Paul, good to see you have decided to put it behind you and move on ..... now much wiser. In the end, that experience may well save you from a substantially bigger loss in the future.

There has not been much discussion on the buying and selling process in the private market. If I were to be selling something similar, I would not give the vehicle to a potential buyer to take for inspection. I would agree to take it to their nominated place place myself provided it was not too inconvenient. Otherwise the inspection would have to come to me.

Then comes the deposit issue and what it means. As a seller, if I really did have other interested buyers, accepting a deposit and taking it off the market would mean a probable loss of those buyers. So I would not be keen on refunding it for change of mind.

In the case above, it does sound like the seller was selling something unfit for purpose, but perhaps unaware of that... possibly. You made comment that the seller had "lots of expertise". Maybe, but I would be surprised if someone with lots of expertise would have been using an unfit combination. It sounds to me as if she had come to that conclusion and was the reason for selling. You said the Pajero and van were being sold separately with more interest in the Pajero.

I am sure we can all relate to countless stories of unscrupulous sellers, and it is less common that a seller will be forthcoming about problems with what they are selling. Having been burnt, you will no doubt be less trusting of the next seller. You could say the $1,000 was spent on education.