Campervans! - Has the bubble burst?

The queues at Dover will certainly put a few off seeking France I suppose.

I would say next year will be the one where the market starts to normalise, that is unless the cost of living bites sooner.

They are expensive things siting there when your electric bill alone is £100 a month and your wages haven’t risen with inflation for over 10 years. Incidentally, I checked last last week and a Paramedic earns £100 a month more now than they did 10 years ago. A teacher friend of mine is the same, but 12 years ago.

If it carries on with inflation the way it is and interest rates rising the way they are, especially when many are financed, it may be saturated with vans this time next year.
 
robrace said:
My local caravan sales has about a dozen VW camper vans on its forecourt with no sign of any of them being sold!Has the bubble burst?This time last year they appeared to be selling like hot cakes.
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The VW Camper vans are relatively quite tiny and appeal to a much younger market who perhaps do not currently have the funds. So perhaps you are right and their bubble has burst. I don't see that with the larger PVC/Motorhome market which from what I have seen is very bouyant.
 
The type of youngster who bought a VW on a whim because they wanted to at least get away, are the festival goers who dump their tents and walk away. Now they can go back to Benidorm and Ibiza the van is no use to them so flog it
 
Of the 16 Van's that were camped near me this weekend....7 were transit campervans, 4 were vw campervans.....all of them 11 couldn't park correct on the pitch 🤦‍♂️ or adhere to the awning pitching rules for the small private site 🤷‍♂️
One of the transit Van's was running a 4 way splitter on the electric, no idea what he needed to run in the awning 🤷‍♂️
All of the owners looked my age, 50s, so the 'young' owners definitely were not there
 
VW camper vans are extremely high in price for what you get. Other similar makes and models are selling. I’ve just been the Norfolk Warners show and prices are very high.
Decent vans at decent prices are still an easy sell but they are few and far between.
Phil
 
It's a nap that prices WILL come down. Market trends. And as someone said now they can get back to Torramalinos they don't need their vans.
 
Good, keep em off the road and make way for the serious van owners. More spaces on sites, less chances of illegal parking, grey dumping and god forbid, illegal black dumping. Of course, it doesn’t apply to it all, just me :dance2::Grin::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
There might be a few more used ones, BUT………

Will the manufacturers bring the prices down on NEW units, I would be very surprised if they did, the dealers however might start shifting on prices again but will resist to start with, JMHO

Then again I could be talking out my backside, after all what do I know🤷‍♂️😁
Simon-Alan Kerr might have a better insight as to what’s happening with the market.

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Ditcha said:
That won't be bias 😂😂
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Not if he’s dealing with facts. I think he’s better placed than us to see what’s going on, I appreciate his take on it might be just in his area and up north things might be different, but I would have thought he might see the beginning of any changes to the market,
The new vehicles are still only trickling through atm. I don’t think Brownhills have ANY to sell, they all had DEMO stickers on them last week, which I think meant they were on Loan from the manufacturers for people to see. Again I could be talking out my a…
I’m good at that😁
 
All we see is people are getting stretched for money, so why are they going to spend a hundred grand on something they might only use less than a month a year, plus all the upkeep every month, now they can go back to benidorm for a couple of grand.
I think motorhomes will be the first thing to go as soon as they want a load of money to splurge at Christmas.
 
There is a dealer near me who has many VW transporter pop tops for sale, all low mileage and all over £50k. I can't imagine they are all going to be shifted, must have nearly 20.
 
its the lack of new vans that will keep the prices up for the forseeable future supply chain problems and staff shortages around the world shut downs in china

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Googlebot said:
They are expensive things siting there when your electric bill alone is £100 a month and your wages haven’t risen with inflation for over 10 years. Incidentally, I checked last last week and a Paramedic earns £100 a month more now than they did 10 years ago. A teacher friend of mine is the same, but 12 years ago.
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Our electric/gas bills have decreased since we got the motorhome. 3 months away last year - good savings -particularly if you go in the autumn.
 
Just look around you, how many people do you know without a motorhome that is thinking of buying one?
Personally I don't know any.
 
So if these dealers have 10 or twenty campers for sale and no ones buying ?

There'll be a few going to the wall.

But will campsites bring their prices down if fewer motorhomes and campers taking up spaces ? somehow I doubt it.
 
Good late model vans will alway's sell.
There are plenty of propper MHs out there that like to change now and again.
Pity i've not got a good van,:cry: allegedly :notworthy:
 
mitzimad said:
its the lack of new vans that will keep the prices up for the forseeable future supply chain problems and staff shortages around the world shut downs in china
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Exactly this. In my opinion. Lack of new vans will keep the fairly new prices up. The new prices will not drop. I do think the older vans and Pop-top VW type vans will continue to drop in price but not below pre-pandemic levels.
Just my opinion. I considered this a lot before buying a nearly-new van.

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The market is still incredibly buoyant. Used vehicles will stay high for another couple of years at least. The main reason is that the new vans just are not coming through. I have new sold vehicles I am waiting on and they will be here between now and 2024!

Fiat are struggling with supply, Ford were ok but now everyone is switching to Ford so they are now struggling. There are still big supply issues with the German chassis as they were reliant on a lot of parts coming from Ukraine.

In terms of the actual motorhome manufacturers, supply of raw materials is an issue. The main one currently are plastic pellets which they need to make roof lights and windows. One manufacturer has about 200 built vans but cant finish any of them.

In terms of used, VW's will be dying down now, nothing to do with the market changing, just end of the season for them. We can normally in peak times sell 10 VW's a month, over winter we sell 2 a month.

Just think, lots of people bought motorhomes in the "Staycation" yes some will hate it but lots will love it and will stick with our little industry. Yes I think the cost of living will effect sales to some degree however I think it will be the circa £20,000 used vans. I think someone with £100,000 in the bank that wants to buy a used Carthago isn't going to care that its now £1.50 for a loaf of bread!

We are currently maintaining what we sold this time last year which was our best ever year.

On a separate note, its also the most stressful I have ever known with parts delays, new vehicle delays and a lot of people desperate to get their new vans!
 
Simon-Alan Kerr said:
The market is still incredibly buoyant. Used vehicles will stay high for another couple of years at least. The main reason is that the new vans just are not coming through. I have new sold vehicles I am waiting on and they will be here between now and 2024!

Fiat are struggling with supply, Ford were ok but now everyone is switching to Ford so they are now struggling. There are still big supply issues with the German chassis as they were reliant on a lot of parts coming from Ukraine.

In terms of the actual motorhome manufacturers, supply of raw materials is an issue. The main one currently are plastic pellets which they need to make roof lights and windows. One manufacturer has about 200 built vans but cant finish any of them.

In terms of used, VW's will be dying down now, nothing to do with the market changing, just end of the season for them. We can normally in peak times sell 10 VW's a month, over winter we sell 2 a month.

Just think, lots of people bought motorhomes in the "Staycation" yes some will hate it but lots will love it and will stick with our little industry. Yes I think the cost of living will effect sales to some degree however I think it will be the circa £20,000 used vans. I think someone with £100,000 in the bank that wants to buy a used Carthago isn't going to care that its now £1.50 for a loaf of bread!

We are currently maintaining what we sold this time last year which was our best ever year.

On a separate note, its also the most stressful I have ever known with parts delays, new vehicle delays and a lot of people desperate to get their new vans!
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Thanks for that Simon👍 Have the new knaus come in yet?
 
The bubble will burst - it is just a question of when.
Yes there is a shortage of new vans, but the price of a new van is eye watering, so in reality there will be a reduced number of buyers.
A few years ago you could buy a decent van for £60K. That same van is now £80 to £90K.
As a result, second hand prices have also risen considerably.
We purchased our first motorhome in Dec 2016.
It was an Elddis Accordo and we paid £38k for it.
The same van is now almost £60k and I recently saw a 2016 model advertised for £40K!
Our local dealers have some stock now. Last year they had none.
I have noticed that a lot of the second hand vans they have for sale have very low mileage.
Perhaps some people have now decided that motorhoming isn't for them.
Every business has its highs and lows.
Motorhome sales have been on a high for three years now but I feel that a low is on the horizon (but perhaps not for another 12 months).
 
I thought it was just me, but yes they seems to be widely available. Was at Chelston last month and that's pretty much all they had. Close to £60k for a one year old California. No thanks.
 
Plus the EV revolution will effect it all in the future. All these EV’s that are being sold must be running down the production line in the factories, meaning less proper cars being built and a delay in their production. Unless complete new factories are built to simply build EV’s then it will have a knock on effect across all vehicles.

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