I am looking for an older VW Caravelle, and keep getting adds for £50k+ and even up to £100k camper vans thrust on me, does anyone really spend that sort of money on one?
Have you seen how much some folk spend on bicycles?
Rich people. Really rich people!
A chap at my work turned up just after Christmas in a brand new California Ocean 4x4…he clearly gets paid a LOT more than I do.
Seems pretty good value, you can pay £250k for a Range Rover these days.
I suggest you don't look at the Hymer website. A 4x4 Hymer Venture S from £196,000
What's a vw calli now 80,k fully loaded from new?
There's dozens of them being daily driven around Sheffield. They're only outnumbered by Range Rover Sports.
does anyone really spend that sort of money on one?
I can say, having worked briefly for a very well known posh van company that yes, yes they do. Average sale price when I was there a few years ago was 46k + VAT. I think the most expensive one I worked on was 79k and counting.
I can say, having worked briefly for a very well known posh van company
Begins with L?
£73k is the least you can spend on a California Ocean now. Go for the higher power engine and a few options and easy to hit £80k.
The only £100k+ conversions I've seen are full of pricey fripperies like auto-leveling air suspension.
I was going to suggest probably the same income demographic that drives Range Rovers, which are also £100k, but ride bikes rather than go clay shooting.
DINKY's on £70-80k each and you can afford most things you want. Or drug dealing
I just wish they’d check the reverse gear option before they come up here in their new T6 and drive our single-track, island roads or use the non-existent passing place finder 🤣
TBH I do watch a lot of van life stuff and tbh always giggle when they are sticking £3-15k of battery power gear in.
"thrust on me”.
That made me laugh.
Who buys £100k VW Campers?
Van****.
Begins with L?
LDV?
Finance? Guess they don't depreciate very quickly so the monthly on a PCP 'might' not be as horrific as you'd imagine.
LDV?
No, mostly VW's. Peaty's favourite van mod dealer
Begins with L?
I can't possibly say. It was also a white supremacist terror cell and I wouldn't associate with any of them ever again.
E-bikers?
Mind the 50k is poverty spec !
I did a ride with a mate that went by the Mercedes museum and dealer at the Brooklands site. I had a quick look at the forecourt, and I thought 'blimey thase are some nice looking cars for £15k' but then I realised I'd missed a zero.
Seems pretty good value, you can pay £250k for a Range Rover these days.
Jesus, it was big news when they passed £100k, 20 years ago
Boomers
I get 1 or 2 reversing up at my shop every week to buy the requisite kayak/SUP and all the gear. These are 60 year old retired civil servants, teachers, police, council directors, NHS managers, Doctors, Accountants, you name it - all lucky enough to have been born around 1960 and gone to a grammar school.....bought a house and kept a job (pretty much any job other than a miner or nurse) for 40 years.
Loaded.
Finance? Guess they don’t depreciate very quickly so the monthly on a PCP ‘might’ not be as horrific as you’d imagine.
Oh there's an avalanche of ****ed credit rolling about on UK roads at the minute, just wait... It's going to be like 2008 but with wheels.
The only people left with a merc on the drive will be those operating cash in hand, you know drug dealers and plumbers...
Mines only a beach not an ocean so wasn’t £100k fortunately.
I’ve had 3 over the last 14 years and so far lost about £2k in total so the residuals are incredible and it’s a great family vehicle. First one was bought for £40k new so prices have shot up to stupid levels now.
I’m early 40’s now, had a decent job for a while in my 20’s before kids so bought one and never looked back. They’re great for everything.
I do hate it when the 65 year old retirees in their new oceans try to wave at me like we are friends though.
Don't worry squealer , I'm a 67 year old retiree and I promise to ignore you as I drive past in my Focus Estate 🙄
No toilet in most of them but if parked nearby we can tell the health of their bladders by how many times those awful sliding doors wake us up! And… those noisy diesel heaters..
Peaty’s favourite van mod dealer
Leightons
I can’t possibly say. It was also a white supremacist terror cell and I wouldn’t associate with any of them ever again
E-bikers?
Made me laugh, whether @eddiebaby was answering his preceding post or not
Not me, I drive a tatty T4 but from what I understand, talking to those that do, while the entrance fee is high to the club, if you sell it after a couple of years you won't have lost much of your money.
As for all the blingy T6's, if you own a limited company and buy the one with biggest payload, an awful lot of the cost is offset against your tax bill. I've a couple of mates running £40,000 vans this way. Again, once you've sold it to yourself for threpence happeny and then sold it on, you won't have lost much money.
Whereas, I imagine those Range Rovers lose lots and lots of value.
You get 25% of your pension pot, tax free at 65. A 400k pot isn’t unheard of, and taking a quarter of that, travelling round the world for 2 years and having a £70k asset at the end of it doesn’t seem like the worst idea in the world
Exactly what I may be doing although travelling around UK rather than the world as I am not that adventurous.
I have one they are fantastic. Never camp in it though. My wife prefers a Premier Inn.
Based on the current value of my pension pot I might make it once round the gas works in a Yugo...
I've not done the maths, but expect £100k would pay for a lot of hotel rooms/B&Bs over the years.
I’ve not done the maths, but expect £100k would pay for a lot of hotel rooms/B&Bs over the years.
Yes but the £100k still has a value after 5 years... plus, we all need vehicles (mostly anyway), so if you use it for 5 years and drop say £10k on it, well it's not a bad loss considering the benefits you've had as both a vehicle and a hotel from it.
I’ve not done the maths, but expect £100k would pay for a lot of hotel rooms/B&Bs over the years.
Which was exactly where the OH and I came to when we were considering getting a motorhome (one with a toilet & shower though).
Fair point, but assume £50k depreciation over 5 years is nearly £200/week, which would pay for a decent weekend away 52 weeks of the year (including breakfast and a bathroom). Agree that you would need a car instead of a van, but a £10k car would only depreciate £1k/year.
Hiya,
VW Campers have always been expensive. In 2015 when we were looking for a campervan we did briefly look at one. Brother in law put us off one with his one, being somewhat unreliable. For the last 7 years we have a Renault Trafic MK3 converted by Sussex campervans. Hell of a lot cheaper and more reliable from our own experiences. OK last year was a tad bit expensive where I had to get new springs and new disks etc at the rear of the van, but only after 55K miles and the roads in North Somerset are crappy and pothole ridden.
BR
JeZ
I wonder the same thing about who's buying the all £500k-750k houses, always surprised how many of them there are around.
You get 25% of your pension pot, tax free at 65. A 400k pot isn’t unheard of, and taking a quarter of that, travelling round the world for 2 years and having a £70k asset at the end of it doesn’t seem like the worst idea in the world
That plus the people pulling in really big money does make sense though.
Fair point, but assume £50k depreciation over 5 years is nearly £200/week, which would pay for a decent weekend away 52 weeks of the year (including breakfast and a bathroom). Agree that you would need a car instead of a van, but a £10k car would only depreciate £1k/year.
Apples/Oranges.
People probably aren't choosing between a £10k car and a £50k van, they're choosing between a £50k Audi and a £50k Van.
Fair point, but assume £50k depreciation over 5 years is nearly £200/week, which would pay for a decent weekend away 52 weeks of the year (including breakfast and a bathroom)
Depends when and where, over the last few years I've ended up paying probably an average of £120/night for work hotels, and that's including a 2 month stint in the Holiday Inn on J15 of the M6 (i.e. if you took your OH for a weekend away at that end of the market then expect a divorce 🤣).
It is static caravans, sorry I mean lodge/cabin, that really blow my mind. Some of them near me are more expensive than a flat, presumably depreciate horrifically as there are maximum ages on the sites, also have an annual fee for the plot and you can’t even use them all year. Just can’t work it out.
I wonder the same thing about who’s buying the all £500k-750k houses, always surprised how many of them there are around.
The difference with the houses is if it's not your first house it's been quite easy to trade "up". The car finance is just massive monthly costs.
