nightrider Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 I have had an on going dispute with a mate of mine, I say that if you buy a brand new base vehicle (in this case a VW panel van) and if you took it to a recognised converter and had it converted into a campervan your base vehicles warranty would be protected. So, if the base vehicle cost say 12 grand and your conversion cost 10 grand a total of 22 thousand theoretically you are saving on the motorhome dealers markup? I say you can do it, my mate says you can't. What I am trying to say is if you went to Todds of Preston to buy a brand spanking new type 5 campervan for say 30 grand you could by doing it my way save a considerable amount of money, what do others think?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Probably! You would need to do the sums very carefully to ensure you compare like for like. Your warranty on the van starts when you buy it not when you get the converted van back. You should check with the van maker that converting it to a camper and modifying the electrics and bodywork will not affect the warranty as far as any modified areas are concerned. Do please let us all know how you get on with this investigation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightrider Posted November 24, 2008 Author Share Posted November 24, 2008 Tracker - 2008-11-24 8:33 PM Probably! You would need to do the sums very carefully to ensure you compare like for like. Your warranty on the van starts when you buy it not when you get the converted van back. You should check with the van maker that converting it to a camper and modifying the electrics and bodywork will not affect the warranty as far as any modified areas are concerned. Do please let us all know how you get on with this investigation! When you go into a dealers showrooms no matter who they are, they have any number of brand new motorhomes on display, so, do they buy them from the converters, or do the converters supply the dealers on a sale or return basis? who is the first company in the chain of converting a van? I once went into a new van dealers showroom to make inquiries and he said that if the converter was a recognised company the base vehicles warranty was assured as long as the converter complied with the van manufacturers safety guidelines etc, an interesting theory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Not sure about situation at present but couple of years back VW had an approved convertor list, what this means in terms of warranty I don't know. Any convertor buying any quantity of vans from a manufacturer should be able to get a good discount if it is a specific model you want but you may be able to source a base model on the cheap. I can usualy get a fairly good discount on a Morvano, couple of years back I 'did the sums' and if looking for a specific model with various 'whistles and bells' on it doesn't leave a lot to build the caravan part in comparison to one already built(ok with a few less extra's) the reverse of this seems to be Adria who's list price for extra's is ridicoulesly high, but then would anybody pay £120 for a pair of front mudflaps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 I'm unsure how the "volume purchase" effect would impact your maths on this. Depends on how many units the converter was undertaking to buy from the manufacturere; and also what the rest of the retail market was doing at that point in time (ie how desperate or otherwise the manufacturer was to shift units at that point in time). As a case in point; many years ago I was HR Director at "GUS Transport plc", (the "White Arrow Vans" distribution network, a wholly owned subsidiary of GUS plc, the catalogue sales group). We were able to negotiate deals with Ford UK to buy LWB transit vans, depending upon the time of trading year, at up to 70% off list price, as we were placing orders for 2 or 3 hundred at a time. Ford would even do a batch just for us, with mods to the side sliding door at no cost, if it was at a time of year that their production line was under-full. Same was true for the 1 litre Metro cars (indescribably awful, but CHEAP) cars that we supplied to local part-time catalogue agent sales reps by the thousand....also at up to 70% off retail list, as I recall. I managed to source a brand new 1 litre metro through this deal, with loads of extras (like a windscreen, engine, brakes etc) as a staff member, for just under £3,000. Some may say that was £2,999 too much(!); but including VAT etc, that was still about half of what the retail price would have been.....so the price you ultimately pay as the end-consumer can vary hugely. You need to consider how the bulk and wholesale market is functioning at the time you decide to dive in, as part of your equation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howie Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Warranty issues apart the two factors will always be the cost of the base vehicle and convertion cost. Buying a imported van saved me almost £3000 and more was saved by picking up the vehicle direct from Dublin. Further savings were made at the conversion stage by having only what I' considered essential to my needs rather than buying straight from the showroom while still retaining the quality of finish and fixtures. 'Mark up' should,nt come into it if you go direct to the converter rather than through a dealer network and I should imagine these are pretty competitive with regard to labour costs, although comparisons and quotes are always advisable of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Jones Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 knight of the road - 2008-11-24 9:06 PM ... do they buy them from the converters, or do the converters supply the dealers on a sale or return basis? who is the first company in the chain of converting a van? I think that depends on the relationship between the two companies. In my case, RWT are the sole agents for Horizons Unlimited (at least for the Cavarno), and were able to tell me exactly what base vehicles (colour, spec) had already been ordered. Since one of them suited us, we booked it and beat a base vehicle price increase (which they showed me in writing form Ford). But I've absolutely no idea of just which company owned the van at which stages during the process. colin - 2008-11-24 9:56 PM Not sure about situation at present but couple of years back VW had an approved convertor list, what this means in terms of warranty I don't know. Back in the day, the later rear-engined VW (T25 as it's now called) had a roof bar which only approved converters were allowed to remove, and then only if they fitted a VW-approved high top (which was spectacularly ugly!). So you either bought a Holdsworth with lots of walk-through room but that looked like a burger van (no offence Richard!), or got something which looked like a proper camper but only had a 5ft square standing area! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J9withdogs Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Tony Jones - 2008-11-25 9:07 AM So you either bought a Holdsworth with lots of walk-through room but that looked like a burger van EXCUSE ME?????!!!!! >:-( >:-( :D That's you off my Christmas card list, Tony.(That's if I sent Christmas cards... *-) ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightrider Posted November 25, 2008 Author Share Posted November 25, 2008 So it seems the best option would be to buy direct from the converter, assuming they would sell to you? over the years I have spent a good few thousand pounds on machinery for my garden business, trying to cut out the middlemans mark up I tried to buy my machines from the wholesaler but they refused to sell to me on the grounds of loyalty to the retailer, but as in everything else there are ways and means of getting round things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Jones Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Keep your hair on Janine! I was talking about the rear-engined VW Holdsworth's - probably way before your time, to judge from the youthful photo (why isn't there a little symbol for "creep?" This'll have to do ;-) )! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chatterdog Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 You have to be very careful with conversions as the basevehicle dealer can say the warrenty on any number of things can be invalidated by the conversion, as an example if the convertors drill through the floor that can invalidate any warrenty on rust/water ingress and the floor in general. When we renew our vehicles every couple of years we have to have conversions done. The base vehicle is a 'window van' for conversion to a minibus able to transport persons with mobility difficulties, and were told if we drilled through any part of the vehicle it would invalidate the warrenty, the way around it was to lay a second floor with tracks in so that seats could be moved and wheelchairs could be anchored in safely. in laying the second skin (floor) the warrenty remained intact. The same applies to my vehicle for towing the fifth wheel where the floor has had to be drilled to anchor the hitch to the chassis we know we have no warrenty as such on the chassis or floor apart from the goodwill of the individual dealer we bought the vehicle from. This was made clear to us on purchase with him saying that as long as where we had drilled we made sure it was coated so that rust could not start there he would work round it as long as any problem that arose with the floor or chassis could not be put down to where we had drilled to have the hitch attached. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightrider Posted November 25, 2008 Author Share Posted November 25, 2008 So from a little post there comes a multitude of sound answers, can't be bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.