Vanity project

I have a chance to buy a T5, 10 years old 54k miles with full Teahupoo conversion. Low mileage £28k, bought from a friend so I know the history. I am 90% sure I want it for ten years of early finish Fridays and weekends away. Once a month. Ten years. 120 mini adventures. Just sense checking that buying a diesel van as the world turns electric is not foolish. Or that vans will be taxed to f. In the next 10 years. Just reassure me please before I press buy.

Risky to not get CAZ / ULEZ compliant.  I’ve mates who live in London and pay £12 to drive to work.
Your fridays seem fun tho. Good luck. Tent maybe?

Well nothing has ever been retroactively taxed so far, I’d say there’s not much to worry about there.

Only you know if it’s worth it.

Go for it.. i should have bought a van 10 years ago instead of arsing about with cars.

Well, you will need some original art for the house to remind you to use it, won’t you?

Which engine? Ten yeas old puts it right in the middle of the $hittests of $h1t 180bhp biturbo territory. If it’s the 102/110/150 possibly go for it (102 6sp preferable over the same engine but 5sp box). Otherwise tread very, very carefully.

Also: it’s a VW. This means nothing. It’s built in Hannover in an ancient factory by disgruntled communists. Some are great. some are average, some are right lemons. My 5.1 tried to set itself on fire with dodgy, standard, electricals. Twice. My 12 month old T6 spent 6 weeks in a dealer with EGR issues – after having spent a week in a dealer having a new inlet manifold and fuel regulator fitted.

Emissions wise it’ll be at least Euro4, probably Euro5. Check the reg out on the government checker and see which zones it will be affected by. Both of my T5/6 were/are registered as cars, which meant they were largely exempt in the various ulez. A van registration will mean places like Newcastle can charge you for entry. Conversely van = low VED, mine currently costs the wrong side of £600 per year as its a car. As for the position in the medium to long term: who knows. We can only be sure that restrictions will become harsher, which for anyone who has to live or work in a city, can only be a good thing.

I’m going to go the other way and sell my t5 soon. We don’t really ride much, or at least we don’t travel around the country with bikes any more and a kombi moving mostly air seems pointless. I had in mind to convert it to a camper, but that won’t happen and I’m happy in a tent anyway. It was good for us for a decent number of years, but time to move it on I think.

Re ULEZs etc. Mine is a euro4, but M1 on the V5 so exempt at present from charges in some of the ULEZs, eg Sheffield. That will change at some point though. For the OP, if you live well outside of ULEZs and your mini adventures avoid ULEZs,/CAZs then you’ll be fine. Check the V5 though.

Well nothing has ever been retroactively taxed so far,

Isn’t this effectively (OK a charge, not a daily tax) what the hefty charges for emissions zones has done, hence the outrage from van and diesel drivers in cities across the land?

I’ll chuck my view in there… T5 “proper” camper conversions are limited especially from a biking POV. I lived with mine for 7/8 years (Alpine Campers conversion which I’m guessing will be very similar setup to a Teahupoo conversion in terms of layout etc) and it just became a bit of a faff to mix camping/biking/fishing. Bearing in mind I rarely cooked in the van, the sink was useless and the layout limited what you could carry in it, I tore out the interior and fitted a kombi setup with an Amdro bed (kept the electrics so got USBs, 12v, leisure battery etc).

As a daily driver this means I can fit 6 people and 4/5 bikes in the van for days away riding.
For camping weekends (just been away this weekend), 4 people + dog sleeping in the van (still have the pop top fitted), loads of room inside for storage still under the rear bed etc plus we have a smallish Vango Kela awning for a lounge/cooking area with a Cadac (game changer).

Given £28k is a good chunk of cash for a 10 year old van (its almost what I paid for mine when it was 3 years old as an ex-demonstrator from a decent company), if I was doing it all over again I’d go straight to what I’ve done with mine.

Thanks all really helpful and thought provoking. I work from home, live in the north, and do less than 10k a year mileage. Should be ok, but as had been said it’s still a big load of cash to drop on a 10 year old van. For reflection. Thanks

Isn’t this effectively (OK a charge, not a daily tax) what the hefty charges for emissions zones has done, hence the outrage from van and diesel drivers in cities across the land?

No, totally different. You can choose not to drive in LEZs.

No, totally different. You can choose not to drive in LEZs.

Depends where you are trying to get to!  Certainly, the OP needs to bare in mind its ULEZ status and how that might impact him as more ULEZ are rolled out.  The Scottish ones are simply a ban with a fine for non-compliance, not an extra charge.  You could ignore them and just pay the fine but that is certainly not something you’d want to do regularly.

My point was that the VED taxation system has never been retroactively changed. I really didn’t think I would have to be so proscriptive but hey, Singletrack.

Depends how much you’ll drive in the zones. If you don’t live/work in one, if you’ll not visit one regularly in the van then just budget for the odd charge to go in them. You could do that 10 times a year for the cost of a pair of MTB tyres.

Agree on the (im)practicality of bikes and the typical SWB Transporter camper layouts. Not a problem if you don’t mind a tailgate/towbar rack though.

No, totally different. You can choose not to drive in LEZs.

Only if i choose not to drive….

6 speed and aircon are desirable from the factory.  Diesel heater, 3 way fridge are nice to have but can be retrofitted.  Good quality fittings such as pop top and rock n roll bed from often German manufacturers such as Reimo or SCA will last longer.  I miss my T5.

Just one last thing.

aerodynamics of a brick + 20 year old vehicle structure design=

my daft Alfa is actually cheaper on fuel and tyres.

@hot_fiat….

Wow! You must have a heavy foot. In my old T5 LWB 130bhp 5 cylinder I used to get 7.5l/100km, so ~37mpg. Even in my Ducato L3 6.4m over loaded brick I get 9l/100km, ~32mpg…. And that is over the last 19570km.

Agree with the comments about the impractical layout of most California style layouts.

My T5 I built a pull-out bed with drawers beneath behind the second row of seats. It meant I could still transport two bikes inside and four on the tailgate rack or large sheets of wood for work. Removed the second row for longer trips away with the two of us or if I needed to transport more tools.

And my feeling is that the pop-tops are not very stealthy, are unpleasant when it’s windy and raining, liable to have condensation forming on the inside, generally don’t offer much foot/headroom (mine had a HiLo roof which did give lots of headroom) and need drying out thoroughly before being stored away.

My 2p worth – £28k seems a lot for a 10year old camper but I know prices have gone mental for both vans and campers post Covid.
Wanting to keep the potential T5 for another 10years is potentially going to be mechanically and bodywork a little costly more so if it’s to be a daily driver?

You don’t say whether you are wanting to stealth camp or campsites but £28k could buy a new Berlingo MPV, roof tent, awning and boot jump,

Or an XC90/XC70 with similar roof tent and bike carrying ability.

I went the Berlingo MPV route when my van rusted to death mid Covid and it’s been great for bike hauling and road trips.

One slight problem in that plan Rusty – that new Berlingo MPV might have to be a bare van or crewvan as the Multispace is now electric only….

On the economy front we regularly get 44 mpg from a Dispatch XL crewvan. For leisure / daily driver use it is a shedload lighter than the equivalent T6, which also explains why the front tyres are only just nearing replacement after 45k trouble free miles 🙂.

One slight problem in that plan Rusty – that new Berlingo MPV might have to be a bare van or crewvan as the Multispace is now electric only….

They’ve restarted production of ICE Berlingo’s again

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/citroen-brings-back-petrol-and-diesel-berlingo-mpv-due-demand

@hot_fiat what engine is that?😳

My 21 year old 88bhp 2.5tdi T4 returns 36mpg day to day and up 40mpg on longer journeys.

That is interesting about the Berlingo. Still nothing on the website and I was only chatting a few weeks ago about lack of ICE Multispace with the boss of the local family owned dealers and he never mentioned it.

That is interesting about the Berlingo. Still nothing on the website and I was only chatting a few weeks ago about lack of ICE Multispace with the boss of the local family owned dealers and he never mentioned it.

Ah…possibly not🤷‍♂️
https://www.berlingoforum.com/thread-23644-page-2.html

OP – buy a used one, stick a rooftent on it and have loads of money left over for Coke n’hookers “If the Berlingo is rocking tipped over don’t come knocking”

@simon that was our last one, 180bitdi 4motion Caravelle. Our new one, a 199bitdi is not much better. In fact around town it’s worse.  That’s not with me driving it: it’s my wife’s daily. She’s not exactly driving miss daisy, I’ll admit, but she’s not me either.  It’s just what they do. 300-350miles from a tank.

On holiday when I drive, with the roof box and bike rack it’ll do ≈28mpg over 2000miles, mainly motorway. Roof box makes naff all difference.

The high consumption will be the all wheel drive.

I get low 30s (30-33) mostly, and a bit more on long steady runs. 2.5/174ps.

My 2p worth – £28k seems a lot for a 10year old camper but I know prices have gone mental for both vans and campers post Covid.

This unless its a really top notch conversion – full leather, top notch bed and roof, air con, 6 speed box, fancy suspension and wheels etc. As mentioned above, I paid £30k for mine when it was 3 years old and that was cheap at the time for any conversion with a Reimo roof, Smart bed, Waeco fridge, Smev hob/sink, full retrim etc. Looking around now, from a reputable conversion company you’re realistically looking at well north of $45k for something with a similar spec thats 3 years old.

someone just posted this on the caravelle forum. This isn’t unheard of.

Not unheard of but also open the door and look at how many Transporters there are on the roads. The only problems I’ve had with mine (2011 2.0 CR single turbo) in nearly 9 years of ownership has been an EGR value/cooler going kaput and a driveshaft.

Thanks all. Going to bite the bullet and do it. Thanks for all the advice and wisdom