Colin Leake Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Worth the premium price, yes or no? Comments please we are tempted by the garage version of the N Class but they are very expensive when you factor in all the extras the ought to be standard on a premium van like £400 plus for colour coded front bumpers etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 IMV no ... too much 'bling' and kit put on/in them just for the heck of it! I suppose it really depends on how deep your pockets are and how much 'in love' with the product you are! Its a shame they don't a more basic version as I'm sure they would sell well and add another purchaser stream to increase their sales, rather than those who want to buy British not being able to afford them and going abroad for cheaper versions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Is that the version with the raised rear lounge to accommodate the boot that you cannot stand up in? IH vans are very well made accepting that they are expensive at over £60k. At the end of the day it is down to the buyer. If that's what you want then go for it as the opinions of others are irrelevant. I think Vantage motorhomes strike a better compromise between quality and price but we are all different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendyhouse Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Agree with Mike about Bling and about Vantage, but then I do have a Vantage so possibly ever so slightly biased. Had a good look but found the IH a bit too fiddlly with too many initials on each and every flat surface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolandrat Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I'm on my second IH Tio R and for me it ticks all the boxes for a van conversion. The build quality is first class and the after sales back up can't be faulted. This particular model lets you use either the front or the rear for dining and if you want you can leave the bed made up. A van conversion will never be the same as a coach built for roominess and storage but you don't experience delamination and serious damp problems and bits dropping off. It's got the 3ltr engine that performs like a prancing horse and comfort-matic gearbox, so relaxing to drive. There's many other conversions out there so it's down to personal choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Crawled over numerous PVCs last summer before we bought a new integrated motorhome. If you can afford it, yes worth it; you will be buying a well-built PVC with a touch of class and into Ian Hartley's ego. I've never liked colour coded bumpers though. If it's at the top of your budget, probably no because there are many cheaper vans that will do the same. I suggest you visit the firm and see if you can look under the skin because there was no doubt in my mind that what I could see was excellent. Of the PVCs I looked at last year, Murvi was top and has always appealed to me, Adria was second - good price for a decent van, and Possi the most innovative. La Strada was the best I saw but its commitment to the UK market was lacking. At the NEC in February, both my wife and I thought the IH N-class was striking but OTT for shrinking violets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Newell Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Mike88 - 2014-03-16 2:27 PM Is that the version with the raised rear lounge to accommodate the boot that you cannot stand up in? IH vans are very well made accepting that they are expensive at over £60k. At the end of the day it is down to the buyer. If that's what you want then go for it as the opinions of others are irrelevant. I think Vantage motorhomes strike a better compromise between quality and price but we are all different. Why would you want to stand up in the boot? >:-) D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Dave Newell - 2014-03-16 6:55 PM Mike88 - 2014-03-16 2:27 PM Is that the version with the raised rear lounge to accommodate the boot that you cannot stand up in? IH vans are very well made accepting that they are expensive at over £60k. At the end of the day it is down to the buyer. If that's what you want then go for it as the opinions of others are irrelevant. I think Vantage motorhomes strike a better compromise between quality and price but we are all different. Why would you want to stand up in the boot? >:-) D. A lesson in clause analysis. Verb = to accommodate. Subject = raised rear lounge. So the subject of the verb is the raised rear lounge and not the boot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Sorry Mike but I read it exactly the same as Dave and also wondered why you would want to stand up in the boot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gram Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Maybe the clause analysis would be helped by a bit of punctuation. G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Mike88 - 2014-03-16 2:27 PM Is that the version with the raised rear lounge, to accommodate the boot, that you cannot stand up in? Mike88 - 2014-03-16 2:27 PM Is that the version with the raised rear lounge (to accommodate the boot) that you cannot stand up in? A couple of commas or brackets would have helped make 'accurate' sense of what you were saying. :D There is a member on here who once mentioned 'beer' in his MH's garage ... but unfortunately wrote 'bear' and has never been allowed to forget it ... we BELIEVE that he wrote it wrong anyway! If not, I suppose the bear must be happy in there though as he's never got grisly about it!!! (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leake Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 Mel B - 2014-03-16 9:26 PM Mike88 - 2014-03-16 2:27 PM Is that the version with the raised rear lounge, to accommodate the boot, that you cannot stand up in? Mike88 - 2014-03-16 2:27 PM Is that the version with the raised rear lounge (to accommodate the boot) that you cannot stand up in? A couple of commas or brackets would have helped make 'accurate' sense of what you were saying. :D There is a member on here who once mentioned 'beer' in his MH's garage ... but unfortunately wrote 'bear' and has never been allowed to forget it ... we BELIEVE that he wrote it wrong anyway! If not, I suppose the bear must be happy in there though as he's never got grisly about it!!! (lol) Don't worry Mel our bear is only a little sweet honey bear there will still be plenty of room for him in the admittedly small garage and he can use the door that connects the garage to the motorhome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leake Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 Brock - 2014-03-16 6:20 PM Crawled over numerous PVCs last summer before we bought a new integrated motorhome. If you can afford it, yes worth it; you will be buying a well-built PVC with a touch of class and into Ian Hartley's ego. I've never liked colour coded bumpers though. If it's at the top of your budget, probably no because there are many cheaper vans that will do the same. I suggest you visit the firm and see if you can look under the skin because there was no doubt in my mind that what I could see was excellent. Of the PVCs I looked at last year, Murvi was top and has always appealed to me, Adria was second - good price for a decent van, and Possi the most innovative. La Strada was the best I saw but its commitment to the UK market was lacking. At the NEC in February, both my wife and I thought the IH N-class was striking but OTT for shrinking violets. We are planning to visit them in July on our way up to Scotland. OTT well we would probably select a more subdued metallic. I wonder if they could paint it to match our car. Three things have alway struck us about IH products. The quality of construction, the clever planning that in this case ticks all our boxes and the fact that they never give you the feel of simply being in a kitted out van. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamw Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I always had the opinion that IH, Vantage and Murvi are well made vans but tend to be a little overpriced. The pricing are all now very similar with Vantage now well established and raising its prices to almost match IH and Murvi when you consider the options required. Some of the options are seriously overpriced such as Vantage asking £750 for a 90w solar panel with a fairly basic controller. The fact that it is far cheaper to retro-fit such an item begs a question or two. They are all well built and many people I talk to comment on this and praise the vehicles for 'looking as well built as the furniture at home'. The downside of this is weight and therefore payload. All three manufacturers always quote payload without driver or 90% fluids to give an apparent payload figure to match or better those who quote with driver and 90% fluids. I'm interested in the Vantage Neo but find with a payload figure of 500kg after adding driver, passenger, tank of diesel, water, gas and two cycles on the back on a towbar mounted carrier my payload is pretty well gone. I've contacted IH for accurate payload figures for their standard rear lounge conversions and received very vague data giving approximate payload figures. Asked again if they had accurate figures as I wanted to differentiate between LWB and XLWB version of their rear lounge models and my enquiry has just been ignored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 £60.000 for something that reminds me of granny's front room?:D when we went to Excel show a few years back, once we had got over laughing at the IH, Vantage stood out as reasonable value, but still vastly overpriced against better specified Europeans vans at well under 40K. I want function and clean lines in my vans, they are for travel and sleep primarily, dont need all the nonsense that UK vans offer and then have the temerity to charge for basics like air con, cruise and electric step? *-) for 50K you can get a La Strada, Westfalia, Carthago, Karman. Incidentally Karmann and La Strada offer rear lounge layouts with drop down bed above..none of that nonsense of bed rolls out every night. La Strada in a different league for quality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 NEWS FLASH ... a chap who visited us the other day who works for a MAJOR UK MH and PVC builder a stone's throw away, told us that they are currently producing a prototype PVC with a drop down bed ... you heard it here first! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pampam Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Colin leake I think ih vans are great if you can afford one I'd go for it,I've been watching them on eBay (there's a lovely rusty coloured one) and they have some pre owned ones on their own website that seem to sell quickly, lovely quality......made in yorkshire :when I can get back into motorhoming I think it'll be an ih for me :). Pp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolandrat Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Eddy - 2014-03-18 7:39 AM Good morning, and as a newcomer perhaps having owned an IH Tio Savannah I can speak with first hand experience. First off, the only van I've ever had with close to zero conversion rattles, what rattles that were apparent ( Seitz blinds ) were hardly IH's fault, and dealt with by myself. Driving compared to a coachbuilt was akin to being in a saloon car, being a LWB no doubt helped in that regard. Furnishings and fittings were second to none, and I've had a few vans along the way. Of it's main competitors at the time that I bought, I looked at and considered both Adria, and Timberland, they were very poor in comparison, especially the Adria with a ridiculously high bed. My IH had the fixed rear GRP panel which made for a draught free living area, excellent. Owned the van for nearly five years, only sold it due to domestic circumstances that prevailed at the time, van was totally trouble free, and although a small amount actually sold it for £250 more than I'd paid nearly five years earlier, and within a week of advertising to the first person to look at it, that must say something. I'm reminded that at the same time a rather wealthy friend purchased a tag axle Burstner, top of the range, that spent more time in the workshop than on the road before he dumped it at great loss, the point being sometimes quality is perceived by a name, that is not always lived up to in the real world, in my view IH despite some of the criticism of him banging his own drum with his IH logo in my view he has every right to put his name to a great product that does live up to the hype, many of their customers go on to buy another IH, recommendation in itself I would have thought. Now if only Nissan, or Toyota came up with a LWB high top van and Ian Hartley did the conversion that really would be a result as in my view the Achilles heal was the rather unrefined Fiat Ducato base van although I've no experience of the newer X250, but my guess is it is after all a commercial van primarily designed for a commercial life so is it much different ! Couldn't agree more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david lloyd Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Mel B - 2014-03-16 2:06 PM IMV no ... too much 'bling' and kit put on/in them just for the heck of it! I suppose it really depends on how deep your pockets are and how much 'in love' with the product you are! Its a shame they don't a more basic version as I'm sure they would sell well and add another purchaser stream to increase their sales, rather than those who want to buy British not being able to afford them and going abroad for cheaper versions. Sorry, Mel, but I think you will find that IH have and still will produce a more 'basic' version - and they don't sell. Main reason I think is that once prospective purchasers compare the basic model with rear doors etc they instantly see the advantages of what is undoubtedly an expensive addition (the rear panel) and usually plump for that. You will also find that their 'basic' model, like most other manufacturers, comes with the 2.3 130bhp engine but that most IH owners go for the 3l upgrade. Certainly when you start adding these expensive items into the price then it soon adds up but if all you want is a plain and simple van but with the same build quality as IH are known for then that's what you can have - just ask them. However, this is our fifth IH rear lounge van. The first did have rear doors but the rear panel adds so much more than pure looks. It is quieter with less road noise and dust. It is warmer and adds much more space. In fact, ours is the 6m Tio R and we have more boot space than any coachbuilt we have had or seen, more space under the longitudinal sofas and on this four month trip to spain have struggled to fill all the cupboards. The new models do not have the raised area at the lounge now but we asked for ours to be built with it to keep the extra storage space - try asking La Strada to do that for you! If I were you Colin, I would give them a visit, talk to them and see the vans close up for yourself then make your decision. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 David, I can't find anything on their website about the basic models, just about the luxury ones ... so how do people KNOW that there is a basic model???? Also what PRICE do the 'basic' models start at ... still a lot I would think! :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Mel B - 2014-03-18 5:58 PM David, I can't find anything on their website about the basic models, just about the luxury ones ... so how do people KNOW that there is a basic model???? Also what PRICE do the 'basic' models start at ... still a lot I would think! :-S But what is it they say..?..."If you have to ask the price, then you probably can't afford it..." (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 david lloyd - 2014-03-18 5:49 PM - try asking La Strada to do that for you! La Strada models have double floor from front to back as standard..As Eddy said the elephant in the corner of the room with all these campers is the commercial base vehicle! and why I wont pay more for 40K for one.....why anyone would need a 3 liter in a panel van beyond me, especially with auto available across the range now. Plus there is the risk of overloading front axle as some well known UK vans manage... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david lloyd Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 JudgeMental - 2014-03-18 6:20 PM david lloyd - 2014-03-18 5:49 PM - try asking La Strada to do that for you! Plus there is the risk of overloading front axle as some well known UK vans manage... ....and some well known continental vans too......I well remember an Adria A-Class winning motorhome of the year with a payload of around 200kg for a four berth!......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david lloyd Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Mel B - 2014-03-18 5:58 PM David, I can't find anything on their website about the basic models, just about the luxury ones ... so how do people KNOW that there is a basic model???? Also what PRICE do the 'basic' models start at ... still a lot I would think! :-S From what I understand Mel, you can download a brochure (tab at the bottom of their website page) which gives the specification for a basic model and then all the additional extras. I know IH used to simply advertise their top of the range models and the prices which looked as if all their range were expensive. More recently though they have done what others like Vantage and Murvi do and price their basic model and all the 'extras' like engine/gearbox, rear panel etc separately. Sorry I can't help you with the price of a basic model as it is not something I have ever looked into but I'm fairly sure they are not so very far away from the mainstream vans - but they still have very good quality fixtures and fittings as part of the basic spec. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 david lloyd - 2014-03-18 6:41 PM Mel B - 2014-03-18 5:58 PM David, I can't find anything on their website about the basic models, just about the luxury ones ... so how do people KNOW that there is a basic model???? Also what PRICE do the 'basic' models start at ... still a lot I would think! :-S From what I understand Mel, you can download a brochure (tab at the bottom of their website page) which gives the specification for a basic model and then all the additional extras. I know IH used to simply advertise their top of the range models and the prices which looked as if all their range were expensive. More recently though they have done what others like Vantage and Murvi do and price their basic model and all the 'extras' like engine/gearbox, rear panel etc separately. Sorry I can't help you with the price of a basic model as it is not something I have ever looked into but I'm fairly sure they are not so very far away from the mainstream vans - but they still have very good quality fixtures and fittings as part of the basic spec. David That's the point though David ... if a manufacturer DOES NOT advertise the price of their vehicles so they can be seen easily how DO people know they are available in various sized budget formats!!! :-| You should NOT have to download a brochure to find out a price so that may be WHY people don't know they do a cheaper range as their website screams out 'luxury' ... if they don't advertise a cheaper range clearly you can't say they don't sell well if no-one knows about them!!! *-) Its as if they are 'ashamed' to offer a lower priced version - IMV it is totally ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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