Rapido merc series

[Guest Elaine]

Has anyone bought a rapido merc 962 or any rapido in europe,what is the saving.Also having read the 2006 brochure from back to front there is no mention of water ingress warranty at all,anyone no what it is.

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

I've got a selection of Rapido brochures (French and English) going back to 2001 and I don't think any of them mention vehicle, conversion or water ingress warranties. Strange that - no doubt either of the UK agents will be able to provide the information. I see Brownhills are offering a new RHD 962M with various extras at £55970. The French basic list price apparently is 72000 Euros and I came across a German internet advert asking 77780 Euros (again the vehicle had extras). But you've got to be careful to compare like with like in terms of specification when you're looking at pricing. If you are considering buying abroad the best thing initially would be to contact a selection of Continental Rapido dealers by e-mail, tell them what you want and ask for a price. Also obtain Mel Eastburn's invaluable fact-sheets. Don't forget that, if you want (or are prepared to accept) a left-hand drive vehicle, you may well find that the UK agents can offer you a competitive price.

[Guest bill]

Ref water ingress. In their 2006 catalogue, page 81 Bodywork. Rapido say (guaranteed water-tight). I therefore presume it is.

[Guest Brian Kirby]

May I add to what Derek says. Do also research the dealerships in France. Rapido seem to think Opale Evasion carry Rapidos, which would be good, but Opale's new website doesn't seem to agree. If you're looking for a dealer near the channel ports, which has advantages for collection and any warranty trips back etc, you appear to have only Destinea at Caen, which is near Ouistreham, where Brittany Ferries dock from Portsmouth, and Camping Cars Service 62 at Loison-sous-Lens, not far from Lille. Having visited this place, I'd only say go yourselves before you decide. There's nothing wrong with the firm, but the local roads are a nightmare even in a car, leave alone a nice, new, shiny, big, motorhome! You may also find getting there by public transport a bit difficult. Trains etc not too bad via Eurostar, but the local services are rather slow and infrequent, or they were when I investigated a couple of years ago. Might be best to fly, but I have no inf on local airports or points of departure UK. There is one very impressive dealership, Camping Cars Pierre (see web), south of Rouen, but the ferry services from UK are presently uncertain, so not, currently, very practical. Do also take account of the mods you'll need to carry out when you get it back, if you intend to register it in UK. Yu'll need to replace headlights to dip left, and the speedo must read MPH, with the scale visible at night. You should also investigate insurance for the unregistered vehicle. It will be registered on temp plates in France (at least, our Burstner was), but once registered outside UK, UK insurers won't/can't touch it. Theoretically, you should remove the French plates on arrival in UK, then drive straight home with no reg plates. Your UK insurance starts once in UK, but it seems retention of the foreign plates will void your contract. From Loison-sous-Lens I'd guess you'd have to get a French insurance for the French leg: from Destinea you may persuede them to drive it to the port on their insurance - but it'll still come on French plates, as driving on French roads without plates leads to the guillotine! I'd be very inclined therefore, as Derek suggests, to see what price you can get on a LHD vehicle in UK, on the understanding the supplier does all necessary mods for UK registration. Get hold of a current French brochure and prices first, ideally get a quote from a dealer, (youll almost certainly have to visit France for this, the French don't really "do" e-mail, and the dealer probably won't declare his discount/ "goodies" pack/ delivery dates unless you visit personally and look serious) so you can show your UK dealer the actual French spec and selling price in Euros, then let them sharpen their pencil! Hope this helps Brian

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

Elaine: A few extra comments based on Brian's reply: Lights/speedometer: I believe the headlamp units fitted to Rapido 9-Series motorhomes can be twiddled to produce a dipped-beam pattern suitable for left- or right-hand traffic conditions, so they would need adjustment to meet UK regulations rather than replacement. For 2006 Rapido has revised the 9-Series' rear treatment, but I'm not aware whether this includes a fog-light on each side or just one on the left. If the latter then modifications would be necessary to conform to UK rules. Adding a supplementary fog-light would be the simplest solution (though untidy), otherwise changes to the rear-light units and/or wiring would be required. A LHD motorhome imported to the UK by an 'official' importer would normally have its complete instrument-cluster replaced by the version used on the RHD equivalent. This provides a full 'miles' set of instruments with a mileometer as well as an mph/kmh speedometer. Naturally enough it's not a cheap way to go. With personally or 'grey' imported LHD Fiat-based motorhomes it's easy to obtain speedometer overlays to provide an mph scale, but I think this is not the case for Mercedes-based vehicles. It is possible to have an overlay custom-made however. Insurance: The Caravan Club is prepared to offer comprehensive insurance for personally imported motorhomes from the point and time of hand-over abroad. I'm aware that Mel Eastburn researched this thoroughly and, based on the information provided to him, concluded that such insurance was unlikely to be valid. All I can say is that, when I imported my own motorhome, I pressed the Caravan Club spokesman repeatedly on this point and, after reference to the underwriter who in turn checked with the insurance company, I was assured of the policy's validity. I was given a verbal warning that the vehicle must be registered in the UK within 14 days of the policy's commencement date and that I must drive it directly home from the selling (German) dealership (so no initial 'holidaying abroad' would be allowed). In fact the cover note I received was a standard 30-day version and made no mention of such restrictions. Brian advises that temporary foreign number-plates should be removed on entering the UK, otherwise one's UK insurance cover will be invalidated. This wasn't mentioned to me by the Caravan Club, but I can't argue. German temporary registration includes compulsory 3rd party insurance cover and this is linked to the temporary number plate (I don't know what the position is in France). I'm not sure I'd want to be driving a vehicle in the UK without number plates as it would become a high visibility candidate for police attention. There are legal implications to driving an imported vehicle on UK roads prior to it being registered here. It used to be permissible but now it ain't! The Department for Transport's current P15 booklet says: "N.B. UK law requires a vehicle to be licensed and registered for road use. To avoid difficulties, importers are advised by DVLA to transport rather than drive their vehicles from the port of entry to home or first destination and to keep them off the road until they have been properly licensed and registered." Presumably personal importers of motorhomes are aware of and choose to ignore this warning advice. However, if you want to adhere strictly to the law and employ a transporting company, you'll need to include the cost in your calculations. I echo Brian's observations about the attitude of French motorhome dealers to e-mail buying inquiries, as I got no useful responses to my own e-mail requests for information (and these were made in French I might add). This contrasted totally with my (in English) inquiries of a number of German dealers. A further option you might consider is to approach an importing agency like Bundesvan (www.bundesvan.co.uk) who I think can provide LHD Rapidos. It would be unreasonable to expect their price quotation to be as low as if you carried out the importation process, but it could give you a better idea of the price you might pay if you handled all the work yourself.

[Guest Brian Kirby]

Can't prolong this indefinitely but, just on the point of driving from port to home, I researched this a bit further before collecting mine. [The bit about foreign plates invalidating the insurance, incidentally, came direct from my insurer (Comfort - see MMM ads). Do check with yours first.] What I discovered is that an offence is committed when an unregistered vehicle is driven in UK. However, it seems that because we have a legal right to import from abroad, the offence is regarded as "technical" and would be unlikely to result in presecution - provided you could demonstrate that you had just arriven in UK with the vehicle, intend bringing it up to full compliance and registering it, and were en-route to your home (or to a garage that is to carry out the necessary conversions). Reassuringly, DVLA somewhere concede that this is a "grey area".... so that's OK then! Do get Mel's paper on personal imports, and you'll see the kind of dicumentation that should satisfy the police if you were stopped. All this muddle could so easily be avoided if the UK would simply adopt the practice of issuing time limited temporary registrations. However, they don't. Oh, and one last point. I forgot Belgium. There is, or at least was, a Rapido dealership in a place called Poperinge. Name is Decuyper and they seemed quite helpful when I visited a couple of years ago. Poperinge is between Calais and Lille, and only a short distance into Belgium. They spoke good English and had handled personal exports before, so more or less knew the ropes. Hope this helps Brian

[Guest Elaine]

Thankyou for advice,it all helps.Will get Mel,s fact sheet hopefully soon.