Buy or rent
Our ageing camper van is beginning to show it's age. We (my wife and I) decided to start looking for a van with the aim of trading in after this years tour. We were looking for something new ? ish ? to last us until the end of our camper days. We were looking at paying £30,000.00 to maximum of £40,000.00, a lot of money for a purchase that will depreciate.
I am now considering renting each year as an alternative. I must point out that our camper is our only vehicle and as such is quite expensive to run. Renting is expensive but not having the maintenance, insurance and tax costs of owning, also the uncertainty about the future of diesel vehicles, will they be taxed out of existence by government in the future makes renting seem more sensible. I could buy a small eco car for our everyday use.
What's to lose ?
Comments
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Have you checked out what vans might be available to rent in this area, Tom? I imagine having to travel up country to pick one up would be a real pain.
Renting each year might be viable, especially if you only make one trip a year, but my advice is to check out the cost of covering the insurance excess and consider if you could afford to lose a deposit if the van got damaged.
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Good points Tinwheeler. We have talked about travelling to pick up a van and finding parking for our car. Being where we are everything is north, some rentals offer parking.
As for the insurance and damage fees, we will certainly look into that before we decide.
A big downer for us would be that you get used to where everything fits and the personal ownership feeling, your own home on wheels.
We tend to take one long trip a year, this year all of June.
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This happened to someone in our family, they used their camper as their main vehicle but repairs and spare parts became a problem and replacing the vehicle didn't seem worth it. For a few years they used alternative accommodation on camp sites, but moved on to holiday rentals and a new car. They didn't consider hiring as they often travelled long distances which increased hire times although it's a possibility if you don't go away too often or too far.
Good luck with your choices.
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if you're still going to invest in a small car (new, £10k?) and incur rental costs each year (£500 a week?), don't know where you go or for how long but six weeks...£3k.....for 5 years, £15k
plus, you'd have annual running costs of the small car.
so that's £25k+ and after 5 years you have a 5 yr old smal car...
currently, you have a van 'showing its age'...but may well be worth £10k (you don't see many vans less than this....) and you could buy (say) a nice panel van for £25k....so, the same £15k investment.
plus, you'd have running costs of the PVC.
but, you'd have a van that's yours, can keep your stuff in it, is small enough to be a daily driver, and in 5 years will still be worth more than the small car.
so, horses for courses....good luck.
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I could see that renting for maybe up to a month in any one year might just break even on costs viz a viz ownership compared to renting. Renting much beyond that time scale might not work out as economic given that if you go down the route of renting you will have to buy a small car. You could of course sell the current motorhome and give renting a try for a year to see how it pans out. If it didn't some dealers may be happy to take the car in part exchange against a motorhome.
David
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Another idea (probably also expensive) - Motorhome holiday share scheme
Last year we did briefly speak to a couple who had a coach built motorhome (not camper-van) for 3 years via a motorhome holiday share scheme. Don't know anything about the costs or the company or even if campervans are available.
Your big downer would still be there though - especially "the personal ownership feeling, your own home on wheels".
Good luck working out what is best for you.
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We know the annual cost of running our motorhome which we use for 10 weeks in the year. It's the equivalent of staying in a four star hotel for the same period. If we went away for more than 10 weeks away, the van becomes more cost effective than hotels. So whether to hire or buy depends on the total cost of ownership over a period of any bought van compared to the cost of hiring. It also depends on the emotional factors as JayOutdoors mentions.
To rent the equivalent of our van - the benefit being it will always be in 'almost new condition' as it gets regularly replaced by the hirer, not the six years old van we have - would be the equivalent of about 6 weeks away. If I had to buy a small car, then perhaps just 4 weeks away.
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After over wintering it seems to take us a month to repack and get everything sorted. If you hire a motorhome I presume that you would bring it home to pack and that will be quite rushed. Also I tend to take it out for a run and check everything is functioning - not a quick job.
I imagine it would be quite difficult to get a make and model to suit your requirements unless you really aren’t bothered about layout etc.
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Have you considered looking at motorhome relocation offers? JustGo, the motorhome hire company have recently sold 250 relocation trips. This involved customers flying out to Italy (at the customers expense) to pick up one of their new motorhomes then driving it back through Europe for a reduced £30 a day hire fee and they can take up to 30 days to get back, ferry fees included!
BunkCampers do a £5 a day fee to return one of their motorhomes from various sites to their original hire location in the UK - some of the deals look good, but short notice.
I guess the catch is you would have to pay for fuel and any site fees, but these are cheap daily hire fees.
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Thanks to everyone, food for thought, we certainly love the freedom of a camper van. Our next trip is just 4 weeks away, scenic routes have been planned, Yorkshire Dales, Northumbria, Scotland back down the East coast, Lindisfarne, Whitby finally ending in London for a week with a visit to Parliament to check on Brexit progress or lack of.
Our own van for a four week trip, maybe we'll decide what to do whilst away.
Thanks again to everyone who has responded.
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We hired a motorhome for a trial holiday of a month.
There are a couple of points to look for. Hire companies have a low age limit for drivers, so check what it is. The company we used would not take anyone over 70.
The damage excess payable by the driver can be quite high, ours was £600 which doesn't cover very much.
Damage to the van's roof was excluded and we were told that repair costs would be a minimum of £10,000 due to the kit mounted on it. That was sufficient to ensure that I examined low bridges and over hanging trees very carefully.
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