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Warranty agreements for used caravans or cars.... hmmmm. I'd caution against relying on them too heavily. Most of them are not worth the paper they are written on (hubby works in the motor trade so he knows!).

It's only if you ever had to make a warranty claim, which most people don't, that you'd then find out the hard way that all of the things that you thought were covered actually aren't. The warranty provider will argue/wriggle their way out of almost anything, they are slimey so-and-so's.

The augument usually goes something like this: 'It's general wear and tear, so it's not covered' or 'that component didn't fail prematurely, it's just worn out through use, so it's not covered'.

Trying to get anything replaced under warranty is like trying to get blood from a stone.

nothing wrong with buying privately but I would advise speniding £100 or so on an engineer to check it out first. I have looked at vans being sold by main dealers with there "3 month waranty" and some of the vans have been quite shocking and expensive at the same time. The way I look at it is that if you buy private you will save at leat £1k against a dealer price, even on an old van. If you spend £100 getting it checked out then so what and at least you know the van is either good or not. If the engineer finds a small problem that can be fixed then you can use this as a bargaining tool. I would be just as cautious buying from a dealer as private, many private sales are genuine anyway and they can point out any defects.

Other advantage of a private sale is you often get extras thrown in like electric leads, steps, awninngs etc which you don't often get from a dealer.