It's official...we are crazy for campervans

The  Campervan Infographic does not say anything about what type of sites will be used by these campervan owners. As said earlier I see It as an advert.   Having said that IMHO I feel we would see more of these aire type of facilities being provided in the UK by the private sector/councils etc if the demand was there and there was money to be made from them.  So perhaps not a viable financial option for the club.

Despite the fact that motorhomes are more self contained than Campervans (the subject of this thread) I see very few on non facilty sites and far more staying on facility sites. I do not recall seeing a campervan (the subject of this thread) on a non facility site.

As he is entitled to do Easy T makes a distinction between "Motorhomes" and "Campervans" and I get that he thinks that campervans are defined by having less facilities which indeed may be one of the characteristics . I regard my small motor caravan as a Campervan for more than one reason, not least because that is what the manufacturer/converter calls it but I don't really know for sure what it is and without a definition nobody else does either which was precisely why I asked Rowena for the definition of "campervan" used in the "survey" in my slightly scoffed at post above. 

Mine is a van conversion and I call it a MH for convenience because it’s easy to type two letters.

I consider at 6m based on a Pug minibus it’s too big to be classed as a campervan but, there again, it’s a bit small to be considered a MH.

What's in a name?

I've spent wet days in a panel van, btw, and it’s a simple enough job to unhook the EHU cable and slip into the cab seats and away we go, as R2b suggested.

As for price, I doubt many younger people could afford a new decent sized tow car and caravan either. 

That is what I class as a small motorhome BVM and one that I have looked at info on in the past and did like.

A recent addition of Warners "Campervan" Magazine includes a review for a Leisuredrive Artesano "Campervan" which is built on a VW Crafter chassis (somewhat larger than the VW transporter van ) with a washroom, kitchen heating etc.

So Warners think that that vehicle is a campervan !!

Confusing isn't it. 

Looking at Warners website I have been able to answer my own question about the definition of "campervan" for the purposes of this survey I quote :-

"We've teamed up with the Caravan & Motorhome Club to discover more about campervanners, their 'vans and experiences in the UK.

The results of this survey will help us to understand the growing campervan market and will be published in a future issue of Campervanmagazine. Your answers will also help us to give you the most relevant and informative content possible about campervans and campervanning.

Responses to this survey are anonymous and it should take you no longer than 15 minutes to complete all questions. In return for your time, we will enter you into a fantastic competition to win one of five Autoglym Valeting kits worth £19.99 each!

Please note, this survey is for people who own or use a campervan primarily in the UK. If you have a coachbuilt motorhome (caravan-type body on a chassis-cab base) or an A-class motorhome, or any form of towed caravan, unfortunately this survey is not for you.

For the purposes of this survey, by 'campervan' we mean a vehicle which has at least a hob, sink and bed, or seats which convert to a bed. Smaller campervans probably don’t have a separate toilet/washroom compartment; larger ones may do. A campervan may have a fixed (low) roof, an elevating roof or a high-top roof. We are also interested in vehicles converted from cars, MPVs or car-derived vans (‘camping car’ or ‘micro motorhome’) and van conversions, which are usually larger vans with a high-top roof and a separate toilet/washroom compartment.

The survey questions are no longer available so I have no evidence of bias in favour of VW however the claim that out of 225,000 motorhomes and campervans  90,000 are VW campervans, a very round 40% seems highly unlikely especially since coachbuilts are excluded from the survey.  To put that another way I doubt if the Panel Van numbers on the road are equal to or above 40% of the total numbers of motorhomes on the road and even if PVCs accounted for 40% or more they would have to be all or nearly all VWs. Patently a large number of PVC are built on other chassis especially Fiat Ducato, and Peugeot Boxer but also Mecedes, Ford , Citroen and others. 

If my logic and understanding is correct then the infographic is making false claims.

Yes we are definitely on the same page but my particular emphasis is that 40% of the total of 225,00 are not just VW motorhomes (which I would doubt) but are members of the camper van sub-species which irrespective of the precise definition excludes coachbuilts.

In round figures the figure for (all) new motorhome registrations in 2017 was  14,000. 157844 motorhomes were registered during the period from 2000 to 2017 inclusive (18 years an average of 8769 per annum.  (Source NCC). 40% of that average is in round figures 3500. So to get to 90,000 at 2017  would take approximately 25 years. 

Now there may well be a few old VW campervans around (40+ years old) which would help bring the VW figure up but such vehicles are comparatively rare. So if there were even say 30,000 pre 2000 VW campervans in the UK in 2017 VW campervans would have to account for 38% of the total motorhome registrations in the whole period from 2000 to 2017. The total number of motorhomes in existence is about 1.4 times the total registered in 2000 to 2017 .

So I think this supports the hypothesis that the figures are bonkers.

Tell me if I am wrong though !!

Perhaps the Club could explain.

Probably could but probably won't.

Advertising is often based on facts, selectively chosen a bit like the magicians diversion to mask slight of hand and to allow the consumer to reach the wrong but desired conclusion. 

There are loads of places.

900 britstops.

Almost any bar/ restaurant where you will walk in and ask "can I overnight in your car park in exchange of giving you business".

There are countless lay-byes. small roads, forests, beaches, where you can just park up and be totally independent.

You don't need car parks. If the vehicle is small enough and innocuous enough then you can go anywhere. We may not be Sweden, or even Scotland, with "right to roam" but incredibly even small, over-populated England is tons full of places where a bit of politeness and give and take ends up in a result, and if proof was needed it is where I am now, 

I will tell you when I move off, as a single woman I do not advertise where I am parked up, but it is just an opening into a field gate that with a bit of common courtesy someone has allowed me to use for the night.