Horsley man's jinxed eBay ute

Andrew Ucles' bargain buy on eBay went from a chance to own his dream vehicle to a misfortune-filled epic adventure from Queensland to Horsley in the Illawarra.The 21-year-old environmental science student had an unbelievable tale of troubles to tell when his 1977 FJ45 Toyota Landcruiser finally made it to his house on Friday.He had wanted that type of four-wheel drive from the moment he first saw one as a child in the movie Crocodile Dundee.When he saw one listed on eBay, Mr Ucles made a bid of $2000, and thought he was lucky to be the successful bidder. The ute would eventually cost him more than double that.Mr Ucles flew to Ipswich, where the vendor picked him up and drove him the 50km or so to Coominya."She told me it was unregistered and I thought, 'I'll take the risk' (of driving it unregistered)'," he said."The speedo didn't work and I only got about four or five kilometres down the road and a police officer pulled me over. I was doing about 100 in an 80 zone."While the police officer waited, Mr Ucles tried to open the driver's side door, but the handle broke. He was issued a fine, told to get a permit in Brisbane to drive an unregistered vehicle and was forced to leave the vehicle via the passenger door for the rest of the trip."Outside Queensland Transport in Brisbane ... the handbrake failed and it rolled on to a Holden ute," Mr Ucles said.Later that day, with permit and insurance in hand, Mr Ucles set off again for Horsley. On the way he wound down the driver's side window, only to find that it became stuck open."About 30 minutes later it started pouring," he said. "The next time I stopped I locked the keys in the car. I worked on it with a stick and got it open."But then the door wouldn't close so I had to rope the door shut. I started driving towards Ballina and the whole time I was getting saturated and the door was banging in the wind."After spending the night in the ute, Mr Ucles set off again, but later in the day something did not seem right and he called his cousin, an apprentice mechanic. After being advised to check the oil and coolant, Mr Ucles topped up the coolant with the contents of a bottle he found in the back of the ute marked "coolant".It was pink. Coolant is green, Mr Ucles' cousin explained later.Not long after that, he hit a road block as the Clarence River had flooded."I wanted to try to go out through Lismore," he said.With no power left on his mobile phone, Mr Ucles carried on until one of the front wheels of the ute came off. He walked to the nearest property and called a tow truck which towed the Landcruiser to Broadwater, 20km from Lismore.In the end, Mr Ucles came home on a train, leaving the ute to be freighted home on a truck. In just the first few days of ownership, it had cost him $900 in fines, $500 in petrol, $100 in towing expenses and $550 in freight, and he still can't drive it yet."Whatever's wrong with it, I will fix it up," he said. "The car's got too much character now."