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Quote: Originally posted by Campernewby on 03/8/2015

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The vendor says he will do all of these so it passes mot... But the whole thing is do I trust him?!

Anyone used 'jap-mpv-specialists' in Uxbridge? Ads on ebay. He wants a deposit before mot-ing and registering with dvla because he says if he mots whenever he will be selling something that is 'losing value' as he then won't be selling it with 12 month mot.. Is it fair to ask for deposit before he does this? He keeps saying it's refundable when we visit to test drive if we don't like it ( it's a long way from home) . Maybe just shows he is confident in his vehicle??

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Hi..by the sounds of it, any work/sorting out(MOT, DVLA etc) that he feels he needs to do, he'd need to do anyway, whoever buys it?...so he's just making his stock "saleable"..?...

So in that respect, I can't see why you would need to hand over any money, before that was all carried out (besides, who knows how long it will take the DVLA take to sort out their side ?).

but have you not seen it in the flesh yet? If he is holding it for you and waiting for you to go and view, then I can understand them wanting a deposit.(..although personally, I'd want to view and drive anything before I parted with any money).

Having said that, I know that folk order and buy "imports" that haven't yet left the docks in Japan!?...

We've never bought/owned an "import" but we do now run a basic, homemade "camping-van" based on a 2001 Hiace van..and as uncool as it is, after owning it 3 years plus, at 206,000 miles, it still never misses a beat...

Hi again...

As you say this van is "..a long way from home..", I'd suggest spending  the first night or two  somewhere within range of the place you're picking it up from..

Obviously, you'll make sure everything works when you pick it up..but with the best will in the world the,"..yippee!..picking up new campervan..we're going on our hols!..."  mode will kick in and you will miss to check/ask something.. (we all do!)

So it'd be best to find out about the need to ask any questions or about any issues whilst you're still quite "local"..

 As you are heading straight off on your hols, the belt'n'braces side of me says to be prepared just in case something doesn't work..

 (eg take a small camping stove, a water container and a  battery lantern etc) 

...maybe  it's better to think of them as "lower powered", rather than under-powered..?

We must  remember that a good many imported Hiace (and similar) campervans are from the *mid-late 90s(even earlier) and even those dated slightly later, may/will still feel a bit crude(less "car-like"?) to anyone more used to the modern crop of euro vans.

(*think how unrefined,noisy and gutless Transits of the era were.  ?)

Our current little Hiace Powervan (2001 2.4 non-turbo.. 80+odd hp?) "camping-van" is a different beast altogether to our previous Renault Master(2.5 150hp)MH and even the little Peugeot X250(2.2 100hp)we had before it...

But,the Hiace is what it is..and does what it does..and just gets driven accordingly .. and being far more basic mechanically, it costs us peanuts to maintain and service, when compared to the other two we had.

(We keep looking out for a more modern replacement...T5?..Vivaro/Traffic? etc..but both seem to be prone to well document and expensive!, faults..?  )

..what is "best"  will be subjective and as for not being "speedy", well there are plenty of folk happily trundling around in old split screen & Bay VWs...

(..I wouldn't even consider messing about retro-fitting a turbo..)

We had a 2007, 7mtr Renault motorhome(owned for 5 years and ran along side the Toyota for it's final 18 months ) but we found that is just wasn't getting used, as the Toyota was just more "fun", so it got sold ....

As long as it all checks out, I'm sure you'll have loads of fun in your van...