Besides the visas, the part of the rally that caused me the most amount of angst was the stress of buying a car. While I do have some friends in the UK, none really have the time and means to go test the car for me, much less keep it at their house, take it to a mechanic to get it serviced, pay necessary taxes, process the registration, and make the much needed modifications to get the car Mongol Rally-worthy.
So first step: find someone reliable and trustworthy that can do all those things - and more - for you. I lucked out -- a friend of a friend of a friend (literally) happened to be a mechanic of sorts in Canterbury AND had done the Mongol Rally before. I got in touch with him and he promptly offered to not only to pick up the car for me but to do all the necessary work to get it into shape before our departure.
Next stop: Find a car. I had to get something that was within 30 miles of Canterbury, so I stalked online car sales sites in the UK and came up with some promising options that fit the requirements of the rally (namely, an engine smaller than 1.2 liters (1200ccs)) -- mostly Toyota Yaris, Fiat Pandas and Puntos, and old Vauxhalls.
However, whenever I called the dealers, I was invariably told that I could not buy the car over the phone -- something I clearly couldn't do from the other side of the Atlantic. Finally, after the 6th try, I found someone to willing to part with their car online: a bright blue 2006 1.1 liter Fiat Panda. After having the car independently checked by yet another friend, a work colleague of my father's, my mechanic friend picked up the car and did some work on it, including building a roof box to store our jerry cans and camping equipment.
I picked up the car a couple of weeks later -- everything worked out! The Panda runs like a 10-year old dream. It is slightly terrifying driving on the opposite side of the road, but I got used to it with no crashes or scratches, so great success all around! Onwards to Mongolia!
For future teams looking at this for guidance, here's what I got for the car:
So first step: find someone reliable and trustworthy that can do all those things - and more - for you. I lucked out -- a friend of a friend of a friend (literally) happened to be a mechanic of sorts in Canterbury AND had done the Mongol Rally before. I got in touch with him and he promptly offered to not only to pick up the car for me but to do all the necessary work to get it into shape before our departure.
Next stop: Find a car. I had to get something that was within 30 miles of Canterbury, so I stalked online car sales sites in the UK and came up with some promising options that fit the requirements of the rally (namely, an engine smaller than 1.2 liters (1200ccs)) -- mostly Toyota Yaris, Fiat Pandas and Puntos, and old Vauxhalls.
However, whenever I called the dealers, I was invariably told that I could not buy the car over the phone -- something I clearly couldn't do from the other side of the Atlantic. Finally, after the 6th try, I found someone to willing to part with their car online: a bright blue 2006 1.1 liter Fiat Panda. After having the car independently checked by yet another friend, a work colleague of my father's, my mechanic friend picked up the car and did some work on it, including building a roof box to store our jerry cans and camping equipment.
I picked up the car a couple of weeks later -- everything worked out! The Panda runs like a 10-year old dream. It is slightly terrifying driving on the opposite side of the road, but I got used to it with no crashes or scratches, so great success all around! Onwards to Mongolia!
For future teams looking at this for guidance, here's what I got for the car:
- Sump guard (100 GBP)
- Oil and filter changes (50 GBP)
- Roof Rack (90 GBP)
- Roof box (home-made) (100 GBP)
- EU Emergency Kit (25 GBP)
- Brake pad replacements and disk fixing (170 GBP)
- Beam converters (free)
- Fan belt (10 GBP)
- Spare fuses (5 GBP)
- UK sticker (2 GBP) - necessary for EU travel in a right-handed car
- 2 Jerry cans (34 GBP)
- Rubber mallet (5 GBP)
- Fire extinguisher (20 GBP)
- Extra oil and oil/air filters (20 GBP)