We've been looking for a van for a while. A camper van. Our summer holiday is looming and prices of holiday cottages in Cornwall would make your eyes water. Costing more for a week, for a shed at the bottom of somebody’s garden, than our rent for a two-bedroom house is for an entire month. It was galling that we'd have to shell out so much money on a two week break, still pay rent and have nothing to show for it afterwards apart from a few snaps of us eating fish ‘n’ chips at the seaside.
So we've been searching the internet, ebay, forums, magazines and specialist websites looking for a good deal on a stealth van, Mazda Bongo, VW Split, Bay, T25, Winnebago, a house on wheels, LPG conversion or big old American Chevy with Elvis painted on the side.
Having sent literally hundreds of emails, received answers to more questions than we remember asking and many more pictures of the underneath to vehicles than I thought I would ever need to see. We finally decided that a VW camper was definitely the way to go. Tax free, in a time when car tax is set to increase. One of the greatest benefits being that the price of an early bay window won't depreciate in the way a newer vehicle would. Because VW's are collectable and are limited by the number available they seem to only be increasing in price when everything else is dropping off a cliff due to the credit crunch.
Tim got rid of his old green VW camper and we were all systems go. We headed down to Bridgwater in Somerset to see a camper we found on a VW forum. The couple selling the camper, Mark and Sandra seemed genuine on the phone and in their emails. They'd sent us 147 photos of every possible angle of the orange camper. On meeting them it was obvious they loved him. A member of the local Bristol based Volks club, they were keen to show us how they'd taken care of Burt.
So we've been searching the internet, ebay, forums, magazines and specialist websites looking for a good deal on a stealth van, Mazda Bongo, VW Split, Bay, T25, Winnebago, a house on wheels, LPG conversion or big old American Chevy with Elvis painted on the side.
Having sent literally hundreds of emails, received answers to more questions than we remember asking and many more pictures of the underneath to vehicles than I thought I would ever need to see. We finally decided that a VW camper was definitely the way to go. Tax free, in a time when car tax is set to increase. One of the greatest benefits being that the price of an early bay window won't depreciate in the way a newer vehicle would. Because VW's are collectable and are limited by the number available they seem to only be increasing in price when everything else is dropping off a cliff due to the credit crunch.
Tim got rid of his old green VW camper and we were all systems go. We headed down to Bridgwater in Somerset to see a camper we found on a VW forum. The couple selling the camper, Mark and Sandra seemed genuine on the phone and in their emails. They'd sent us 147 photos of every possible angle of the orange camper. On meeting them it was obvious they loved him. A member of the local Bristol based Volks club, they were keen to show us how they'd taken care of Burt.
Yes, Burt was his name given by his first owner; Mark and Sandra were only his second owners. Compared to Tim's old green camper which had 27. Here was a camper who'd had two careful owners. The old guy who bought Burt from new back in 1970, kept a log of every journey, every mile accounted for, every drop of petrol bought and how much it cost him. Imagine being able to compare the cost of filling up a tank in 1970 to 1980 to 1990. Burt was serviced every 3000 miles and all the work done on him is noted and again with the cost. So we hoped with all of this information Burt was going to be an investment.
So we raised the question with Mark and Sandra why were they selling Burt if they loved him so much. Owners of 4 vehicles, one being a Beetle, they'd recently purchased a Split and had to sell Burt because they needed the room.
Burt is a 1970 Bay Window, Devon conversion. A Bay Window, for those who don't know, refers to the one pane of glass making up the windscreen. Mark and Sandra's Split would be older than Burt; Split refering to the windscreen being split into two windows.
We took Burt for a test drive around the roads near Bridgwater. We had a few cups of tea with Mark, Sandra and their friends to hear how much they would all miss Burt when he was sold. We left for the drive home to have a deep think about Burt.
We're home now, had a time to reflect and decided Burt is for us. Our new home for the summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment