I Accidentally Bought The Red One
Six weeks of paperwork, parts delays and proudly showing everyone photos of my new white Lamborghini — right up until the moment I discovered the Lamborghini I had actually bought was red.
In My Head, I Had Bought The White One
There are plenty of ways to make a mistake buying a car. Buying a Lamborghini and getting the colour wrong probably isn't one of the more common ones.
When I first started looking, Lamborghini Auckland had both a red and a white Gallardo. For whatever reason, I fixed onto the white car. That was the one in my head and, as far as I was concerned, that was the one I was talking about.
When I later spoke with Ben Dallas at Lamborghini Auckland, I thought I had said I wanted the white Gallardo.
The problem was that Ben didn't hear me specify a colour.
By that stage he only had one Gallardo available — the red one. So from his point of view there wasn't anything ambiguous about it. I was asking about "the Gallardo", and there was only one Gallardo sitting there.
He naturally assumed I meant the red car.
I naturally assumed he knew I meant the white one.
There Were Clues. Very Obvious Clues.
Finding the original emails and purchase paperwork years later somehow makes the whole story even worse for me.
The emails between Ben and me simply referred to "the Gallardo" or "the Lamborghini". Ben was working through trade values, brake parts and all the details needed to make the purchase work. From his side, there was no reason to keep specifying a colour — he only had one Gallardo.
On 6 June I emailed Ben asking, "Any joy with the Lambo vs Cabrio convertible?"
Ben replied that Lamborghini Auckland was expecting the Gallardo's brake rotors the following week while he continued working through the trade figures.
Later the options came back as the cost to move into "the Maserati" or "the Lamborghini". Perfectly clear to Ben. Apparently perfectly clear to me too — just not the same car.
And then there was the VOSA.
I had remembered that perhaps the colour wasn't obvious on the paperwork. It turns out that memory was being rather generous to me.
The colour was there.
I signed it.
I paid the deposit, passed the details to the asset finance company and carried on completely convinced I had bought the white Gallardo.
The evidence survived: the purchase agreement said Red, and the final email contained a row of very definitely red Lamborghini photos.
Then Nothing Happened For Weeks
The Gallardo wasn't ready to leave Auckland immediately.
Lamborghini Auckland was waiting on parts and carrying out work, including brakes and a clutch. We were looking at roughly six weeks before everything would be ready.
That delay is probably a big part of why the misunderstanding survived. Once the deposit and finance side were moving, there wasn't any particular reason for Ben and me to keep discussing the car every day. Lamborghini Auckland was sorting it. I got on with everything else.
And in the meantime I had photos.
I had saved a bunch of pictures from when the white Gallardo had previously been listed on Trade Me. Those were sitting on my computer, so whenever friends or colleagues wanted to see my new Lamborghini, those were the photos I proudly pulled up.
"Mate, I Think You've Sent Me The Wrong One."
Eventually the Gallardo was ready.
It was just about to go onto the transporter for the trip down from Auckland when I thought, wow, I should get some current photos of the exact car so I can show everyone at work.
I asked Ben if he could grab a few before it left. He said no worries and arranged some really nice shots — including photos of the Gallardo actually loaded onto the transporter.
On 14 June the email arrived with the subject Gallardo Images. Ben wrote that the attached pictures were images of your Lamborghini Gallardo.
You would think the word "your" might have helped.
Guys, Guys — He's Just Sent Me The Photos
I was at work when the email came through and remember calling my colleagues over.
I opened the email.
There, across the screen, was a bright red Lamborghini Gallardo.
My immediate reaction was not: Oh hell, I've bought the red one.
Not even for a second.
My reaction was:
My colleagues laughed.
I told them to give me a second because I'd call Ben and get him to send the right ones.
The particularly funny bit in hindsight is that some of the photos showed the red Lamborghini on the transporter.
The transporter that was about to deliver my Lamborghini.
Somehow even that didn't strike me as suspicious.
And Then The Penny Dropped
I rang Ben straight away.
Pause.
And that was the moment the penny finally dropped.
I suddenly remembered right back to when I had first started looking. At that stage there had been a red Gallardo and a white Gallardo. I had mentally fixed onto the white one and never really updated the picture in my head.
By the time I came back to Lamborghini Auckland and actually made the purchase work, Ben only had the red car.
I thought I'd told him white.
He hadn't heard a colour and had no reason to ask because there was only one Gallardo there.
The emails said Gallardo.
The VOSA said red.
The photographs were red.
The car was sitting on a transporter and was also red.
It had taken me until that phone call to finally put all four clues together.
Of Course It Had To Be The Red One
Nobody had done anything wrong.
Ben hadn't sold me the wrong Lamborghini. I hadn't deliberately ordered the wrong one. We had simply each carried a completely different version of the same conversation around in our heads for weeks.
And somehow, out of all of that, the red Gallardo became the first operational Lamborghini in the XtremeX story.
The car I had spent weeks believing was white arrived red — and became the car that carried our first customers and helped establish the business.
Looking back now, it almost feels appropriate.
XtremeX itself started from an idea that probably sounded slightly mad. Perhaps accidentally buying the wrong-colour Lamborghini was simply the universe setting expectations early.
The Gallardo Gen 1 Story Continues
The colour mix-up was only the beginning. The first Gallardo went on to give XtremeX its first rides, its first properly busy weekends and, eventually, its first taste of supercar breakdown reality.