Bye bye Pajero....

Today we took our faithful Pajero to its new owner, a German expat who works for another oil company here in Cairo. This day marks the official end of our Pajero era, which started in 1991, when Piet bought his first, shortwheel-based Pajero in Oman. This was quickly followed by another one, when Mary appeared on the scene. Both were thoroughly tested in the desert and the Oman mountains. We took both of them in a container to Norway, where they served us again, in snowy and rainy conditions. In the end we sold them in Norway, for a price comparable to what we paid for them new! Taxes are different from country to country......

In Malaysia we bought a secondhand longwheel-base one. There was little off-road driving in Borneo, but we made a number of long trips, and also it proved useful to get to the Hash or to transport mountain bikes. In the end we sold it to one of the local Shell employees. Here in Egypt there is an excellent deal for people working in the oil industry; one tax-free vehicle per family. Again we got a Pajero, we made a few very nice desert and Sinai trips, but it was mainly used to drive up and down to the stable in Saqqara, quickly estimated for 40-50% of the mileage(!).

The disadvantage with the system here is that you either have to sell the car to someone else in the oil sector, or export it to your next destination. In The Netherlands this is not an economic proposition due to road taxes and especially petrol prices. So as soon as we heard we were moving we put an advertisement out. The advantage of leaving in the middle of the year was clear quickly: the same day we were phoned by two people who wanted the car, and on the "first come, first serve" principle we sold it. That the paperwork still took another 3 weeks is something you get used to here. Anyway, the end of an era: bye bye Pajero, the Toyota Corolla of 4WD's: a bit boring, but very reliable. And talking about boring (and reliable) cars: who wants to buy a Daihatsu Sirion?

Our faithful Pajero is summiting a sand dune in the Western Desert