[Closed] 'Lifestyle' vehicles. Am I missing something?

I buy Kellogg's cornflakes to eat in my T5. They taste better than they would in a Nissan.

I'm slightly sentimental about the old T2 I grew up with. I think it my parents not allowing my first girl friend to "stay over" but it WAS OK to borrow the VW Schagin'Wagin for the weekend away.... 😀

Most of the people I know with T5's spend most of their free time getting them repaired. 'DPF Valves' come up in conversation quite a lot, so does oil consumption.

I wouldn't say no to a T5 though! Or maybe a Transit Custom, quite like the look of those.

Now jambo I don't believe you - surely it should be waitrose super duper cornflakes

I’m on my second T5 nether were brought brand new, just a few months old. Current one as the last one is a work horse (with a half decent spec) to me. But having a van is so bloody handy for transporting Mtb’s and boards. I’m not keen on the fact that they are considered a ‘lifestyle vehicle’ now and it makes me cringe when I get waved at by another T5 owner.

Dorset_Knob - Member
What do you have against broadsheet Sunday supplements?

Hmmmmmmmm...... where to start......? They're sort of a microcosm of our advanced capitalist consumer society aren't they, I suppose? But taken to the nth degree, as they disappear up their own arse? I don't really think I need to expand too much on that, do I?

I get the Observer every Sunday, and read the main section, but I've learnt not to even glance at the supplement as its full of 200 quid iPhone covers, wooly jumpers that cost a grand, Road tests on Audi's, recipes involving ingredients I've never heard of and more pointless middle class affectations than you can shake a Moschino stick at.

If everyone in the country read the Times Sunday supplement on one given weekend, you'd have a revolution on your hands within minutes

Oh - good answer.

Not completey sure I understand it, fully.

I think what you're voicing is a frustration with the idea that everything must always have a newer, more obscure, more fashionable and, ultimately, more expensive, alternative, to which the media tells us we must aspire? That the media is the machine of a capitalist organ gone mad?

I think I might feel like I tend to agree.

Part of the problem is the system of money - for any given pound they have, banks lend about 5 pound (let's say). That means there is a constant push for 'growth', to make up the interest. Why is 'economic growth' better than 'economic staying put', given the pressures that growth puts on people, and the environment?

It's all about interest, at the end of the day. If banks could lend only 99 pence out of every £1 they had, this pressure would go away.

But, these people know what they're talking about, whereas I am just an internet idiot in keyboard mode avoiding the day's work. Have a read, you might like it: [url= http://positivemoney.org/our-proposals/ ]Positive Money[/url]

Sorry, but that is NOT how banks work. They do not lend out money they receive. They create money first and then this becomes a deposit, not the other way around.

But don't worry, Central Banks only started admitting this about 3-5 years ago. They and textbooks got it wrong for decades!

So there is a magic money tree then? But you can only access it to spend the money [url= https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/our-pick-of-the-breaks-to-book-now-82bzwqdkv ]wisely[/url] 😆

@Dorset that Positive Money stuff is the biggest load of bollix

So the camper van is merely an instrument of the consumerist, capitalist state and a tool of big capital? Without them our society would simply collapse. Who knew.

So there is a magic money tree then?

There absolutely is a magic money tree. Its called Quantitative Easing, its given a boring technical name to try and obscure what it is - printing money.

The best part of half a trillion pounds of QE has been created since 2008.

All this magic money is only a problem when we want to spend it on things other than banks though.

EDIT

None of that has much to do with T5's though. To be fair I was just hoping this was a thread slagging off SUVs

I've been doing some "pie in the sky" looking into camper vans*. I was really surprised that the purchase cost of VW T5/T6 camper is a similar amount to a much larger and better equipped motorhome. Granted both have their various advantages/disadvantages, but I'd assumed the VW would be a cheaper option.

Also, I'm not convinced by the seat/bed then units along the side layout. At least not for anyone who pursues the lifestyle these vans are associated with/marketed with. With that layout, any gear (bikes, boards, etc.) has go outside of the van... sort of voiding the reason for having a van in the first place, i.e to carry stuff [u]in[/u]

I still want one though but with a better layout or at least a sliding "Variotech" type seat. It wouldn't need to be VW either. I like the simplicity of the Amdro Kombi jump

[img] [/img]

For mega bucks, there's also the HymerCar Cape Town that deviates from the "traditional" layout:

[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

*Pie in the sky due to lack of funds

Also, I'm not convinced by the seat/bed then units along the side layout. At least not for anyone who pursues the lifestyle these vans are associated with/marketed with. With that layout, any gear (bikes, boards, etc.) has go outside of the van.

Yup, every camper is a compromise, it's whatever suits your needs tbh. My current camper of choice, big enough to sleep in, on a full size single mattress, and bike fits inside too!

[img] [/img]
[url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/nobeerinthefridge/36409232995/ ]Ard rock[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/59995395@N03/ ][/url] - [url= https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dariogf.flickr2BBcode_lite ]Flickr2BBcode LITE[/url]

@Dorset that Positive Money stuff is the biggest load of bollix

Oh, OK then.

They do not lend out money they receive. They create money first and then this becomes a deposit

kinda the point, I think, although my degree in economics might actually have been the biggest load of bollix

(edit: i always suspected it was)

Right now a basic old combi van does us as a family just fine. We camp and transport bikes a lot so it's hard to see past it. The make is neither here or there to me. But it is a T5, so I suspect falls into the 'lifestyle vehicle' category. It's not customised. No one waves at me. I'm fairly certain it's not 'scene'.

But once the kids have grown up and moved out, then I reckon we will go for a camper. I hope we still have enough oomph by then to still be riding/racing and reckon the comfort of a decent bed might be just the thing after we've dragged our aged bodies around another mudfest course somewhere. But it won't be a California or anything like that. It will have to be something custom for us, based on whatever is deemed to be the most reliable panel van base at the time. LWB too, as I don't reckon you can fit enough into SWB. Maybe some modular bits and pieces so it can be configured for winter or summer use.

This also might be pie in the sky and cost too much. If so a bell-tent with a stove in it might be just the thing to keep us camping/biking in the winter.

are electric vehicles a lifestyle vehicle?

I'm fairly certain it's not 'scene'.

You had me until

a bell-tent with a stove in it

Well done.

😀 damn, rumbled.

I'm just daydreaming about the ideal Strathpuffer set-up for a pairs race in a few years time. Reality is that it is probably a gazebo with sides on and a portable gas heater at best.

are electric vehicles a lifestyle vehicle?

All vehicles are a lifestyle choice, whether they generate as much hate/envy/ridicule as a T5 is another thing....

If someone can sell me the dream where you use a campervan with 2 adults, 2 children (5+6) and 2 big dogs, and have enough space to live in, please do it. I'd happily buy into it, although the wife might take some convincing

Right now the thought of all of us sharing a space half the size of my living room isn't so good (I know it's not always like that, but I'm working on the deal-with-the-rain set up)

I do actually want one, but the dogs/kids combo make it very tricky!

How does a plug in hybrid T5 sound?

Depends if it's running on electric motor or internal combustion engine.

ba-dum-tsch!

If someone can sell me the dream where you use a campervan with 2 adults, 2 children (5+6) and 2 big dogs, and have enough space to live in, please do it. I'd happily buy into it, although the wife might take some convincing

Right now the thought of all of us sharing a space half the size of my living room isn't so good (I know it's not always like that, but I'm working on the deal-with-the-rain set up)

I do actually want one, but the dogs/kids combo make it very tricky!

Want you want is a motorhome... And probably from a continental manufacturer as UK ones seem focused on retiree couples, rather than active families.

If you're planning on buying a professionally converted camper, a much larger motorhome could be similar money

Also there are these guys in the US ->[url= https://www.outsidevan.com/ ]Outside Van[/url]. Sort of halfway between a camper and motorhome, and way cooler.