We are seasoned campers but want to 'upgrade'. One choice is to a 4 bed/4 seatbelt motorhome. Something like a Compass Avantgarde a few years old, and circa £18k.
Can anyone advise the sort of fixed costs we will incur? Just to give us an idea of minimum cost. You know...MOT, fully comp insurance, taxes, services (anything else thats fixed cost . Not repairs, depreciation or storage.
Is there a general rule on % depreciation when a MH is looked after, and does approx 2k per annum mileage?
Do the RAC/AA offer services to check over vehicles which we may think of buying privately?
My van costs approx:- road tax £170, insurance £235 comp. Annual van service £200ish. Annual habitation service £150ish. Allow for a set of tyres when they're 5 years old, £ 350ish. mot at present is £44.15, same as a car. Remember, nothings set in stone!
The AA/Rac do I think do checks for a price, & I would be very suspicious of any private seller who shys away from it. I don't think there's a % rule at all, depreciation on most vans is pretty reasonable. A dealer will look at mileage, as well as overall condition, probably a bit different if you went private.
You'll save money long term by doing your homework on the right van for you, & don't rush in.
Cheers CREAKY.
------------- relájate, la vida es demasiado corta
Thanks Creaky. Thats a great help. As I anticipated, I missed the habitation service completely.
We are trying to work out, as a family of four destined now to have holidays in the peak periods, whether to go for a MH or go for a TT for 8 years (when the children will be circa 16) and then get a smaller MH for the just the two of us.
We can afford both (if the MH is second hand) as we are about to change our car and can get a cheaper car and MH or more expensive car and TT. At the moment we are seasoned Khyam campers.
We will take our time. We mean to change the car in the next year (perhaps even two years, if necessary) to make the right decision. Neither of us are impulse buyers.
dont forget the other "fixed" prices ,the site fees get alarming in high summer for the best site ,one even charged £2 quid a night for a cat (not being a dog we didnt tell them but i was spotted taking it for a stroll)
although bookings are hard to find on a short term phonecall think hard to see if you really need 2 swimming pools etc etc if your not going to use them try to avoid sites that charge big prices because they'r there.
one trip we decided to move on a friday rather than stay till mid week (we were fulltiming ,the best time to go between sites is midweek) we decided on charmouth ,CC&C site was full as was that one close to the sea and the one mid way,we ended up in that very nice but extremely expensive one (cant remember its name ? newlands???) on the corner ,blimey it was expensive unfortunately we only used the bar once (kids persistantly running round the tables ,no not our kids)as for all the rest of the stuff we never even saw them never mind used them but unfortunately still paid for them ,found some good fossils though.nice clean site but lack of parental control by a small percentage of parents
there also is another charge which some forget ,transport! although motor homes are great to live in they are a pain to "visit" in ,as my mrs cant drive we put a honda90 on the back and used that for day to day travelling ,the pain of trying to find car parks without height barriers was a real pain lots of people use push bikes but my mrs is disabled so the honda was the only way forward ,make sure if you go down that route the camper has a very strong towbar so the M/C can be "hung" on it on its mounting.
we are selling our 2005 geist spirit 560 which is 4 berth immaculate condition but it's a bit expensive than what your looking for £25.000 but it as new as its only done 1900 miles hardly run in yet with all the mod cons and extras We are based in Telford if your interested the dealers are selling it for £27.950.000 so we think it is a good price if you want to splash out and have no maintenance to do more info offered. We know somebody who bought a four berth from a dealer for £38.000 not much different from ours but he didn't know ours was up for sale
Chesters: Re: site fees. We are OK with those as we camp in summer anyway so know what is charged as a general rule. We are happy on basic sites and aren't the sort to want to go to posh, cubiculed pitches. I know some will be harder to get to, again we have the experience on choosing (or not choosing) remoter sites-both from camping and also because my hubby drives a large vehicle on Cornish and Devonian country lanes for a living.
If its of any help my mate is selling his CI, it was brand new last year, only done 700 miles, 4 berth with bunk beds. Sadly he bought it then found that motorhoming just wasnt for him & the family. Wants £20k for it, i know its a little over your budget, but thought you mat be interested ?
------------- we are where we are - where are we ?
Thanks for the post. Apart from being above budget (we have decided we will not budge as otherwise it will keep going up and up and we do have plenty of time on our side) I also expect its miles away from us (not his fault we live miles away from civiliisation) - Cornwall.
Thank you for thinking of us and good luck to him in moving her on.
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Topic: Thinking of buying a motorhome
(not being a dog we didnt tell them but i was spotted taking it for a stroll)
nice clean site but lack of parental control by a small percentage of parents 
lots of people use push bikes but my mrs is disabled so the honda was the only way forward ,make sure if you go down that route the camper has a very strong towbar so the M/C can be "hung" on it on its mounting.
