New v used. Committed but confused

I have a heart made of stone, no shiny gizmos or smooth sales patter will sway me😬

Buy new its not the same having a second hand van too many personal areas that other people have used. Thats my personal choice others may disagree id rather take the hit on the depreciation . money isn't everything.

its perfectly possible to buy a used van that hasnt been 'used'...

folk buy lovely vans and then 'couldnt possibly' use the toilet, 'always use' the site showers and 'never' cook in the kitchen....

one could even buy a this season run out model (rather than next seasons) and save a stack when the 'changes' are likely to be limited to  'new upholstery colours'.

...and you dont have to wait...

Agreed. Our caravan was around 3 years old when we bought it but it was obvious it had hardly ever been used, it still had that new caravan smell. We bought a high end caravan for an also-ran price.

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One wonders if the "must have new" mindset applies to houses as well or do you have the bathroom ripped out every time before you move in?

Works the other way with us. We are deeply suspicious of certain new aspects of life, particularly new houses, new caravans, to a certain extent new cars. New houses seem to be thrown up in any old place, and using substandard materials and couldn’t care less builders. Build on a flood plain? 😱 Builders having to come back to replace ceilings after 6 months? ( SILs new house😱) And as for new caravans........

New cars seem a great deal better nowadays, but then the manufacturers in this country learned the hard way. We love folks who buy new, then decide it’s not what they want. They take the hit, we benefit from a much lower price! 😁

Goodness me it’s been busy in here while I’ve been taking in the phenomenon that is the interior of a Hobby caravan, of the ones that I could legally tow without buying a truck or transit van I’m so so disappointed by the very small payload.

The chart is coming along nicely three caravans have been eliminated. I have drilled down into the customer satisfaction surveys and I’m appalled that such a high percentage of brand new caravans have problems and although the Buccaneer does score lower than some it’s not by enough to have put us off so the cruiser is still in the running.

 

There are other makes of caravan that have a very similar layout, and getting an unused pre-owned one is not impossible.  My current caravan was ordered before one of it's first owners took seriously ill, and the caravan sat in storage for three years completely unused, just taken for an annual service.

I would change to a new(er) model now, but for there not being an L-shaped lounge model available, and our dislike of the fold-up transverse bed. There are two 2020 models that suit our needs, so we will wait two years and see what is availabe then pre-owned.

So even more options available to you!

Which is why I have a white board in my kitchen with a very complicated chart and equally complex scoring system with fifteen caravans on it. Like all good projects it has a name and for fun any caravan eliminated from the process gets sent to Top Gear.