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We are tent people who want to upgrade to a vehicle (campervan).  Clearly many of you are very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about these things, so, what would you recommend to first time buyers with a budget of up to £3000, including options of swap or part exchanging one or both of our cars: Fiat Seicento Sporting (racing red, 1999)  or Fiat Punto 16v Sporting (broom yellow, 1998). Both taxed and MOT'd.

Come on be generous with your advice! 

Hiya Campers,

I would advice you to rent a campervan / motorhome to try if it's even to your liking. Take it out on a weekend in cold weather and then rent one (maybe another type?) for a longer period of time, like, for the summer hols.

This way, you get to know how you experience it all and then, scrape all your money together, sell cars, the lawnmower and dog, hagle your bank accountmanager and go for it. If you lack the technical feeling (like me...) take somebody along who does. Also take someone along who had te power to contain you from buying the first you see.

In the meantime, keep visiting this site for it's a treasure of knowledge and there's always an answer for your question. And if, at last, you don't like to upgrade from tent to vehicle, well... at least you had a great time trying!

I wish you good luck hunting and hope you make the right choice, whatever that may be!

Cheers!

Hi.

Thanks for your msg, and the song.  We shall of course ignore all of it and buy the motorhome we saw for £69,000 with no MOT but a funky pink stripe down the side!

I love motorhoming from my youth, so I have a little experience already and looking to expand my horizons.  Up north in Scotland is not pleasant in a tent after all .

Cheers for the advice

Look at all the dealer websites and magazines you can find for ideas of layouts, prices, base vehicles etc.  Visit as many dealers as you can. 

If you would like any links to dealers websites I have loads in my favourites.

You don't say where you are in the country.

Also there is Ebay and Autotrader (book and website) to look at.

Talk to people perhaps at one of the shows everyone there isn't always looking for a new van and they will give their experiences.

Size and layout are very personal choices.  We for instance have a High top conversion as we like it better than coachbuilts but we then have less room inside.

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask more questions.

We didn't have any experience at all but have no regrets.

Hello Two Fab Campers

As you say you have been motorhoming in the past, you should already have some ideas as to what you think is essential or not.  That is good as it’s a personal thing, and not easy to advise others on.  Your price range around £3000 is likely to throw up quite a wide range of options.  You should be able to thin these down a lot with reference to your essentials list.

For instance, if you consider a shower and loo as essential, you may need a larger van than if you intend to use mainly site facilities.  If you have limited parking / storage back home, you may need to look at smaller vans.

If you give us an idea of your expected usage and level of facilities and comfort you would like, we may be able to give more specific advice.

Another point would be that prices will tend to rise steadily over the next few months as sales pick up towards summer.  Some may disagree with me on this but it has been my experience, especially in the lower end of the price range.  Don't let that rush you at all, but just so you are aware.

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Steven

Ahh I wondered who sent the mail about my van!

Welcome to UKCS!!

Thanks.

We are most impressed by your camper. Just the issue of getting rid of the cars, otherwise there are a few too many vehicles outside our house.

Cheers

I am in the same situation now!  Got 3 cars, and 2 Camper vans!!  Mrs aint happy!! lol

She calls it our "fleet"

I would confirm the rental idea is excellent - that is exactly what we did,  However it can eat into your budget very rapidly and if you already have experience you may as well go straight for the purchase.  We did a rental which was a bit like a timeshare - where you had so many weeks a year and could contract for between 1 & 4 years, this reduced the cost.  We loved it so much we decided to buy.

The essentials and nice to have list is a must - we did that too.  The problem was most of our nice to haves eventually became essentials.  We looked at loads of vehicles and then bit the bullet and bought new (Eldiss Autoquest with rear lounge).  Twelve months on and we are changing it - mainly because we are going full time and wanted a fixed bed - this time an Autotrail Dakota.  We have bought new again - mainly because it is going to be our home for the foreseeable future and we wanted something no-one else has used.

What I would say is there is a huge choice out there - take your time, you will know when the right thing comes along.  (my mom says "what's for ye will nay pass ye by").  And once you get it have fun - good luck and good hunting.

Shell & Baz