Best age to sell?

1

1ten

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This will no doubt be a pop corn moment and no doubt I will get completely contradictory answers and will also get “why buy new” but here goes.

Our current van is 4 years old, we bought it new as we couldn’t find a second hand one as we had very specific requirements due to what we used it for and the age of our children. We will retire in 7-10 years and get to use the van for much more extended periods, we are currently only able to go for 2 – 2.5 weeks at a time and it must be in school holidays. Not only do we have kids at school, but also my wife is a teacher. In the next couple of years, the kids won’t be coming with us so our requirements will change.

Do I really want to be away touring (we don’t intend to spend a lot of time in one place) in a 14 year old van for 3 – 4 months at a time? I know the milage will be low compared to a delivery van but everything is still go to be 14 years old and I am all for an easy relaxed time and not need to be fixing things. The chances are we will be buying new again or at least very close to being new if can find the right van. So what’s the best age to change a van financially? Do I change it in year or so and then again as I retire or wait until I retire and sell the van then. It’s easy to work out cars depreciation by years but not vans!

Before somebody comes back with the usual don’t buy new let somebody else take the depreciation, somebody has to buy new otherwise you could never buy a second-hand van. Its also a nice if expensive experience getting a new van to the exact spec you want.
 
Bought my van when it was 17 years old. One of the advantages is that I'm happy to poke holes in it and 'fettle' stuff because it's of an age. My next door neighbour reckons it's better built than his £60k nearly new van, he spent weeks tracking and fixing down rattles and vibrations.

As regards when to sell, there doesn't appear to be any drop in the market values at the moment, and you're going to have to spend significantly to upgrade I guess, so if you can afford it I'd let your personal timetable, delivery times and bext PX offers be the drivers - a smooth transition will be worth a few quid.
 
You need to take into account the possibility that ‘vans of that age may/will be barred from certain areas owing to the engine emissions…. :(
 
I saw what to me was a nice van last week, had a look to see how much they were selling for ..

A 13 year old one was £51,000
A 9 year old one was £54,000

My thoughts were, I bet they didn't cost any more than that new. Pre C19 I think they would have been around 10k cheaper each.

Some things you can't predict.
 
Last edited:
AndyPK said:
You need to take into account the possibility that ‘vans of that age may/will be barred from certain areas owing to the engine emissions…. :(
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Fair, mine's already there. I've estimated around £30k plus PX, minimum, to get up to a Euro 6 engine. As long as I can get into Portsmouth ferryport without entering the LEZ I'm good.

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If you are happy with your van for the next several years I would just use it until you are really ready to change.
If you change now the other van will be 7 plus years old when you retire and I would lay money that in the next 7 years no matter what you think now your requirements will have changed again.

Our van is now 10 years old, had it from new. Can't see us being in a position to change it so likely to be with us for several years yet.

Personally I would not worry unduly about LEZs as you are not likely to want to pitch up in many city zones.
 
1ten said:
This will no doubt be a pop corn moment and no doubt I will get completely contradictory answers and will also get “why buy new” but here goes.

Our current van is 4 years old, we bought it new as we couldn’t find a second hand one as we had very specific requirements due to what we used it for and the age of our children. We will retire in 7-10 years and get to use the van for much more extended periods, we are currently only able to go for 2 – 2.5 weeks at a time and it must be in school holidays. Not only do we have kids at school, but also my wife is a teacher. In the next couple of years, the kids won’t be coming with us so our requirements will change.

Do I really want to be away touring (we don’t intend to spend a lot of time in one place) in a 14 year old van for 3 – 4 months at a time? I know the milage will be low compared to a delivery van but everything is still go to be 14 years old and I am all for an easy relaxed time and not need to be fixing things. The chances are we will be buying new again or at least very close to being new if can find the right van. So what’s the best age to change a van financially? Do I change it in year or so and then again as I retire or wait until I retire and sell the van then. It’s easy to work out cars depreciation by years but not vans!

Before somebody comes back with the usual don’t buy new let somebody else take the depreciation, somebody has to buy new otherwise you could never buy a second-hand van. Its also a nice if expensive experience getting a new van to the exact spec you want.
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We bought new 8 years ago and haven't changed because we haven't seen anything that appears a lot better than what we have. That being said we tend to keep our cars,7 or 8 years as well longer if there's nothing wrong with them. I suspect you know what the answer really is the more often you change the more it's going to cost as the depreciation is higher when newer. Someone who worked for us was the same with cars she would justify buying the next one with well it's going to needs a new battery and exhaust and tyres etc totally ignoring depreciation!. If you have the cash to spend and want to spend it why no its what money is for but it's not going to be a logical financial decision
 
I saw a 2017-dated video promoting the Hymer Exsis 580 the other day, the reveiwer said that prices would start at £66k. Looked on line and there was new one available at £106k. That's £40k increase in 6 years?
 
Hagstrom said:
I saw a 2017-dated video promoting the Hymer Exsis 580 the other day, the reveiwer said that prices would start at £66k. Looked on line and there was new one available at £106k. That's £40k increase in 6 years?
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We do live in strange times in terms of vehicles valuation. How long it continues who knows. It depends a bit on several factors but in our case for instance we paid 38k new and 8 years on its probably worth 33k so we've only lost 5k and it's probably gone up the past 3 years. On the other hand in more normal times it would probably have depreciated more but the new one if we updated would have gone up less the cost to change is most likely not that different.
 
Keep until retirement then change if you must, possibly for an all electric Motorhome. A lot changes in 10 years.

I’m keeping ours until retirement, I’m going to retire in 11 years, have a good look around at what’s available, then decide to keep ours😄.

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We bought our Globecar new 4 years ago for about £50k the list price was just over £60k, I have seen a private advert recently for the same model and year for £48k and it sold very quickly. I haven't spent much else on it since having it and would love only £4k deprecation. I wish my cars only lost that much! Buy a nice Audi and put well over 100k miles on it in three years and it really depreciates.

Obviously prices are still inflated from covid but I wonder what will lose me more?

1. Buy another van next year and another 5 years after that.
2. Keep ours for another 10 years and then buy a new one.

It's a nice problem to have and fun looking :giggle:
 
Surely keeping it will be the best decision financially, as opposed to buying another next year then 5 years after, you will have owned another 2 vans then.
 
Ok we are in similar position but 6 years further down the line. Our van is a 6 berth, bought new when our daughter was 12 years old, possibly retire next year. Van worth close to what I paid for it 13 years ago, but to upgrade to identical new an extra £35-£40k. The two of us have grown to enjoy the extra living space and storage. We have talked ourselves out of changing so many times because we prefer the "devil we know" that has been reliable and trouble free. How much more would I enjoy a van that was worth £35k more?

Your van should be euro 6 so not a problem for a number of years, ours is euro 4, the last 2 years we have swopped my wife's car for a toad and simply camp on cheeper cl/C's and use the car in any zones.

I am now planning to keep it another 10 years and just enjoy the money in the bank.
 
The only reason we sold our 20 x year old Hymer, is because fellow Funsters were selling their 14 x year old MH, which we had admired for several years, and just knew it had been looked after as well as ours had, during our 14 x years of ownership. (y)

That will be our last MH, unless I lose my C1 through illness.

If you are happy with the layout, the comfort levels, and the reliability, then hang on to it if it still suits your needs. (y)

Cheers,

Jock. :)
 
I would wait until retirement before deciding. You may well want a different layout by then depending on what your children are up to.
We've had the current van from age 12 to 16 years old. On the hab side we've needed a new solar panel and the skylights needed resealing but nothing else significant. On the Mercedes side the van needed a new starter motor and I've replaced the tyres although they were hardly worn. So all in all not a lot of expense over 4 years.
As mentioned above it means that you feel a bit les precious about it and drive it down narrow lanes without worrying too much.
I've chosen to upgrade to lithium because I anticipate keeping the van for a good few years yet. Better the devil you know...
 
In that case older, more refinedmodrls may be considered. 👍👍👍
 
Apart from a newer van the main reason for changing van would be a better shower room. As we have kids we generally stay on campsites, once is just the two of us aires, wild camping and French Passion type stops will be the norm. I suppose the extra £20k to change vans will pay for a lot of campsite showers🤣

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Onemanandhisdog said:
Pre C19 I think they would have been around 10k cheaper each.
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More like 50% cheaper. Q
Hagstrom said:
I saw a 2017-dated video promoting the Hymer Exsis 580 the other day, the reveiwer said that prices would start at £66k. Looked on line and there was new one available at £106k. That's £40k increase in 6 years?
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It is called profiteering. Inflated pricing that cannot be justified by any increased costs.
 
I think it really depends on the deal you can get at the time, 6 years is considered a good time to change. Still worth a reasonable amount and the gap to change not too expensive. The longer you leave it the bigger the cost to change.

Changed our first van at just under 6 years old, the last one we changed at just under 3 years old, that was because the deal was so good. Current van is 5 years old looking to change it at the moment but it will depend on a deal, don't really want to spend more than 30k but that may be difficult in the current climate also once we have the van I will probably need to spend 10k on it.
 
You will have hopefully ironed out all the faults in your current MH you have owned from new.
Do you want to sort out all the problems on a new one?
New builds seem to have a shocking amount of niggles and down right shoddy faults (not all of course, but it seems a growing number).
 
Jev88 said:
You will have hopefully ironed out all the faults in your current MH you have owned from new.
Do you want to sort out all the problems on a new one?
New builds seem to have a shocking amount of niggles and down right shoddy faults (not all of course, but it seems a growing number).
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The only problem we had was a warped cupboard door, fixed under warranty.
 
I'm strange.
I don't look on depreciation as a LOSS, i look on it as a charge/cost to own and use something you love to have.
Fortunately the cost to own a MH in these weird times is minimal (ish)

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Jev88 said:
You will have hopefully ironed out all the faults in your current MH you have owned from new.
Do you want to sort out all the problems on a new one?
New builds seem to have a shocking amount of niggles and down right shoddy faults (not all of course, but it seems a growing number).
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Quite true.
Ours is going in to have several niggles/faults sorted.
Good one being the fridge door......................it fell off.
 
I’d wait until you retire and know you will be travelling longer periods and child free. You taken the depreciation, and the risk of buying a lemon. Sit back, enjoy what you’ve got and see what happens with engines/pollution/regulations
 
I suppose if I am going to keep it longer I should investigate lithium, more solar, inverter and a decent water pump not the rubbish one that Globecar fit. Shame its not an automatic as well.
 
Only if you have had a shortage of power before. If not, why change.

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