New to the site, any advice gratefully received

Thanks, how much before?

 

You know the rules - one in , one out ....

Byeeee

 

it was the same at that orgy you had

 

I think you need to stick with your 10k budget. Buy what you can afford. Condition is everything and rust and paint repairs are very very expensive even for what look like small jobs. When buying you should take into account the cost of any work that needs doing and once purchased, you would be paying for the repairs. That 15k van may cost you another 5k to sort out and then would have cost double your budget. That would not make economic sense.

 

a £10k van would take £10k to fix

 

As a guide I paid £18500 for mine. Which had had a nuts n bolts restoration, full new interior and was a show winner. No signs of rust anywhere even the underneath.

 

yea...
petrol isn't 50p a litre now either....

 

how long ago, what conversion, 4 or 2 birth,engine etc ?

 

Admittedly 4 years back now. Was a 2 berth and I added roof bunks and hook up. Standard 1.6 engine.

 

2 birth are generally 1/3 cheaper , I sold my pretty much mint one for £14500 about 3 years ago

 

Is that right? The bunk setup cost me £240 so a good investment!

 

With a pop top roof too , I was very close to fitting a Westy roof to my van but it’s a lot of work and I had another van

 

Sounds like a decent pyramid scheme this. So what you're saying is if I do spend £15k on the van and £5k on the repairs, it'll be worth £40k in a 'few' years?

 

I think the advice is buy the best one you can afford. You did say your budget was 10k which may not be enough to buy a genuine original Westy in good overall condition. As you won't be doing body repairs or paint yourself, we are pointing out that paying someone to do the work will be costly.

If you take your time, the best van for 10k should turn up and hopefully one which you can just enjoy and maintain yourself for a while before it needs bodywork done.

I get my leg pulled over mot history checks but you can do them online using the registration number and the mot tests can and do throw up issues which may be of concern. So check the for sale vans out.

You shouldn't buy a van expecting to make a profit and I wouldn't take any notice of seller's promises that these vans always go up in value.

 

Don't worry, my tongue was placed firmly in my cheek at the suggestion of it being worth more in future. I've taken the approach that whatever we do pay, we'd probably need to spend a minimum of about £1k per year over general running costs, just to keep it at that original value. So spending say £10k on a van with another £5k on work, might then be worth £15k in 5 years if you'd spent a further £5k in that time. So a £20k investment might be worth £15k etc. My biggest worry has been investing say £15k in a van up front, that actually requires £10k of work doing and is only really worth £8k or something.
As for gettinf a genuine Westy, that was the reason for stretching the original budget, as I know that is a different animal altogether from what I'd originally budgeted for. I didn't think it would be feasible for one to be completely honest. I'd seen a lot of £20k plus advertisements for them

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Where do you plan to keep it? Side of the road? Climate controlled storage?

 

That’s unlike you to give something away so cheap