One Man's View of the Market

"However, the motorhome market did not and it grew by 3 percent"

much to the consternation of those on the frontline

DaveT

Some interesting points. It could be that we have reached, or are rapidly approaching a cross roads with regards to caravans as there seem to be some difficult decisions ahead for caravan owners. For those happy to soldier on with existing cars then the problem is not so immediate. However for anyone in a position to be able to afford a new car they could well have reached that cross road and are perhaps looking at the idea of a motorhome. Back when we decided to change from a caravan to a motorhome (2013) the thought processes included looking at the price of a new car, then probably £25/30000, we had recently changed the caravan which cost us about £15000. So taking both those sums into consideration we decided that buying a motorhome for £45000 wasn't as outlandish as it first seemed. OK we would have to invest in a smaller car for home use and I am not sure whether that should also be added into the equation but in the end we got a good deal on our old 4X4 so the extra outlay was minimal. I should also add that changing to a motorhome wasn't done on a whim, it had been on the back boiler for some time.

Moving forward 11 years that caravan would now cost £25000 and a car £30/40000 and the equivalent motorhome probably £75/80000. So apart from the eye watering sums, has the ratio changed? Probably not. Now where that extra money comes from, of course will depend on individual circumstances and it is just impossible to make a judgement who can or cannot afford the sums involved or indeed willing to afford those sums.

David

Of course it all depends on the individual circumstances David,  how old the car and caravan are but at present the ratio you mention isn't that far out for ourselves plus we already have a second small runaround. Other factors do come into play such as health, commitments at home and/or money.

i think DaveT is mostly on the mark with his comments. Peedee's facts about sales bears out what we have been told by dealers we have made enquiries to.

I think what I am perhaps trying to point out is that there is a tendency to look at the headline price of a motorhome be it new or secondhand. On its own it can seem eye wateringly expensive without comparing the relative costs of a towcar and caravan. Changing from a caravan to a motorhome does have its risks because there is always the possibility that the change is too great to get used to. Are there any perfect solutions in life, probably not! Maybe in future the hobby will split not so much between caravan and motorhome but between motorhome and static accommodation which I know a few on this group is a route some have gone down. In my later years that does have some attraction to me but the question has always been where!

David

The price of new motorhomes & campervans has certainly outstripped wages growth, my van has gone from £60k less than three years ago to £80k now.  I haven't had a 33% pay rise in less than three years.  But new funding methods seem to keep coming along. As most ordinary working folk are possibly unlikely to be able to save up for such a discretionary purchase as a motorhome it used to be the only people I spoke to in work who had bought one had funded it from an inheritance.  Then PCP deals came along. Then pension lump sum early release and now all the adverts on TV seem to be for equity release. I think I've even seen one that specifically mentions buying a motorhome.  For the many many people who are sitting in a couple of hundred grand or more of equity in a house, £90k for a motorhome is peanuts if you are happy to spend a bit of your kids inheritance.........

We bought our current van just before the end of the first lock down in 2020. 

It had been sat at the dealers since December 2019 so 6 mths, of course very little trade had been going on and the dealers premises were full. We got a very good deal buying without a trade in. 

We were at the dealers recently looking around and were offered 10k more than what we paid for it. Certain makes and models are still very hard to come by so this drives the price ever higher. A new van same make and model is over 80k and a year or more waiting list. I think we fell lucky. 

Not so obvious here but abroad the market for those mega big and expensive vans is still strong. I've never seen so many monsters as we saw last autumn. Off course many of them have become home to lots of folk. Rents and house prices have gone through the roof not just here but overseas.

I think we will see a drop in the prices in the next few years as the market levels out and parts become more available or is that just wishful thinking. 

Edit: the dealer I mentioned is not one that reduces prices often but when we were there last time they had quite a few lovely new MHs with good discounts. Was sorely tempted by one but managed to resist. The cost of road tax on a new MH for the first year is eye-watering I believe. 

I subscribe to MMM (Motorhome Monthly Magazine) and I have just been thumbing through the latest edition. BTW I do recommend this magazine to anyone thinking of changing to a motorhome as a couple of editions will equip you with a lot of information about the world of motorhoming, not so much doing it but all the practicalities of owning one. Anyway I was reading a comment about the latest Swift Camper Van, which I quote, is competitively priced at £71000, £1750 extra if you would like the automatic gearbox and why wouldn't you? In the same issue they had a series of reports on the sort of large motorhomes that TG mentioned in her post. These are what are called A Class motorhomes where they build everything on the base chassis, so unlike a coach built they don't use the manufacturers cab but tend to create a lounge/driving area in that space to give more room. It was a bit like looking at House & Garden Magazine! The most expensive was around £400,000 which made the Niesmann+Bischoff good value at around £200,000

David

I’m following this thread with interest as we have been going through this very same thought process. I can relate to many of the comments on here as I’m at or nearing the crossroads that DK mentions.

my caravan is 7 years old this year and good for a few more years yet. My car is 10 years old and on 64000 miles. The van is a large twin axle and therefore needs a large diesel tow car to comfortably pull it, think disco4 3 litre v6.we have caravanned for 40years this year in uk and near continent. No desire for a tiny light van, as we like being comfortable on holiday. Being recently retired and now on a fixed income we have to get the decision right.

Options are continually going around my head including all those mentioned above. But there’s more to add into the equation  :-

if I keep my large diesel how much will I be penalised by increased car tax, fuel duty, extortionate car insurance hikes, I’ve even heard mention recently of different parking charges for diesel, petrol and electric cars - all designed to drive us towards electric/ hybrid vehicles ( pun intended)

If I change to a Motorhome and a small hybrid/electric runaround I go from three vehicles to two with the consequent savings but Motorhome prices are sky high

After spending £75/80,000 on a Motorhome do I want to bounce it down our potholed roads and onto a wet often muddy field? I can take a lot of holidays overseas for £75,000.

like a previous poster we are now of an age where we want to and can travel to see the world whilst enjoying warmer climes but we also still enjoy combining this with using our van in the summer/ autumn. If I’m therefore going to use the Motorhome for say 6 weeks a year, I’ve got £80,000 sitting around for 48/weeks deteriorating. So another option to consider is just renting one as needed. Doing that saves me insurance, servicing and maintenance and storage not to mention the upgrades I’d be likely to spend  money on if I owned one. Keeping the £80k in the bank earns me £4k pa to go towards the rentals. To this end we’ve hired a Motorhome (Adria matrix) in Scotland for 3 weeks beginning of May to see if we enjoy it as much as the caravan.

I think the writings on the wall for cars suitable to tow the vans that most uk owners have. The club know this which is why they are encouraging glamping pods, seasonal pitches, static airstreams (like at Brighton)

I remain undecided! 

Hi Dunton, I liked your thoughtful post - though the decision not to spend big money on amotorhome was tor us the easiest decision we ever made,

We wanted to start to see the world and felt that the lifetime we had been confined to campsites was long enough - and  however much this Club spent on its site at Cayton  Bay our sights were on the Taj Mahal, the west coast Thai islands,  the terraced rice fields in Bali, the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Luang Prabang in Laos, and loads more. And a motorhome simply wouldn’t get us there. Not even to the Scilly Isles which we love.  Decision made. 

And even when we toured  Oz and NZ we found it could be done more comfortably in motels, hostels and B&Bs than in a rented motorhome - at similar cost. For us a motorhome would have simply restricted our ambitions and tied us down.

Good wishes. Enjoy your planning.

Dunton10

I hope you enjoy your motorhome hire experience. It should at least give you an insight into whether you would get on with a motorhome. Having said that to get the best value out of a motorhome you do need to use it fairly regularly. Maybe you have hit on something by looking are hiring, especially if your usage would only be 3/4 weeks of the year. I appreciate that hiring a motorhome is expensive but if you own a motorhome you have greater costs than a caravan if it sits in storage for most of the year. Insurance, servicing, road tax, storage could easily approach £2000 a year and that doesn't include depreciation. So if your use of a motorhome is restricted in any one year, there might not be a lot in it if you hire rather than buy? Hope you let us know how you get on.

David