Thinking of buying a camper. Don’t need anything fancy.

Budget is tight, don’t to spend more than about £7,000.

Looking online, there seems to be fairly decent Mazda Bongos around for that money. VW’s at that price are absolute heaps.

Any others worth looking at?

NOt enough info….

How many people

How long trips

Daily driver or 2nd car ?

Look for a Toyota Hiace D4D minibus / disabled conversion, the most reliable vehicle for that kind of money, will have windows and extra seats in back and then you can adapt to suit your needs.

Something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2005-55-TOYOTA-HIACE-2-5-D4D-WHEELCHAIR-ACCESSIBLE-VEHICLE-DISABILITY-VEHICLE-/131525229754?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e9f83bcba

or this auto import one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOYOTA-HIACE-GRANVIA-3-0-TD-INTERCOOLER-AUTO-7-SEATS-2001-51-REG-AERO-KIT-/281711115079?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item41974a7b47

and you’ll or have plenty of change for other stuff

The problem with the Bongos is that they are all imports. There are some good uns but they are hard to buy as you really don’t really know what you’re getting.

I looked at this not long ago, and for a not too dissimilar budget.

Came to the conclusion I didn’t want another hobby in the form of Bongo maintenance. From what I saw, a good Bongo is more likely to cost £10k+

Best bet at £7k to get a good one is to buy from some you know or personally recommended by someone that knows there stuff. Friend of a friend maybe.

That’s just my view, and may well be wrong.

We love our bongo and ours has cost us less that £2000 its unconverted though but works well for what we needed

A bit more info.

Will not be a daily car.

2 people and 2 small dogs.

Ours is not a daily drive and think you have to be much more picky if it was we sleep me and the little one up and my missus and 10yr old downstairs
Head gasket/warped heads seem to be more down to split hoses than anything else! First thing is to fir a low coolant alarm

We’ve got a Bongo, 2 adults, 2 kids (girls 7 & 11), unconverted, that way it can be an 8 seater, a van, a camper. Really versatile vehicle. All getting on for 20 years old now, rust is a real problem if it’s not been undersealed when imported, prone to overheating due to the coolant they used in Japan can sediment and can cause blockages. Having said that for 7k you could get a nice one, we paid half that for a work in progress, I’m a VW mechanic by trade but I didn’t want an abused builders van with a huge scene tax! You do get amazing value, front and rear AC, blinds on all rear windows (some electric) power steering, electric mirrors, electric windows.We’ve had some great holidays already. Oh yeah tin tops are cheaper than the AFT (lift up roof), mpg is low 20’s around town, high 20’s early 30’s on a run. Check out Bongofury web site/forum, stay away from 24hr auctions for Bongo’s in Bristol and do your homework and you’ll love it. Keeping as a 8 seater also allows for bikes to be transported inside the van.