VW Campervan on BBC Breakfast (1 Viewer)

[Larrynwin]

Its on soon , referring to the end of production , good or bad ??

 

[Terry]

Good they were a bag of shit back in the late 70s when I had one Give me a Transporter any day :thumb:
Terry

 

[daisy mae]

Sad, an end to an era,Think this will put the price up even more than they are now.
Had more fun in my first old vehicles, a Bond and Hillman Imps, I had four of those, passed my test in one than with newer ones.

I never had a VW one, wish I had now, there are hundreds of followers out there, early on this year we went to the VW show at Lincoln,I am a member of the VW T4/T5 club, a briliant day out and lots of different models, owners were obviously passionate about their vehicles, who are we to mock that, if it wasn`t for the enthusiast clubs many vintage vehicles would have been lost long ago, I love the old cars, use to go out in an old Bentley and RR Silver Shadow, my ex husbands boss use to pick us up on a Saturday night when we went out for dinner, I was in te back seat with his wife and we had the cocktail cabinet in front of us, behind the glass screen, happy days, never knew which one he would turn up in.

How many new vehicles will exceed 20 years plus,? I am talking about 2005 onwards none I expect, so that says a lot for modern technolgy, simple and straight forward is better and cheaper something that can be fixed by the man in the street, not computer generated which costs an arm and a leg, something stops working and it entails a complete new assembly, no true mechanics these days just fitters, I am waiting to get shot down in flames , we are entitled to our views, be interesting to hear others views.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[pappajohn]

toured Cornwall around 20 years ago in one.

a 1.6 lhd version with a westfalia conversion.

never, i repeat, NEVER will i venture inside one again.

17/18 mpg and all three motorway lanes needed in cross winds.
van swings right, steer left, eventually bridge communicates with bow thrusters and it swings left...oh dear...too much, do it all again the other way round and so on.

amazing how much of a car free gap behind you you can create doing that

 

[Allanm]

You must have had a real dud PJ, we had 2 type 2's and loved them. Toured the UK and got our taste for France in both of them. Second one was a pop top, 50,000 miles when we bought it, sold it 8 years later with over 100,000 miles and it never missed a beat. Apart from a new exhaust and steering tie bar ( when it performed like PJ,s) it hardly cost us a penny.
I also read that VW in Germany will now refurbish any old VW camper from the ground up for around £100K!
I love them, but not that much....
Alan

 

[vwalan]

had loads you should get 24 mpg with a 1600 . easy to repair . not noisy when you are in them . like the new ones from brazil . now have 1300 polo engines and water cooled .
mind they did at one time do them about 25 yrs ago with golf passat 16-1800 engines .
we could swap a recon engine and change all ancillaries in an hour and a half .
love them . thats why i,m vw alan .
shame they are ending the t2 far better vehicle than the t4-5
took a 79 across the sahara and all over north and mid africa .
1600 converted to earlier single port engine with limited slip diff box . ideal great vehicle .

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Chockswahay]

If they were that good then why do so many people move onto newer motorhomes?

I think we all have fond memories of days gone by, along with our rose coloured glasses

I had great fun in my old Beetle, but that was nearly 40 years ago. Would I want one now? ................No way!

 

[vwalan]

they move because they want more room .
plus no one could ever know they would fetch the money they do now .
in the eighties a mate and i would buy a camper out of the paper ,ideally one that needs workf .fix it and repaint or build a new motor . then sell it and make a shilling . certainly only make couple hundred quid . how times have changed .
in fact the guy jason that was on the news i remember him starting his business years ago . he has done well . in 95-96 we were fitting 200 recon motors a year . sometimes 3 in a day . AA trailered them in we sorted it and that day off the holiday maker went and no spoiled holiday . we fitted hightops etc as well .
mind my mates still run vw campers . my son has a 1.9 t25 . he has had it since 98.
i regret selling my 2.1 t25 i had it new .
only bought it as vw gb didnt want me bringing in vw,s from nigeria . in 1988 . got a good discount not to do it .
well i think they will go on for many years more . panels are available to rebuild them at a price .

 

[pappajohn]

they move because they want more room .
plus no one could ever know they would fetch the money they do now .
in the eighties a mate and i would buy a camper out of the paper ,ideally one that needs workf .fix it and repaint or build a new motor . then sell it and make a shilling . certainly only make couple hundred quid . how times have changed .
in fact the guy jason that was on the news i remember him starting his business years ago . he has done well . in 95-96 we were fitting 200 recon motors a year . sometimes 3 in a day . AA trailered them in we sorted it and that day off the holiday maker went and no spoiled holiday . we fitted hightops etc as well .
mind my mates still run vw campers . my son has a 1.9 t25 . he has had it since 98.
i regret selling my 2.1 t25 i had it new .
only bought it as vw gb didnt want me bringing in vw,s from nigeria . in 1988 . got a good discount not to do it .
well i think they will go on for many years more . panels are available to rebuild them at a price .

doesnt say a lot for the build qualty and longevity of the air cooled engines, does it oh:

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[vwalan]

in fact we were an outlet for possibly the uk,s biggest vw engine re conditioners . vehicles came to us from all over the west country .
very often vehicles came from bristol and across . we held up to 30 exchange motors at times . we were their biggest output as an agent.
remember these were anything up to 35 year old vehicles at the time . certainly drive correctly i have covered well over 100,000mls in one of mine . in fact one of the last german bay window vans . a 1979 1600cc that was turned away by devon conversions as it came in with the newer t25. so i was offered it by the local dealer . it had factory fitted windows . that were rare in those days unless a mini bus . . used it as a works van come camper . did alot of towing with it . almost had an a frame permenantly hitched to the towbar . those were the days . never knew about trainweights then . if the wheels turned it was ok .
could get twenty enngines in the back on a special frame we built . carried two ton in a one ton van . how we got away with it i dont know .
we also built aircraft spec engines for several vw aircooled planes down here . trago our local cash and carry built the planes at their bodmin airfield for years .

 

[bryandh]

Spotted this one for sale in Benidorm recently.... fabulous paint job and lovely interior refurb. Yours for only €19000 plus transfer costs.

 

[vwalan]

heres a few of an early bay window i had . a 1968 van . first it was the gold and brown ,then a few years later i got it done in the yellow and stripe paint job . perspex engine lid copper fan casing polished pulley wheels . this was back in the 70,s .
i once went to the biggest vw show in europe .vw action had to pester folk to get a custom van class .hard to believe it these days .

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[MR. FUSION]

I call them star trek vans as anyone who owns one obviously never needs a shower or a crap oh:

 

[vwalan]

you can get a porta potty in some .and there was conversions with a shower .
but a flannel wash is ok . plus like my africa travel version you have a shower off the back hatch when its lifted and a curtain that press studs around the open door . not difficult . mind i never had a portta potty in one . hee hee i wonder why .
shovel and dig for me .

 

[Reallyretired]

I had a porta potti in mine.

The reason most of us changed from these was because they were low on space. Mine was lovely to drive, and quite good off road too with high clearance and rear wheel drive, unlike newer bigger ones.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[joner8888]

I have painted scores over the years.
I don't like driving them or camping in them though.

 

[Bellini]

Like many here, my very first motorhome experience was in a T2.

I was 6 (1976) and Dad was going through a VW phase of a very early Passat, a Variant and then the Devon bay-window that he ordered from a dealer in the Old Town in Hastings.

He owned it for 3 months, but we had a family holiday in the south of France in that time and many picnics on the beach around Hastings.

One of those picnics caused Dad to get the T2 hopelessly stuck as you were allowed to drive on the pebbles back then. A Series 2 Land Rover towed us out. I remember this very clearly. The photos of us in France with it still exist as well.

Dad sold the VW after 3 months, saying he wasn't using it. And then instantly regretted it. And has done ever since. It's the one car he's owned that I would gladly pay to buy back at any price. Some digging a few years ago on the registration number revealed it was no more.

I also went through a VW phase but all modern models and mostly spurred on by nostalgia. For the same reasons, I'm heavily spurred into buying my own motorhome. But it won't be a VW as, like many others here, they're just too small for us as a family to camp in.

But each time I see one, I smile and look to see if it's a 'P' plate, in orange and white with the Devon roof.

 

[oldun]

toured Cornwall around 20 years ago in one.

a 1.6 lhd version with a westfalia conversion.

never, i repeat, NEVER will i venture inside one again.

17/18 mpg and all three motorway lanes needed in cross winds.
van swings right, steer left, eventually bridge communicates with bow thrusters and it swings left...oh dear...too much, do it all again the other way round and so on.

amazing how much of a car free gap behind you you can create doing that

You should try the new variety - it is quite fast, gas a good ride and handles very well. Not like your run of the mill motorhome which has a suspension developed from a tractor!!!!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}