Johnny AUS
Member
Ever since I saw the RCZ first hit the Australian roads, I knew I had to have one!
It wasn’t until December 2022, that I began seriously looking for the right one. It had to be pearl white, manual and diesel. I came across a few on Facebook Marketplace and CarSales that were either the wrong price or wrong colour. There was a charcoal one in Queensland 1,000km away from me. It was at the right price, but is had an air conditioner issue. It would also have needed to be blue slipped (a thorough inspection by a specialised mechanic) to be transferred to New South Wales registration. Then there was a 2nd generation grey one, but the seller was asking $22,000AUD. Which was way too much! There was an orange/red one on the South Coast for $16,000, but the colour looked burnt and faded and was not to my liking.
I had notifications setup on CarSales and Marketplace to notify me, whenever an RCZ came onto the market.
One Monday morning, I received a Facebook notification of an RCZ for sale. I clicked on the notification that took me to a beautiful white, manual, diesel RCZ. It was everything I wanted in an RCZ. The right colour, the right engine, the right gearbox, and most importantly, the right price! The only issues was where it was. Just on the outskirts of Canberra. About 300km or 3 hour drive. The difficulty was working out when I could get there, due to working. I quickly messaged the seller and then called him. We exchanged driver’s licence details and I requested a picture of the registration paper. All seemed legitimate. I got his bank details and sent a deposit of $500AUD, sight unseen. Not something I’d ever done when buying a car before.
I had to work out when and who I could go with to pickup the car, 3 hours away. Wifey didn't want to drive that far. So I asked my brother if we would like to come.
I organised to go get the car a week and a half later. It was one of the longest week and a half of my life!
One Friday evening, my brother, sister-in-law and 2 of my kids jumped into my LDV G10 van. We made the long, arduous… 3-hours trip, but seemed like forever, to get to the meeting point. The drive was smooth. Not an issue at all. We finally got to the McDonald's restaurant in a suburb of Canberra.
On arrival to the carpark, I saw the pearl beauty. I quickly hobbled over and put a big kiss on the bonnet and stretched my arms over the bonnet with a big hug. I had a quick look over the car. Didn’t even bother to open the bonnet. I wasn’t going to walk away from a car that was everything I wanted and drive back to Sydney with only the van. So we went into the restaurant. Cash exchanged hands as did the registration paper. McDonald's it was for dinner that night. It was one of the best tasting McDonald's meals I had ever had.
Looking back through my Facebook wall, I had posted in June 2013, a picture of the side of a white RCZ, black wheels, and it’s rear wing up. I simply wrote “WANT!”
I finally manifested my dream car!
Driving back in the dark, my brother got the first stint to Goulburn in the RCZ. Seeing all the road kill of dead kangaroos on the side of the road, frightened the hell out of me. In the back of my mind, I kept thinking “What if Jeff (my brother) hits a kangaroo in my new car?” These animals are tall and have hard bodies. They leave a lot of damage. Next minute, as we’re zooming along at 110 km/h, a stupid kangaroo, was standing in the middle of road in the right lane as we blasted by.
We pulled into the service station at the Big Merino in Goulburn, took some pics (1st pic below, you can see me with the RCZ and the merino's behind. Yes the famous Australian Big Merino in Goulburn is male as you can see in the picture). We then got to swap vehicles. As soon as I got back onto the motorway in my new car, I never thought that I hated driving my LDV on the highway so much. Going from something that rocked and swayed in the winds, to something that was just so planted and stuck to the ground, was an amazing feeling!
We finally got back home just before 1AM. What a joy to drive. My dream car that I had wanted for 10 years, was finally home!
EDIT: I had also lodged an online form request with Peugeot Australia last week. Today, I received a phone call from them. The Peugeot staff member Richard, asked for my VIN and confirmed that my car has a satin carbon roof. Not just a wrap. He was able to e-mail me a copy of the build sheet for my vehicle. So I believe that having a carbon roof, pearl white, diesel in Australia, MUST be something of a rarity.
It wasn’t until December 2022, that I began seriously looking for the right one. It had to be pearl white, manual and diesel. I came across a few on Facebook Marketplace and CarSales that were either the wrong price or wrong colour. There was a charcoal one in Queensland 1,000km away from me. It was at the right price, but is had an air conditioner issue. It would also have needed to be blue slipped (a thorough inspection by a specialised mechanic) to be transferred to New South Wales registration. Then there was a 2nd generation grey one, but the seller was asking $22,000AUD. Which was way too much! There was an orange/red one on the South Coast for $16,000, but the colour looked burnt and faded and was not to my liking.
I had notifications setup on CarSales and Marketplace to notify me, whenever an RCZ came onto the market.
One Monday morning, I received a Facebook notification of an RCZ for sale. I clicked on the notification that took me to a beautiful white, manual, diesel RCZ. It was everything I wanted in an RCZ. The right colour, the right engine, the right gearbox, and most importantly, the right price! The only issues was where it was. Just on the outskirts of Canberra. About 300km or 3 hour drive. The difficulty was working out when I could get there, due to working. I quickly messaged the seller and then called him. We exchanged driver’s licence details and I requested a picture of the registration paper. All seemed legitimate. I got his bank details and sent a deposit of $500AUD, sight unseen. Not something I’d ever done when buying a car before.
I had to work out when and who I could go with to pickup the car, 3 hours away. Wifey didn't want to drive that far. So I asked my brother if we would like to come.
I organised to go get the car a week and a half later. It was one of the longest week and a half of my life!
One Friday evening, my brother, sister-in-law and 2 of my kids jumped into my LDV G10 van. We made the long, arduous… 3-hours trip, but seemed like forever, to get to the meeting point. The drive was smooth. Not an issue at all. We finally got to the McDonald's restaurant in a suburb of Canberra.
On arrival to the carpark, I saw the pearl beauty. I quickly hobbled over and put a big kiss on the bonnet and stretched my arms over the bonnet with a big hug. I had a quick look over the car. Didn’t even bother to open the bonnet. I wasn’t going to walk away from a car that was everything I wanted and drive back to Sydney with only the van. So we went into the restaurant. Cash exchanged hands as did the registration paper. McDonald's it was for dinner that night. It was one of the best tasting McDonald's meals I had ever had.
Looking back through my Facebook wall, I had posted in June 2013, a picture of the side of a white RCZ, black wheels, and it’s rear wing up. I simply wrote “WANT!”
I finally manifested my dream car!
Driving back in the dark, my brother got the first stint to Goulburn in the RCZ. Seeing all the road kill of dead kangaroos on the side of the road, frightened the hell out of me. In the back of my mind, I kept thinking “What if Jeff (my brother) hits a kangaroo in my new car?” These animals are tall and have hard bodies. They leave a lot of damage. Next minute, as we’re zooming along at 110 km/h, a stupid kangaroo, was standing in the middle of road in the right lane as we blasted by.
We pulled into the service station at the Big Merino in Goulburn, took some pics (1st pic below, you can see me with the RCZ and the merino's behind. Yes the famous Australian Big Merino in Goulburn is male as you can see in the picture). We then got to swap vehicles. As soon as I got back onto the motorway in my new car, I never thought that I hated driving my LDV on the highway so much. Going from something that rocked and swayed in the winds, to something that was just so planted and stuck to the ground, was an amazing feeling!
We finally got back home just before 1AM. What a joy to drive. My dream car that I had wanted for 10 years, was finally home!
EDIT: I had also lodged an online form request with Peugeot Australia last week. Today, I received a phone call from them. The Peugeot staff member Richard, asked for my VIN and confirmed that my car has a satin carbon roof. Not just a wrap. He was able to e-mail me a copy of the build sheet for my vehicle. So I believe that having a carbon roof, pearl white, diesel in Australia, MUST be something of a rarity.
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