Channel 4 - Amazing Spaces VW Camper (1 Viewer)

DBK

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Jan 9, 2013
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Did anyone else watch it? £48K for restored VW Camper. Love 'em but bonkers.
 

Pat4Neil

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Sep 28, 2008
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To be still that excited after the build, and love it so much, good for them, they did a marvellous job.

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Vlad The Impaler

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Apr 22, 2012
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Did anyone else watch it? £48K for restored VW Camper. Love 'em but bonkers.
They must be bonkers, it's a lot of money too pay for a coffin on wheels which it will be if they have a front impact crash!
Built and designed before safety was a consideration,a coke can on wheels,and we all know how easily they crumple.
A friend of mine crashed one back in the 80's and there was sod all left,he's gone and there's loads of them still around ,ironic really .
Ignorance is bliss and so is nostalgia.



Vlad
 

Movinon

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A truly beautiful van. Absolutely gorgeous. Good for a weekend in a CP maybe, but 4 months of the year? £48000 with no shower or toilet? I don't want to be there when they wake up to the realities of life on the road, and their need for £20/night CPs.

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Jun 2, 2010
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I'm pretty sure removing that bulkhead did nothing to improve the vans structural integrity, but what the hell as long as there happy
 
Sep 3, 2013
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One year. A whole one!
I didn't see it, but my wife did. She thought it was lovely and was really taken by the owner's emotion.

Will have to try and catch it on iPlayer.
 

scotjimland

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Jul 25, 2007
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They must be bonkers, it's a lot of money too pay for a coffin on wheels which it will be if they have a front impact crash!
Built and designed before safety was a consideration,a coke can on wheels,and we all know how easily they crumple.
A friend of mine crashed one back in the 80's and there was sod all left,he's gone and there's loads of them still around ,ironic really .
Ignorance is bliss and so is nostalgia.



Vlad

that's what I thought.. more money than sense..

they tried to justify £48k by saying they were going to 'go on the road' for four months of the year... obviously they don't have a clue about motorhoming or motorhomes. :RollEyes:


I owned one very briefly in the 80s...Devon conversion, 4 berth.. after about 6 ,months I got shot of it..
absolutely hated it.. cramped, noisy, impractical, a slug to drive .. wouldn't have another as a gift. .. has anyone tried having a shit in a Vdub camper.. talk about shit in a box..

can never understand this nostalgia with camper vans .. nor why people spend 10s of thousands of pounds trying to relive it.. just daydreamers

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C

Chockswahay

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I'm obviously not the only one with insomnia :D being up this early in the morning:)

I just watched it on 4OD and fully agree with everything said before me.............. they are passionate, driven and young. How long will that last before reality sets in??

Just 3 days ago we were parked up next to a VW similar to theirs but not split screen. I remarked to my wife how 'simple' it is, how 'straight up and honest' it all looked, how it must be 'fun to own'............

Then within minutes we were saying things like.......... no loo.......no fridge......no space.......no storage........no heating........no comfort.......no safety!

NO...........don't want one!

Nostalgia is a dangerous thought! We have only had one camper van, the one we own now. Before buying it we looked at loads of VW California's etc and came to the stark conclusion that they are small, lack refinement, expensive and only really suitable for 'weekending'

I really do admire their enthusiasm but I suspect they are heading for a fall. To spend 4 months in such a small space will certainly be a challenge.
 

Snowbird

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Lets face it, they were of little use as a motorhome 40 years ago. Slow, thirsty, cramped, noisy, heater never worked. I never could understand why the likes of VW campers, beetles and mogy minors have the following that they do. Strange old world.
 
Apr 13, 2012
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Lets face it, they were of little use as a motorhome 40 years ago. Slow, thirsty, cramped, noisy, heater never worked. I never could understand why the likes of VW campers, beetles and mogy minors have the following that they do. Strange old world.

Because they were all so easy to fix - they had to be !

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Apr 9, 2013
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I'd never had one as a campervan but I used to love driving my parents old one. No power at all, as stable as a weathervane in crosswinds and thirsty too but I loved the driving position over the front wheels and the visibility. A real sense of accomplishment at the end of every journey. I would love to drive one again, despite the dangers.

I would never own one though. :LOL:
 

magicsurfbus

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Oct 11, 2010
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Guilty on all charges. We had a '75 Veedub Kombi for 7 years after we decided to get shot of the trailer tent, which took longer to set up than Billy Smart's Circus. The kids were still young and and small enough to sleep inside it, and at £3000 it was all we could afford. We did all our family holidays in it including surfing trips to France, and I used it for weekend surfaris to North Wales. I refurbished the interior (as you do) for peanuts using pine planks and scraps of old vinyl floor covering. As others have mentioned, every journey was a potential adventure - ours had three trips on a recovery truck. Winter outings were always chilly as the heating didn't work. Fond memories of staggering out of the Irish Sea in February, dragging my longboard across a field full of cowshit, extracting my chilled body from the wettie out in the windblown car park then trying in vain to warm up in front of the cooker with both rings on full.

It's very easy for those who've never made the effort to own and run an old Veedub to pour scorn from the lofty heights of an expensive air-conditioned A Class, but I loved that vehicle to bits and wouldn't swap those years for anything. It's not so much vehicle ownership as temporary custodianship of an ancient monument. My kids are now in their twenties and keep asking 'Why did you sell the VW Dad? They're so cooooool". When we finally sold out and shamefacedly bought a coachbuilt I passed the old Veedub on to another surfer for £3000 - zero depreciation.

For my affectionate VW Kombi tribute, originally published in Motorhome Monthly (no less) in September 1998, click on the following:

Broken Link Removed

I hope there's a least a few of you out there for whom it will ring a few bells - as the advert once said: Only a surfer knows the feeling.
 
C

Chockswahay

Deleted User
Guilty on all charges. We had a '75 Veedub Kombi for 7 years after we decided to get shot of the trailer tent, which took longer to set up than Billy Smart's Circus. The kids were still young and and small enough to sleep inside it, and at £3000 it was all we could afford. We did all our family holidays in it including surfing trips to France, and I used it for weekend surfaris to North Wales. I refurbished the interior (as you do) for peanuts using pine planks and scraps of old vinyl floor covering. As others have mentioned, every journey was a potential adventure - ours had three trips on a recovery truck. Winter outings were always chilly as the heating didn't work. Fond memories of staggering out of the Irish Sea in February, dragging my longboard across a field full of cowshit, extracting my chilled body from the wettie out in the windblown car park then trying in vain to warm up in front of the cooker with both rings on full.

It's very easy for those who've never made the effort to own and run an old Veedub to pour scorn from the lofty heights of an expensive air-conditioned A Class, but I loved that vehicle to bits and wouldn't swap those years for anything. My kids are now in their twenties and keep asking 'Why did you sell the VW Dad? They're so cooooool". When we finally sold out and shamefacedly bought a coachbuilt I passed the old Veedub on to another surfer for £3000 - zero depreciation.

For my affectionate VW Kombi tribute, originally published in Motorhome Monthly (no less) in September 1998, click on the following:

Broken Link Removed

I hope there's a least a few of you out there for whom it will ring a few bells - as the advert once said: Only a surfer knows the feeling.

Well, despite my apparent negative remarks I am slightly embarrassed to say I do see where you are coming from. My son is a surfer too and he has a T4 right now and is looking to upgrade it but NOT for anything else! As for the cool thing, I get the same from my kids................ but 'cool' is never the same as 'comfortable' lol.....

I think it's a bit like 'character'................ my old Beetle had tons of it and I loved it......... but for 'character' read 'noisy and uncomfortable'

:D

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Don Quixote

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Not long enough, but a little common sense helps..........
Well having just watch the show I think - if you want something perfect and it's your dream and you have the money then..... why not.
They will be happy, enjoy the life, enjoy their "pride and joy" and will be the envoy of many MH'ers they meet as there is not a MH out there build to that standard............. ( yes I know no loo, shower etc ).

I wish them all the luck in the world with that one.
 
Sep 3, 2013
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My affection for the VW came from my parents. My dad bought a brand-new Devon bay window in 1976 or 1977 and we promptly did 2 weeks in the south of France that summer. I remember him putting talcum powder on the door seals to stop the doors sticking. It was the last in a small line of VW's that dad owned back then. A Variant and Passat preceeded it.

I hazily and fondly recall the French holiday. Being sick on the back seat just as we arrived at Pegwell Bay for the hovercraft. The exceptionally rough crossing. The endless warm, friendly French campsites. Paris, my sister and I laying on the double bed whilst mum and dad 'navigated' their way through. Dad, apparently, stopped by the side of the road in the middle of Paris to make a cup of tea and upset a few French cafe's who thought it terribly rude of him to do such a thing.

Dad sold the VW when it was 6 months old, saying he wasn't using it. It's a decision he's always regretted. And, probably for that reason and many others, it's the one vehicle that dad owned that I want to see and buy back more than anything else. I don't think it's alive anymore, but each time I see an old 'P'-plate orange and white bay-window, I wonder....

So, yes. Noisy, slow, cramped, impractical, overpriced. But they look wonderful and those rosy specs of nostalgia harking back to a golden time for many will always keep prices and demand alive.
 
Dec 12, 2010
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I watched it last night and thought they needed their bumps felt too. Not for me, but they seemed a nice enough couple, I hope they enjoy it. Wonder what the insurance value is ?

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Sep 23, 2013
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... and there you have the difference between a motorhome & a campervan. It's not sensible to make comparisons - they are very different animals.

As to spending 4 months in one - not for me either - I'd want a motorhome to do that. I wouldn't want to spend 4 months in our 6.4m PVC, but plenty of people do it. There is a long tradition of young Aussie couples coming to Europe for 6 months & living in a VW camper, but once you reach a certain age, I think things change. I wanted to do it when I was 19, but by the time I was 21 I'd 'grown up'. Bit sad really - old before my time! I envy their commitment & enthusiasm & really hope their dream becomes reality & not disappointment.
 

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