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My first post in this section- please be gentle with me

The above caravan is for sale for £1995 at a local dealer, 3 month warranty, full service and safety check (and he said he'd throw in some things, not sure what yet, to get us started.)

We've had a quick look round the van but are planning going back for a proper inspection, armed with all the advice given here on what to look for.  We viewed it today in lashing rain, no musty smells, air fresheners etc and no obvious spongy bits.  The dealer has redone all the seals and assures us there is no damp (will try to get a meter to test though.  What do you all think so far??!

Reading through old posts I realise the manufacturer is no longer trading so my main worry, after damp, is more about spares for the braking system etc, are they fairly universal and easy to come by?  Other half is a mechanic so we will probably do most of the upkeep ourselves (and get the gas appliances checked by an expert) yearly.

My second caravan i ever owned was an Adonis, but slightly older than yours, a good basic no frills caravan, quite sturdy, but also a bit skimped when it came to comfort like the depth of the upholstry, we needed to use an airbed under the front seat cushions to stop us from 'grounding' when we made up the bed, long before the option of a memory foam topper was available!.

Knowing what we were paid in trade in for an 89 model in 1993, I would be inclined to say hes charging you top price for yours, and a good haggle may pay off dividends. We bought ours at 2yrs old for just over £3k, sold it two years later for £2.200, it was then a 4yr old van in 1993.

The next van was also an Avondale Perle Olympus 1992, slightly better spec, but also leaked like a sieve and had damp problems despite being only 12 months old, which luckily were fixed under warantee. Other than that, we had no real problems with it, just that OH was into his real wood interior finishes and a bit more luxury and fell in love with a new Coachman Genius whilst just popping into a Yorkshire dealers to buy some loo-blue!

Julia

Having looked at dealers for over a year I think that they always charge at least £1000 more than you'd pay on a private sale. However, if its to be serviced, safety checked & warranty it should be worth paying the extra. Ask them to do a damp report - we were shown ours when we bought in April.  Also, if you like the caravan you could get a mobile engineer to do a pre-purchase inspection. These are very thorough , not cheap, but could save you losing money in the long run.

Try to get as much thrown in as possible, water pump, electric hook up, aquaroll,battery etc.  Even if they're preowned ones they'll start you off & you can replace them when you can.

I think it comes down to how confident you are in the dealer following up on after care.

There are very few private caravan sales up here and a lot that are for sale are only fit to be used as hen houses I'm afraid lol 

I do trust the dealer, it's a family run business who have been on the go for lots of years and the only thing I have heard bad about them is that they charge the top price for vans, but that the aftercare is very good as their reputation means a lot to them.

We are limited to what we can tow just now as we cant afford to change car and buy a van, there aren't many newer vans within our weight limits (1365 kerb side - Peugeot 308) 

Oh, decisions, decisions !