Looking for a something cheap that i can sleep in the back of with room for a couple of bikes.

Going on a euro trip next year and have £2000 to spend on an estate car or cheap van to transport myself and a mate, and with enough room for me to sleep in the back for a week.

Don’t care about power, or fancy stuff, just something i can keep for a year that wont break down every day.

I await your suggestions with butterflies in my tummy.

How long is the trip, when and to where?

For that money I’d be tempted to spend £1800 on a car and £200 on a nice spacious tent. Any £2K van is, prettty much, going to be a banger.

Big thristy MPVs are nice and cheap to buy (for a reason) but a V6 Galaxy or something can be had for £1k, spend the rest on fuel…

We’ll be selling our 1995 Audi A6 1.9TDi at some point in the not too distant future, Depends how tall you are but it’s not quite long enough for me to sleep comfortably at 6’2″. Will do 800 miles on a tank, does about 40mpg with a boat on the roof and a boat behind. You’d probably want a car before we sell ours, but I’d highly recommend one. Ours has done 285k miles, 200k on the current engine. Will fit my Large specialized in the boot without folding the seats down (wheels off obviously). TBH if i was going to get something to sleep in for a week I’d get a van, I think I’d get fed up of the lack of space to move around, but I’m lanky and clumsy so you may well differ.

I’ve got a C-max. Bonus over an estate is there’s masses of headroom for getting changed. With the rear seats removed I can sleep on a roll mat in the back with 2 bikes (big water carrier stored behind the driver seat is the same level as the boot floor so makes it flat).

TBH though the best setup is a 2-person pop up tent from decathlon for £45, park car, tent up in well under a minute, and all my camping kit lives in a duffbag, throw that in the tent and I’m ready for the night. It’s probably quicker than clearing a sleeping space in the back!

It’s quick enough to pitch and pack away again that you can park up somehwere discreetly, sleep, then have the tent packed away before breakfast. “What do you mean Mr NT Warden? The sign clearly says no camping, not no eating breakfast next to your car!”

Or (never tried this), but you can get roofbar mounted tents for landrovers whichhave a matress in the base. Obviously requires the cars roof bars to be able to suppourt 2 people + tent through.

that audi sounds tempting, sick of sleeping in a fiat punto 🙁

Any van in that price range probably will be a banger unless you get lucky, looked at hiring one?

We have a Mitsubishi Delica for those duties. Will take a load of bikes and enough room for even the tallest person the stretch out. We had 4 people, 4 bikes and a mountain of kit in it on our last trip to Morzine. I’ve put a shelf in the back whick makes a good size double bed with space for two bikes and a canoe underneath. They are pretty old, but Japanese, so reliability is OK. £2k will get a nice one, ours was a fair bit less. pretty thirsty, but then that’s what keeps the purchase price down.

Great replies, thanks so much!

The Delica is very high on my list already, just looking at options and seeing if I have overlooked anything. Better get over to the Delica forums and see whats what 🙂

Can keep you in the loop if you want Banks?

Mazda Bongo/Ford Freda could be an option.
+Easy to drive
Many come with electric elevating roof
Seats fold flat to sleep on

-Thirsty
Parts could be hard to source in Europe

I’d 2nd the big car and tent. vans are expensive 2nd hand, more so down the budget end of the market.

Me and my mates did many trips as teens/early 20’s in a massive brown and beige Renault Savana worth less than a tank of fuel! It was nick named ‘the slug’ partly for it’s colour, partly for it’s less than dazzling performance but never did it break down and transported us many thousands of miles on awesome adventures. Great times!

Old Peugeot 405 estate diesel. Not pretty but built like a tank and tend to run for ever.Plus on a £2000 budget you’ll have loads left over for a decent tent and other stuff.
I bought one a few years back for £500 for similar reason as yourself (transporting bikes and kit and/or dogs) – only intended on keeping it for the 8 months it had left on MOT but it refused to fail the test for another 4 years. Like I said it wasn’t pretty but I loved it. Had our bike club logo sprayed on the bonnet which got a few grins/grimaces, but it served it’s purpose well.
Only got rid after I’d crashed it into a tree (and a wall and another car). Replaced it with another but petrol instead of diesel.

Sambob, let me know what happens with the audi, as it is certainly something I would consider.

Ford Transit Connect? Great little vans, enough room for bikes and a bed.

Astra van AND tent.

Big old estate

Just remember to factor in
insurance costs
and
breakdown fund

23 yrs nephew and mate this summer in france/italy/slovina in a 94 passat diesel, bikes in back and tent,

200k on clock….still going but minor hiccups windscreen wipers on permantley ….take the fuse out….fine

The prob i find with estate cars for kipping in is the lack of headroom, so i found a tent with some headroom and an estate car is the ideal solution (plus you can store the bikes in it overnight…hard to do if you’re in there too) – did a couple of months worth of euro roadtrip this way and it’s what i’ll (hopefully) be doing again…

oh what about berlingos and others like that kango

last week i spent 2 nights away in my skoda fun, put the cab in to 4 seat configuration, bikes in the back, passenger seat laid back and slept there, not ideal but done the job, in the summer i will be doing it again but will probably take a tent.

Ideally id like a VW Transporter for this sort of thing but they cost too much to run.

Dunno what its like for sleeping in (as i haven’t tried!) But i have a 99 T reg 316 estate that i’m getting rid of. Petrol version, does 35-40 mpg. Pulls well and has been great while i’ve had it.

However i’ve gone back to an old defender 😀
Though i would love a Delica too!

I’d love to do that,
Know folks who did trips in
Volvo 240
Land Rover defender 110
And I did a trip in a Mazda 323 with bike rack and tents.

Spend a grand on vehicle, rest on a therma-rest, tent sleeping bag, car powered kettle, European food and booze.

Bon Voyage!

As a kid we had camping trips in an Austin Cambridge estate. Dad diagonally, me & sister each side, older brother on front seat – happy memories.

My solution for the odd night or two away, although I am thinking a bongo could be on the cards this year

van 1 by Doubledunter, on Flickr

van2 by Doubledunter, on Flickr

CArs way to small for 2 guys 2 bikes all your gear. Deffo need a tent or a bigish van. Like this (not mine btw) but £2000

and this

06 van with 75 k on the clock peugeot engine and ford MT75 box same as a transit, under rated cheap vans imho!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2006-06-REG-LDV-MAXUS-CREW-VAN-LWB-3-2T-2-5L-95BHP-6-SEATER-RED-CONVOY-/200853590630?pt=UK_Commercial_Trucks&hash=item2ec3ce9266

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Renault-Master-3-5T-Lwb-DIESEL-MANUAL-2001-Y-/110989456910?pt=UK_Commercial_Trucks&hash=item19d77cb60e

Will do Andy. Might be March/April, but I’ll keep you updated.

ok, got some Bongos to look at and a couple of Delica’s as well. Summer should be fun!

Thanks for all your help guys 🙂

Ideally id like a VW Transporter for this sort of thing but they cost too much to run.

To buy, yeah. To run, nope. Mine costs no more to fuel and service than the 1.6 Golf before it did.

Insurance is more to be fair, but mainly as I cunningly lost my NCB the year before I gotthe van 🙁

Mondeo + tent. As much as I’d love a camper, it just doesn’t make much sense overall to me, especially at this price- it’d be nice for the rare times I’d actually sleep in it, but a car’s better all the rest of the time.

I ended up buying a decathlon popup tent for car-camping, since my proper tent’s impervious to all weather but takes ages to pitch and strike.

“Ideally id like a VW Transporter for this sort of thing but they cost too much to run.

To buy, yeah. To run, nope. Mine costs no more to fuel and service than the 1.6 Golf before it did.
“

ill believe that – they both had the VAAAAAGGGGGG !!!!!! tax on them.

never had such an expensive car(golf) to buy parts for – using the same garage as always or even DIY.

I have a Berlingo, with the rear double-seat removed. It’s big enough to sleep in then with my bike and kit on the other side.

Went around Europe in it this last summer with 2 mates. Built a false floor for the camping kit(with special pull-out baguette-support) and packed the bikes in on top. Made a false bulkhead in the place which would norally be the double seatback which meant room for tents and bags away from the bikes.
It was a squeeze with 3 of us but worked great.

On your own a Blingo is great though. Easy enough room if you’re ok with being inventive 🙂

..and yes, I know my rims are sick.
8)

Dunno about a VAAAAAGGGGGG !!!!!! tax on the Golf. It cost 5k, 5yrs old with 50k on it, I put another 80k on it, had it serviced by a local independent garage and whatever parts it needed were ‘normal’ prices (nothing went wrong with really though, so it rarely needed any). £150 a year to insure, 38mpg.

Transporters definately have a Transporter Tax on the purchase price though. An equivalent Transit, Vivaro etc is much cheaper (and probably no more reliable).

Trail rat if you think a VW is bad to service try a land rover!

Had a discovery 3 and everything was a horrendous price. I’ve got a transporter now. Much cheaper in every way and insurance is about the same (including the transporter with extra seats, windows, lowered alloys etc).

More Berlingo-based camping:

[img]http://www.amdro.co.uk/userfiles/image/doblobed.jpg[/img]

http://www.amdro.co.uk/jump.php

How about a Trailer tent and use the car you already have? You can pick up a trailer tent for quite cheap (mine’s a 1990 Conway Rio that cost £300). You can get roof rack’s for the top of the trailer to carry bikes etc leaving the trailer for your camping gear and car free for anything else.

I first used it with a 1.4 Berlingo (hardly any torque) but as the trailer weighed about 300/500kg it was within the limit and preformed alright.

And when you’re done for the day, depending on the model Trailer Tent it takes 1min-30mins to set up. Most just open from the middle with the tent attached ready to go so just the pegging out to do.

“Trail rat if you think a VW is bad to service try a land rover!”

got 2 thanks ….

cheap as chips for parts – but mines are pre 1990s and i can weld.

wouldnt like to keep a new one though – my colleagues RR sport is comical for servicing.

that amdro kit makes that berlingo look spacious …..

camera makes that bed look long…. its not and to sit at that table you would have such a crick in your neck if average height. a little old lady might be fine though.

I have found the perfect vehicle for you!! HAlf car.. half van best of both and only £1200…

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vauxhall-omega-Hearse-/140904020453?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item20ce88b9e5

Loving the Berlingo/Kangoo idea! Dont suppose they do a midi/longer one do they?

The hearse is also awesome, though i dont think the missus would want me driving her to the shops in one 🙁

VW do the Caddy Maxi but they’re pricey.

What about an older caddy van. Cheap as chips now!

Caddy