better the Glen on the island to fix your delica, just after reading my post this morning i wanted to clarify. I just didn't find the right van there that day and it didn't work for us

[ghmorris]

We were surprised just how thorough a refurbishment is included in the regular list prices from 5 Star. I have no idea if that is the norm or not from other vendors.

It seems reasonable that there could be a big difference in price between "off the boat" and "refurbished", with lots of middle ground. It would be up to each potential purchaser to clarify what they are going to get for their money. Because our Deli is coming to a Deli-Desert with no experienced local support, we wanted a complete rebuild and were prepared to pay accordingly.

Only time will tell how successful a strategy that is...

There is a lot of info on the forum here about the items that should be checked/replaced as part of a Deli purchase. We found the list extremely helpful.

George

[mararmeisto]

This is the kind of post I like to read: lots to say, some good, some bad, but all of it a direct relation of the individual's experiences. Just because they didn't buy a vehicle from one place, for whatever reason and shared that reason with others, there's nothing wrong with that. In the end, they got what they wanted from someone with who they felt comfortable, and that's what its all about. If vehicle buying was supposed to be a difficult proposition, I imagine fewer people would buy vehicles.

But as I step down from my soap-box, I would like to welcome a new member to the forum and to the club. MJB, you obviously spent a lot of time researching your purchase and that is going to make the joy of driving it that much sweeter. Also, BZ to Maximum Overdrive for making that experience just a bit more enjoyable.

[MJB]

George i think your right in your thought on how how to buy. With were you live and perhaps not as many delica's there as here, i think there is only one dealer in Toronto. If you have the money you should invest in a fully refurb delica, which only some dealers offer. Getting new belts is just the start but getting the engine mounts and big things done you can feel safe in your purchase lasting you a lot longer. I think the only people offering full service would be Glen perhaps enviroimports and Mardy