Trust me you're going to need access to wiring information too
10 year campervan ownership: Newer/high mileage or older/low mileage + running costs?
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I sort of have enough of spreadsheets in the day job - but yes they can be useful exercises as thought experiments but maybe not accurate finance planning. Had you done this 5 years ago you'd have not planned for the chaos of lockdowns, sudden surge in vanlife interest, inflation and jump in most of the costs of camping. Wouldn't have meant you didn't have 5-10 years of use and enjoyment of a van though!
We sort of did the same thought experiment and reached the conclusion that the sort of campervan we wanted... wasn't a campervan.
Instead we went with a Caravelle and a simple boot kitchen. Because at the end of the day what we valued was an every day vehicle we could just jump into at a moments notice and roadtrip - sometimes that's an hour down to the coast on a lovely evening to eat fish and chips, sometimes it's a long weekend around Wales or the Midlands, and once or twice a year it's an epic trip north to Scotland. And being a Caravelle we can take either sets of Grandparents with us who enjoy the time with the younguns but aren't up for monster drives anymore.
For the couple of weeks a year we would camp in it a camper was expensive - staying in a camping carriage or miners cottage AirBnB is too but it means we have more flexible vehicle the rest of the time. Plus we've stayed in same amazing places.
The Transporter is a flexible platform, there are a number of things you can do with it to do what the younguns refer to as a "Daddy Adventure" without it needing to be a poptop + rock'n'roll bed + side kitchen solution.
We sort of did the same thought experiment and reached the conclusion that the sort of campervan we wanted... wasn't a campervan.
Instead we went with a Caravelle and a simple boot kitchen. Because at the end of the day what we valued was an every day vehicle we could just jump into at a moments notice and roadtrip - sometimes that's an hour down to the coast on a lovely evening to eat fish and chips, sometimes it's a long weekend around Wales or the Midlands, and once or twice a year it's an epic trip north to Scotland. And being a Caravelle we can take either sets of Grandparents with us who enjoy the time with the younguns but aren't up for monster drives anymore.
For the couple of weeks a year we would camp in it a camper was expensive - staying in a camping carriage or miners cottage AirBnB is too but it means we have more flexible vehicle the rest of the time. Plus we've stayed in same amazing places.
The Transporter is a flexible platform, there are a number of things you can do with it to do what the younguns refer to as a "Daddy Adventure" without it needing to be a poptop + rock'n'roll bed + side kitchen solution.
We did go over the option of doing a cheaper conversion. We'd need a pop top, but we don't necessarily need seats in the back. A U-shape, gas hob, foot pump sink could work. Perhaps that'd be around £7-10k with windows as opposed to a £19k fullon side kitchen conversion?
There’s loads of vans coming on the market, cheaper to find the right one already converted than converting a van
What makes you say that, do you think the covid impulse buyers are offloading? I certainly hope so...
Most of the ones I've seen which are recent ish with auto and a conversion with relatively high mileage (80k+) are about £35k+.
I could do my own up professionally just the way I want it for £35k with a pop top and rib++, if I find a decent van around the £18k mark.
Perhaps I should just wait until September-November when people get really desperate?
When I decided to buy our camper in 2019 I tried to look at the same calculations as you.
I started with
Van running costs=
48p per mile (all in seemed hopeful), so I budgeted as follows:-
£1.00 per mile depreciation, which would bring the value to zero over 8 years.
£0.50 per mile running costs.
£0.18 per mile fuel.
£30 per night for camping (though we aim for £20.00 pn)
Other than main dealer service plan (currently I have All-in) the only costs over 28k miles are
2 x tyres.
1 x brake fluid
1 x tracking.
1 x cam belt and water pump
1 x 3 year non-VW extended warranty for years 3 to 6, which worked out £4 per week, and covered a £1,660 rear trailing arm replacement.
1 x habitation check @ 3 years old.
1x Gas regulator for the kitchen.
Under warranty
EGR flush
Aux belt
Rear trailing arm
Main battery
Prior to 2019 we “Travelodged” around the UK and Northern Ireland aiming to pay £20 per night. My hatchback then also cost around 50 per mile per fleetnews. Since Covid their room rates have greatly increased, and I truly believe that the freedom my camper allows me off sets the day to day running costs.
If you can afford a camper, buy it and enjoy it (and keep a few £1,000s in the bank in case).
I started with
Van running costs=
48p per mile (all in seemed hopeful), so I budgeted as follows:-
£1.00 per mile depreciation, which would bring the value to zero over 8 years.
£0.50 per mile running costs.
£0.18 per mile fuel.
£30 per night for camping (though we aim for £20.00 pn)
Other than main dealer service plan (currently I have All-in) the only costs over 28k miles are
2 x tyres.
1 x brake fluid
1 x tracking.
1 x cam belt and water pump
1 x 3 year non-VW extended warranty for years 3 to 6, which worked out £4 per week, and covered a £1,660 rear trailing arm replacement.
1 x habitation check @ 3 years old.
1x Gas regulator for the kitchen.
Under warranty
EGR flush
Aux belt
Rear trailing arm
Main battery
Prior to 2019 we “Travelodged” around the UK and Northern Ireland aiming to pay £20 per night. My hatchback then also cost around 50 per mile per fleetnews. Since Covid their room rates have greatly increased, and I truly believe that the freedom my camper allows me off sets the day to day running costs.
If you can afford a camper, buy it and enjoy it (and keep a few £1,000s in the bank in case
).When I decided to buy our camper in 2019 I tried to look at the same calculations as you.
I started with
Van running costs=
48p per mile (all in seemed hopeful), so I budgeted as follows:-
£1.00 per mile depreciation, which would bring the value to zero over 8 years.
£0.50 per mile running costs.
£0.18 per mile fuel.
£30 per night for camping (though we aim for £20.00 pn)
Other than main dealer service plan (currently I have All-in) the only costs over 28k miles are
2 x tyres.
1 x brake fluid
1 x tracking.
1 x cam belt and water pump
1 x 3 year non-VW extended warranty for years 3 to 6, which worked out £4 per week, and covered a £1,660 rear trailing arm replacement.
1 x habitation check @ 3 years old.
1x Gas regulator for the kitchen.
Under warranty
EGR flush
Aux belt
Rear trailing arm
Main battery
Prior to 2019 we “Travelodged” around the UK and Northern Ireland aiming to pay £20 per night. My hatchback then also cost around 50 per mile per fleetnews. Since Covid their room rates have greatly increased, and I truly believe that the freedom my camper allows me off sets the day to day running costs.
If you can afford a camper, buy it and enjoy it (and keep a few £1,000s in the bank in case
Thanks @TrevorK , I think that's the way we thought about it as well. If we can get extended warranty on a van that covers us for a long time that'd be massively beneficial. Your thinking is along my line, that at some point, it basically depreciates to scrap value, and you just need to admit to yourself (in this case, me) that it will never be an actual investment - it won't be cheaper than keeping your existing car and staying in hotels. And it may even be on par with renting if the number of trips are not very high (twice a month++).
Having said that, what one is actually paying for is the convenience and freedom. It all comes down to if you value that over the cost of ownership.
It's funny as I used to look, from the outside, at campervaning as a very very cheap way of holidaying and exploring areas, and after having gone through this exercise that's not the case. But the excitement of owning one is rapidly taking over any pre-purchase regrets of foregoing that amount of money in an index fund over 5-10 years for example. I think I've also realised, that spending £5-10k less on the conversion will still give us the same amount of enjoyment. The budget went from £30k to £40k back down to £30-35k all in
We're looking at foregoing the rib bed mainly, because we simply won't have passengers coming with us, in a vehicle which is cramped enough with 2 people and a small dog.TL;DR: whilst we have our beloved dog, campervaning is a cost we are more than happy to fork out for to create those memories (in good and bad weather!)
PS. Lovely look on your camper, that'd my dream colorscheme, but I might not find a white van to wrap the bottom half of!
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I must admit my budget in 2018 was £28k and I went 50% over…..Thanks @TrevorK , I think that's the way we thought about it as well. If we can get extended warranty on a van that covers us for a long time that'd be massively beneficial. Your thinking is along my line, that at some point, it basically depreciates to scrap value, and you just need to admit to yourself (in this case, me) that it will never be an actual investment - it won't be cheaper than keeping your existing car and staying in hotels. And it may even be on par with renting if the number of trips are not very high (twice a month++).
Having said that, what one is actually paying for is the convenience and freedom. It all comes down to if you value that over the cost of ownership.
It's funny as I used to look, from the outside, at campervaning as a very very cheap way of holidaying and exploring areas, and after having gone through this exercise that's not the case. But the excitement of owning one is rapidly taking over any pre-purchase regrets of foregoing that amount of money in an index fund over 5-10 years for example. I think I've also realised, that spending £5-10k less on the conversion will still give us the same amount of enjoyment. The budget went from £30k to £40k back down to £30-35k all in
TL;DR: whilst we have our beloved dog, campervaning is a cost we are more than happy to fork out for to create those memories (in good and bad weather!)
PS. Lovely look on your camper, that'd my dream colorscheme, but I might not find a white van to wrap the bottom half of!
Bottom half is WV teal blue paint.
Did you get that professionally done?
Yes, the van was converted by Danbury Motor Caravans in 2018 and they arranged the blue re spray.
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