Newish Brit van or older German van

[WESTY66]

As per title, would you change a 15 plate Brit van for a 59 plate German van of the same value?
I would have thought the workmanship of the 59 plate would be superior, BUT would the 3.0l euro4 fiat be a downside in today’s climate with all the Crit air and Umweltzone crap, yes I do go Germany and have yet to go France (No real desire at present) so it could be a big deal!
OR do I wait a few years and put up with said Brit van (absolutely nothing wrong with it, just need (WANT) a big garage) till I can afford a euro5 or newer Conti van (but that will mean newer and I’ve heard it said that build quality started going downhill around 08 onwards).

 

[PJGWiltshire]

Going 6 years back on any model must be a Blackwood step. Your German van would be ten years old across the board and everything will be subject to age dedrigation. Also consider where you would be in say 4 years time with the old van. 15 years old now that would be pushing to get a valued change over in the future.
We changed from a Brit 09 fiat base to a German on a 16 plate. The 16 build quality is good but it’s the method of construction over the 6 year period is the main difference

 

[funflair]

I have absolutely no regrets about buying a quality used German van and at 13 years old its now with all the bits I have added it's a better package than when we bought it.

Martin

 

[Cheshirecat57]

As per title, would you change a 15 plate Brit van for a 59 plate German van of the same value?
I would have thought the workmanship of the 59 plate would be superior, BUT would the 3.0l euro4 fiat be a downside in today’s climate with all the Crit air and Umweltzone crap, yes I do go Germany and have yet to go France (No real desire at present) so it could be a big deal!
OR do I wait a few years and put up with said Brit van (absolutely nothing wrong with it, just need (WANT) a big garage) till I can afford a euro5 or newer Conti van (but that will mean newer and I’ve heard it said that build quality started going downhill around 08 onwards).

Absolutely NO WAY ON EARTH would I do that
I also wouldn't “stretch” myself to a Euro 5, if any stretch8ng to be done, get a Euro 6 or ‘stick’

 

[WESTY66]

I have absolutely no regrets about buying a quality used German van and at 13 years old its now with all the bits I have added it's a better package than when we bought it.

Martin

Hi Martin I did have you in mind when I posted this, as it’s a N&B Arto I was thinking of?

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[WESTY66]

Absolutely NO WAY ON EARTH would I do that
I also wouldn't “stretch” myself to a Euro 5, if any stretch8ng to be done, get a Euro 6 or ‘stick’

A euro6 N&B isn’t in my future anytime soon?

 

[Robert Clark]

In all our years of driving through Germany and France we never entered an environment zone

 

[funflair]

Hi Martin I did have you in mind when I posted this, as it’s a N&B Arto I was thinking of?

Anytime you want to see how a N+B holds up at 13 years old just give me a shout as you can't be that far away from us, we are TS14.

I will add there are very few vans I would swap ours for and that includes a lot of new German stuff.

Martin

 

[Jenka]

In all our years of driving through Germany and France we never entered an environment zone

They are easy to avoid if you keep an update as more cities/towns are added, however for the minimal cost and ease I have them.

 

[Mr Mousy]

Before buying our first van my thoughts were to buy the newest model I could as long it was based on a Mercedes chassis and was an automatic. We bought an Autosleeper Broughton, a great vehicle to drive. Having had it for one year and seen and been in many, many more vans at MHF rallies we decided that an A class German van although older was a better van for us for the same money. Better build quality and being second hand it had a lot of extras (efoy, levelling jacks, satellite, more batteries etc). From day one with the Autosleeper I thought the floor between fridge on one side of the van and the caravan style heater on the other was 'soft/spongy'. It turns out the floor has a groove cut in it for the gas pipe! A completely rubbish design. Another example was to put the heating/hot water on you had to go outside and remove a cowling from the side of the van. I thought this was normal until seeing a German van that was not built of caravan parts. On the other hand the German A class van was designed to be a motorhome rather than a caravan interior attached to the base vehicle. So for us older and German is better than new and British.

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[rosalan]

Your query does not have a clear answer but from my experience, the layout of the vans interior is most important, as I will be living there.
Continental vans seem to be better built but cost more.
The engine and chassis are often the same, wherever the the van was made. So newer could mean more reliable and have lower emissions.
Not all British vans lack quality build but some are built down to a price.
You can, when selecting a van that has all the plus points, find that you simply dislike or begin to dislike some feature that you had not considered when buying the vehicle.

 

[Jaws]

Ignoring all other issues, my experience is... After 2007 Brit van quality suffered badly.. Of course there are good and bad and probably more good than bad, but my personal cut off date for Brit stuff is indeed 2007
My ( albeit limited ) experience of German vans, they to seem to have a cut off point, but it is much later... circa 2011
I would be going for older German van if the lay out is what you want

 

[WESTY66]

Update! We went to have a look at said van, it was a 2010 N&B Arto and it was a shed, it wasn’t very nice at all, made my Brit van look like a morello. Glad I’m not desperate to change yet, but change We will when we see summat we like (big garage) within our budget. I have to confess I was even looking at Hymers (your fault @Lenny HB?) maybe in a couple of years!!

 

[funflair]

Some people just shouldn’t be allowed a nice van if they aren’t going to look after it?

Martin

 

[Griffs]

We purchased our n and B arto around eight years ago with 14000 on the clock 55plate,
could have purchased a brand new uk built for the same price ,no regrets would do the same again.

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[RidersofRohan]

Another Extinction Rebellion demo today in London and across the world. Softly, softly policing as the protestors demographic are the sons and daughters of the elite. Their philosophy is do as I say, not necessarily as I do.
I wouldn’t dream of going for an older more polluting van. The world is changing, politics is changing. Older vehicles will have more and more restrictions and taxes placed on them. The pressure to move away from polluting vehicles will surely affect motorhoming not specifically but in the general attack on diesel vans. Surely a euro 6
van is a better long term bet.

 

[funflair]

But strangely enough the higher taxes are on the newer vans, is that because the older ones are actually less polluting as they are already built.

Martin

 

[Deneb]

But strangely enough the higher taxes are on the newer vans, is that because the older ones are actually less polluting as they are already built.

Martin

No, it's because they slipped through cracks in the existing legislation as being multi stage constructed vehicles, the final stage builders were allowed to avoid stating their emissions values.

The tax legislation hasn't changed. What has changed is that manufacturers and final stage constructors can no longer get away with not stating the emissions value, which places new vehicles into a different tax band.

Blame VW and dieselgate. Nothing to do with UK vehicle tax legislation.