Many of you may know that we recently purchased a new 4WD for Shelly …. and unfortunately that meant that the old Prado needed to find a new home. We’d had this for sale for a while and we always knew that a vehicle like this would have to attract the right buyer. For a start, not everyone wants to buy a 23 year old car with nearly 300,000 km on the clock! We’d spent a lot of money on this 4WD over the years and it was in great condition for a vehicle of that age. Of course it had the odd scratch and dent, but it’s lived a fairly active off-road life, so what do you really expect!
Anyway, that right buyer did come along, a young guy and his family from the central west region of NSW. He’d done his homework, he’d seen our website and knew exactly the life this car had lived, there was now no hiding anything! They took the drive down to our house on a Thursday night to check out the Prado, George went over every single thing on the car, explained how everything worked, why we’d done what we’d done or used the parts we had, what had been replaced, what maybe needs to be looked at ….. we even gave instructions on how to pull apart the console and fix the 4WD shifter when it sometimes jumps out of place!
So after about 1 1/2 hours or so, we loaded the Prado with all it’s spare parts, the old back seats, the old stock wheels and we said goodbye and watched as she drove away with her new family.
Last photo, just before she drove away.
It was sad to see her go, she’d brought us so many years of memories. She was what started our whole 4WDing and travel adventures together. George owned the Prado when we met, it was this Prado that got George into 4WDing in the beginning. He’d researched for ages to find the perfect vehicle and this is where it all started.
When we first started travelling we slept in the back of the Prado, free camping or staying in caravan parks as we traveled around.
All of the dogs have gone 4WDing with us and love nothing more than a day in the bush, they all started off in the old girl.
Kayla, Shelly’s old dog, loved being introduced to 4WDing
Gelly & Charli have been 4WDing with us since they were pups and they absolutely love it.
The kids grew up knowing this car, Shelly learned to drive off-road in the Prado, she took us on so many amazing holidays and to places across Australia that we would never have gone to without a 4WD. We spent our 2 month honeymoon travelling in the Prado! Our first Cape York trip, we tackled the Old Tele Track by ourselves and without winching – even the new Prado needed to be winched out of Palm Creek!
Old Tele Track, Cape York
The Lions Den Hotel, FNQ
Our two Prado’s together on our New Years Eve trip to Cameron Corner
Lots of fun weekend trips with friends, getting stuck for hours in the Watagans at night! repairing the 4WD shifter in the middle of Stockton Beach!, pulling the Patrol out every time it goes near water (sorry Liam!)
At the end of the day, it was time for the Prado to go, but it was sad, a lot of memories drove away with that car. But hopefully the old girl still has a lot of life left in her and this new young family can start making memories of their own.
Interesting little fact is that this Prado was originally owned by a Doctor in Dubbo, she then came to Sydney to live 19 years of her life with us, so i guess it’s only fitting that she’s returning back to the country to live out her days.
We are George & Shelly, a married couple from Sydney, Australia, who love 4WDing, camping and travelling this great country of ours. We love sharing our adventures and hope to inspire others to travel as well. Join us on our journeys around Australia!
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….. making memories one track at a time
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