TheWM
Free Member
- Feb 24, 2015
- 445
- 450
- Funster No
- 35,228
- MH
- Rapido 9010df
- Exp
- Newbie, but over 10 years in a campervan
Hi there,
I'm 35 and got two kids (3 & almost 1), and a couple of weeks ago my missus decided to give me the green light to go looking for a motorhome after I fell in love with the Thor 30.1 ACE that we hired in Canada for 3 weeks.
Having owned a campervan for 10 years (sold it today, goodbye old friend) I assumed that getting a motorhome would be a doddle. How wrong I was.
Our requirements are pretty straight forwards, a 4 berth motorhome with an overhead cab, rear lounge and 4 travel seats, under 6.9 metres to fit on the drive. Simples.
Initially I was looking at an older VW T4 coachbuilt, but they don't seem to have many around that have the rear travel seats and rear lounge, like hen's teeth.
So I widened my search, but then realised that as I'm in the London LEZ zone (by literally 10 metres), I came to the realisation that I would probably need a newer model (although not essential, if I fancy travelling back country lanes...)
The only vehicle that seemed to match our needs in our price range was a used Autoquest 145. Some reading up on Elddis seemed to suggest that the build quality could be hit and miss.
We discussed this and decided that, if we were going to part with lots of money, we'd rather buy something that we really wanted and would fine when the kids wanted their own beds etc...
So, again, the only thing that seemed to meet our spec was a Swift 686 (3 beds), it's actually 2 cm longer than our drive but are guessing that it won't be a problem. Again, undertook research and among other things, saw a thread on here about Swift. Whilst I acknowledge that generally you only hear negative reviews when things go wrong - it appears that there is a problem with some Swifts and the consensus appears to be caveat emptor.
I'm so confused and after lots of late nights researching and trying to figure out what to get, I appear to be no closer to getting something that will work for us. I feel like calling the chap up who bought my van and telling him to turn around and come back.
So, whilst this is a 'hello!' post, it's more of a HELP (me save my sanity).
Anyone know of something that may suit our requirements, either new and judging by some posts, European, or early 90's and petrol to meet the LEZ requirements.
I'd also like to add, this place has already been a great resource, so thanks to the people that set it up and all you contributors
I'm 35 and got two kids (3 & almost 1), and a couple of weeks ago my missus decided to give me the green light to go looking for a motorhome after I fell in love with the Thor 30.1 ACE that we hired in Canada for 3 weeks.
Having owned a campervan for 10 years (sold it today, goodbye old friend) I assumed that getting a motorhome would be a doddle. How wrong I was.
Our requirements are pretty straight forwards, a 4 berth motorhome with an overhead cab, rear lounge and 4 travel seats, under 6.9 metres to fit on the drive. Simples.
Initially I was looking at an older VW T4 coachbuilt, but they don't seem to have many around that have the rear travel seats and rear lounge, like hen's teeth.
So I widened my search, but then realised that as I'm in the London LEZ zone (by literally 10 metres), I came to the realisation that I would probably need a newer model (although not essential, if I fancy travelling back country lanes...)
The only vehicle that seemed to match our needs in our price range was a used Autoquest 145. Some reading up on Elddis seemed to suggest that the build quality could be hit and miss.
We discussed this and decided that, if we were going to part with lots of money, we'd rather buy something that we really wanted and would fine when the kids wanted their own beds etc...
So, again, the only thing that seemed to meet our spec was a Swift 686 (3 beds), it's actually 2 cm longer than our drive but are guessing that it won't be a problem. Again, undertook research and among other things, saw a thread on here about Swift. Whilst I acknowledge that generally you only hear negative reviews when things go wrong - it appears that there is a problem with some Swifts and the consensus appears to be caveat emptor.
I'm so confused and after lots of late nights researching and trying to figure out what to get, I appear to be no closer to getting something that will work for us. I feel like calling the chap up who bought my van and telling him to turn around and come back.
So, whilst this is a 'hello!' post, it's more of a HELP (me save my sanity).
Anyone know of something that may suit our requirements, either new and judging by some posts, European, or early 90's and petrol to meet the LEZ requirements.
I'd also like to add, this place has already been a great resource, so thanks to the people that set it up and all you contributors