Buy or hire?

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Talljohn

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I have whittled my choice of van down to about four, primarily based upon whether I can fit my rather long frame within in comfort. Before I proceed any further, I would like to try and hire the actual motorhome or something similar. However, and on thinking about hiring, it struck me that there is a break even point of something in the region of 60 days use per year before you actually start saving money by owning a van. That seems like a lot of usage, and whilst I guess some people do spend a lot of time in their vans, many more probably do not. When you consider depreciation, loss of interest on the capital used for purchase and then insurance, tax etc, cost has to be in the realm of £6k per year if you buy new at c.£60k.

So can anyone recommend hiring over owning if you think you may not be doing mega days away each year? And if so, who do you hire from (Burstner, Possl, Murvi and Globecar are my choices for a purchase)?

I would be interested in your views.
 
Nope ... hiring for me was a necessary, but absolute pain in the backside, to allow me to decide which van to buy....

I can't hire the actual van I want, so would end up compromising on every trip.
Every trip you have to pack the car, drive to the hirer, unpack the car, pack the van ....and repeat when you get back
The hiring depot is not near us - 25 mile round trip each time and you can only pick up at a time to suit them
Endless paperwork on pickup
Fixed time to return the van for next customer - no chance to easily flex the dates ....etc etc etc etc
 
Half the benefit to us is being able to load in slow time or be off in an hour.
Adapting van for extra 12v points, gas, awnings and other home comforts.
Fully understanding how things work and getting the best out of them.
Being able to go away for a few days starting and ending when we want.
Secondary accommodation if house over flowing.
 
GlamperRV do some nice looking Burstner hire mtorhomes. I've never used them so can't comment on customer service, fleet or prices
 
Hiring in the UK can be an expensive business but hopefully as it becomes more common it will become more affordable as it is on the continent. Watch out for the hire terms & insurance small print too as not all are fair. Buying a good secondhand motorhome at the right price privately then reselling could be better value than hiring if you are lucky enough to find one but demand at present is reported to be high.
Many of us SORN our motorhomes whilst not in use which keeps the tax cost down. For a van conversion & some coachbuilts (depending on value) the insurance can be no more than a car but a bit higher for A Class motorhomes with their expensive front windscreens. With regards to depreciation - well kept motorhomes keep their value better than cars & not much interest lost on savings with the rate at the moment. Think your estimate of £6K could be a lot less depending on choice of motorhome.
If you are considering buying & importing a Globecar/Possl (only difference is the decals on most models) then lots of us on here that can share our experience :) There is usually a wait of around a year for popular new models or factory orders to your own spec. though. Also worth looking at Link Removed for models & spec. that you might want especially for secondhand.

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If it was just down to money,a lot of us would be better off hiring. We certainly don’t do 60 days or more,never have and never likely to.
So,there is a price to pay for convenience,knowing the vehicle inside out,and being in control. And it’s nice to look at your pride and joy,and say “ that’s mine,it’s paid for,and I earned it!”.
Your figures probably assume depreciation on a new vehicle.......I would never buy a new one.
 
One thing to be aware of when hiring Motorhomes is you can't get CDW so give it a slight scratch and it's going to cost a grand.
We have only ever bought new our deprecation has only been a fraction of the figures you quote. Obviously the more you use a van the more sense it makes to buy, we do 120-150 nights away a year 95% in mainland Europe. We also buy abroad as that saves us a fortune.
 
I wrote the cost of the van off in my head aswell as all ruuning costs. Its our main hobby and use all year around seems strange to me to boil it down to cost.If we sell in the future any return will be a bonus.
 
We just bought after years of hiring. Broke a wing mirror on a rental a few years ago, cost us £845.
Over the next year what we have planned we should use at least 120 days, that's excluding the spur of the moment weekends and odd days.
Pick up our first purchase tomorrow. 2 year old so good bit of depreciation been borne buy seller.
 
Nothing with motorhomes makes any logical financial sense as they're a luxury item like a nice watch, car or 2nd home etc.

We barely use ours 25-30 nights a year but it's there when we need it, we can set it up to suit our needs and basically use and abuse it and enjoy the journey of it all.

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As above, owning a motorhome doesn't make economic sense, it is a luxury item. We treat ours as an expensive hobby, and in a normal year get 100 days use out of it, perhaps 6k miles. Running costs, maintenance, repairs, insurance, tax, site fees, shuttle, ferries and gadgets all mount up. It ain't cheap.
 
Agree with above re costs though get the right van at right price and deprecation can be low
Our first van we bought privately at five years old, had it five years before trading in for current one and lost £2000
I'm sure that won't happen again though
Having a van is unlikely to be a cheep way of holidaying
Hiring first is a good way to find out the layout you can live with but a faff if you plan to do it regularly
 
Talljohn said:
I have whittled my choice of van down to about four, primarily based upon whether I can fit my rather long frame within in comfort. Before I proceed any further, I would like to try and hire the actual motorhome or something similar. However, and on thinking about hiring, it struck me that there is a break even point of something in the region of 60 days use per year before you actually start saving money by owning a van. That seems like a lot of usage, and whilst I guess some people do spend a lot of time in their vans, many more probably do not. When you consider depreciation, loss of interest on the capital used for purchase and then insurance, tax etc, cost has to be in the realm of £6k per year if you buy new at c.£60k.

So can anyone recommend hiring over owning if you think you may not be doing mega days away each year? And if so, who do you hire from (Burstner, Possl, Murvi and Globecar are my choices for a purchase)?

I would be interested in your views.
Click to expand...
Just interested what you have allowed for loss of interest on the capital.......... and where can I get that interest on my capital.
 
We hired first and it gave us an idea of what we didn't want rather than what we did.
As for depreciation we had our van (2009) for a year and sold it for £2000 less than we paid. We live on the Isle of Wight so l think it's a bit trickier to get buyers interested. But we had full timed for a year so was happy with that.
Ours was a Burstner and they seem to hold their value pretty well - we felt it was a good choice of van.
 
Buying a motorhome makes no financial sense whatsoever, but for us it’s a lifestyle choice, it’s our second home with all the comforts and modifications you just can’t get near to when hiring.

We bought our first van second hand in brilliant nick in 2006 for £21,000, a steal, made it our own and sold it in 2018 for £10,000. Been all over Europe without any restrictions (apart from this year 😷 :think:).

We don’t consider that much of a hit for what we got out of it ;).

This one was new and I don’t expect as good a return, but we accept that.
 
Talljohn said:
I have whittled my choice of van down to about four, primarily based upon whether I can fit my rather long frame within in comfort. Before I proceed any further, I would like to try and hire the actual motorhome or something similar. However, and on thinking about hiring, it struck me that there is a break even point of something in the region of 60 days use per year before you actually start saving money by owning a van. That seems like a lot of usage, and whilst I guess some people do spend a lot of time in their vans, many more probably do not. When you consider depreciation, loss of interest on the capital used for purchase and then insurance, tax etc, cost has to be in the realm of £6k per year if you buy new at c.£60k.

So can anyone recommend hiring over owning if you think you may not be doing mega days away each year? And if so, who do you hire from (Burstner, Possl, Murvi and Globecar are my choices for a purchase)?

I would be interested in your views.
Click to expand...

If you are really interested in motor homing and the hobby rather than having to have the newest unit on the site buy an older van to see at least if you like it .

Just saying .
 
It’s important to us to have our MH just how we want it. We have all sorts of extras, such as fans, an inverter, solar panels, blackout blinds, extra power points, extra hooks. I spend about a week packing before we go. Renting just wouldn’t work for us for these reasons.
 
If you are considering buying an expensive van, Hiring first can be advantageous in a couple of ways.
You can try different layouts to see what works for you.
Also hire for an extended period to see if it is for you.

When we first considered buying a motorhome, We were interested in an 4 birth A Class, Separate shower and toilet with fixed double bed.

So we hired an Adria Sonic last spring down in Devon & Cornwall for 10 days.
Being tall we found the fixed bed to be too small with the rounded corners and awkward to get in and out off. Although the A class was nice and roomy up front getting out of the drivers seat to go outside to take a photo etc was a pain.

This year we hired one in New Zealand for 5 weeks.
This time it was a Burstner Lyseo with fixed singles at the back. This type of beds worked well for us.
We also preferred having the cab doors over the A Class doors.
The only niggle left for us was the L shaped lounge on both of the vans we hired.
We found it a little cramped around the cooking area due to the forward facing seats jutting out across the van.

We started looking around after lockdown and found a lounge layout that has 4 seats facing each other along either side of the van. This provides so much more room in the kitchen / lounge area to move about.

We have now signed on the dotted line for an Adria Matrix that is very much different from one that we thought would suit us when we started looking and so avoiding a very expensive mistake.
 
Thanks for all your responses. My initial estimate of cost per year, was taking a new £60k home (estimating depreciation at c.£30K over 10 years, based on what I see of second hand sale values. Some fo you appear to have done very well on the maintained sale value, which is encouraging. The loss in capital assumes a 4% growth, which if you exclude this year, is a reasonable long term estimate). It's a rough but I guess finger in the air initial statement. I have never bought a vehicle or bike new in my life, but as I need beds over 2m in length, second hand choice is going to be limited, however, preferred.

The comment about no cdw on hire is helpful, and I guess something to take into consideration.

The views seem to be squarely in the buy, not hire camp, which I can understand for many reasons. An expensive hobby is probably the way to think of it.

So, down to brass tacks. My choices are Globecar Campscount XL, Possl Roadcruiser XL (same as Campscout I believe), Burstner Ixeo TD590HL and Murvi Morocco XL.

Anyone out there want to let me hire their van out, or have a second hand one for sale?

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Sounds like you have made the right choice with buying.
We don't find the costs that high, only had new vans and depreciation has been around £2k a year less than most cars costing a fraction of the price. But it does depend on how well you buy.

Running costs fairly low road tax & insurance is cheap on Motorhomes. Only need a service every two years use an independent and it halves the cost.
Habitation checks aren't necessary if you know what you are doing but I do have the annual damp check which costs £60.

We rarely use sites so our camping costs are minimal only real expense is 3 ferry crossings a year which is less than £500.
130 nights in a cheap hotel would be £6000 - £8000 and you would have the added expense of eating out, far cheaper running a Motorhome for us.
 
Ridgeway said:
Nothing with motorhomes makes any logical financial sense as they're a luxury item like a nice watch, car or 2nd home etc.
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Agree with above. Unless you are retired and use it alot. It is expensive. Alot of the retired go away for weeks on end, out of season, Free camp, use aires in Europe, so get good value for money out of the vehicle.
If you are still working and can only get away for a few weeks a year, its a big expense just sitting on the drive/storage gathering dust.
Thats why you will see most of the owners are of the SAGA clientele😀
 
We have 3 Possl Campervans that we currently rent out. They are all on a 2019 plate so just over a year old. We will be selling all 3 in October. For a tall guy look at the Possl Roadstar Revolution R. We have. Only 6 metres long with a large bed which can be raised and lowered for extra storage.
Most PVCs are fine for travelling in and out of town, the beds can be removed to use it more as a van.
PM me if you need any more information or advice.
Don
 
Don, pm'd you. thanks.
 
Looks great Andrew. I keep telling myself I need to hire and confirm what I want before I buy, but will keep your add in mind. We want to hire and go away in October. Planning to start going further afield in a couple of years when all the children have left the coop.
 
Brockley said:
Buying a motorhome makes no financial sense whatsoever, but for us it’s a lifestyle choice, it’s our second home with all the comforts and modifications you just can’t get near to when hiring.

We bought our first van second hand in brilliant nick in 2006 for £21,000, a steal, made it our own and sold it in 2018 for £10,000. Been all over Europe without any restrictions (apart from this year 😷 :think:).

We don’t consider that much of a hit for what we got out of it ;).

This one was new and I don’t expect as good a return, but we accept that.
Click to expand...

Really!

We are on motorhome number 4 in 16 plus years. If I sold it now, would not have lost more than £4,000 on resale values on all four. Thats, £1,000 per motorhome.

But if the OP hires, what is it going to cost them?
 
TeeMyob said:
Really!

We are on motorhome number 4 in 16 plus years. If I sold it now, would not have lost more than £4,000 on resale values on all four. Thats, £1,000 per motorhome.

But if the OP hires, what is it going to cost them?
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I agree, we’ve had three vans in 17 years. If we sold now, we’d likely be a few thousand in profit. Last two vans lost £2,400 in total, that was over 11 years of ownership. Running costs have been minimal throughout.
Some are happy to lose money through depreciation but you don’t have to...
 
kaasbroodje said:
I agree, we’ve had three vans in 17 years. If we sold now, we’d likely be a few thousand in profit. Last two vans lost £2,400 in total, that was over 11 years of ownership. Running costs have been minimal throughout.
Some are happy to lose money through depreciation but you don’t have to...
Click to expand...
Yes, depends what you buy and how you buy and sell.
 
TeeMyob said:
Buy the right one and it will, usually always sell.

Buy Winter, sell summer. Not usually as good a tip as caravans but often the best times.
Buy something rare and desirable. Buy a Swift 630L, many Brand Name variants and ten a penny, harder to sell on.
Buy with A/C and Automatic gearbox and you may have a better chance of selling at the end.

In almost 12 years and 4 Motorhomes, barely lost £10k in depreciation.
First Motorhome, as an example. Purchased a Eura Mobil 716, Mercedes SprintShift from ebay seller in December 2005 for £29,000, just 8,000 miles on the clock, 3 years old. Four years later, 45,000 miles Traded it a dealer for £28,750.

I hope this helps?

TM
Click to expand...

Really,

That looks pretty similar to the rate of loss we’ve found and for something that gives as much enjoyment and life experience, I can live with £1000/year depreciation 😉

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