Worth buying a caravan?

themaccas

Hi thanks again for all the excellent advice there is certainly a lot for them to think about. They are in their early 60's and now I am wondering if it is going to be abit too much for them FIL (actually they are OH's parents) has had a serious lung condition and MIL has artheritis. Hmmm, I am going to have a look at some new and used ones at the end of the week with them but the thought of them hiring one for a week is an excellent idea, do caravan dealers do this?
The reality is that it may well not be suitable for them after all.

jordylass

Our local caravan shop hires by the week or weekend, (last years models) so I'm sure you'd find one offering this near to you.

codger

Sarah's post at #6 is much appreciated because it mirrors what we found when considering whether or not to purchase a caravan.

Statics of around 30ft are spacious and comfortable and seemed ideal to us for weekends away. Then we looked at the often extortionate site charges involved and realised a six-bed country mansion pays the same in Council Tax per year as a static caravan incurs at so many UK sites.

It was also apparent that site occupancy restrictions -- 9-month 'years', for example -- made the financial impact even worse. . . as well as the "commission charge" levied by many site owners on the sale of a "property" that wasn't even theirs.

A secondhand static seemed to be a good buy, until it was made clear that the site owner regarded a static's "life" as 15 years. . . after which the thing could be chucked off the site.

So in one case (in 2006) we looked at an immaculate 1998 Willerby Granada 30ft static which was being sold "on behalf" of the owner. The price sought was £11,000. The static had a further seven years' life left. The "site year" was 9 months. The site charge was £2,300 pa and would rise by at least 3% every year.

So in seven years' usage the total cost would be around £30,000, allowing for additional site charges, maintenance, and inflation.

Seven years would only equate to a maximum of 63 months' site access, so the equivalent monthly cost was £476 per month. Realistically, we couldn't occupy the thing for more than 4 months in total -- say, 120 days per year for seven years, which is actually quite a lot -- so the correct equation was £30,000 divided by 28 months: £1,072 per "user month."

Over £1,000 for every month's use of a caravan? £4,000 a year??

We gave up on the static idea and looked at tourers instead. Then realised that we're really not up to towing a 30ft van and couldn't live with the smaller mobile vans. So that was the end of our explorations in 2005/2006.

Instead, we now holiday at two UK sites (both of which are predominantly given over to park homes, but have a few rental statics tucked away) and pay £250 for a week in one site in Spring and £250 for a week at the other site in September / October.

That's £500 gone. We also have a week in Spain in a rented private villa with pool at a cost of £450 villa rental and £350 flights -- that's £800. And a fortnight in The Canary Islands in another rented private villa with pool at £400 per week plus £400 flights, that's £1,200.

Total then for 2 x UK holidays, 1 x Andalucian holiday week and 1 x Canary Islands holiday fortnight: £2,500 per annum. Next year we'll be turning the Canary Islands holiday into a month's stay, so the price will £2,000, taking the overall expenditure to £3,200 for a total of 7 weeks' holidays here and abroad for two people, or £1,600 per person.

Leaving a notional £800 out of the four grand we might've spent on financing a single static on a single and, inevitably, often rain-drenched holiday caravan site in the UK.

Obviously, not everyone likes to fly, or be bothered with the hassle. Not everyone is bothered about an overseas holiday in the sun. Many thousands of people are obviously happy with touring caravans smaller than a 30ft static and enjoy being part of a community which presumably brings longstanding friendships, the value of which can never be measured in monetary terms.

And for many, the prospect of having a "holiday home" in the UK that's always (well, more or less) accessible is worth paying out over £75 a week, every week of the year, including the 12 weeks or more when they're actually banned from using it.

choccyface2006

A fantastic post Codger, yes my parents caravan will have to go offsite when it reaches a certain age (10 I think) and the park is closed for 3 months not 2 making it even more expensive!

Maybe if they looked it it the same way as you had it would have put them off, but they are happy for the time being and my mum has her sights on a bigger & better static in the not so distant future!

Oh well, looks like we might get a few cheap holidays for the next few years, as well as out fortnight in the sun overseas. :beer:

Sarah x

jaymac_2

lots of help and information on this site http://www.touringandtenting.com/

codger

Hi Sarah & everyone:

Re caravans. 'S funny, the way we encountered a lot of hostility to them when raising the subject with friends. Yet we're not hostile to them in any way, and I hope my post wasn't misunderstood by anyone -- there are things that cannot be valued in purely monetary terms, and caravans (static or mobile) offer convenience, pride of ownership, a hobby, and an opportunity to make many new friends. That has to be worth a heck of a lot.

By contrast, our 'solution' involves hassle of a kind we sometimes think no-one in their right minds would willingly undergo: crowded planes, delayed flights, achingly long check-in queues. We can well understand many who might feel £4,000 a year not to have to put up with all that, and have a holiday home as well, is money well spent.

If so many site owners were not so blatantly greedy (in the small print) and so blatantly misleading (in the large print) we may have been tempted by a static. And if we were younger and fitter. . . maybe even a mobile.

But on the upside, we have made lots of new friends at both the UK sites we now visit, as well as amongst the Spanish community of the Andalucian village and the Canarians in the other village. In its way, that's priceless, too -- as, thankfully, is the sunshine!

susan1

jordylass wrote: »

The motor movers are great for getting the van into position and I think you can press a button on some vans for the legs to go down, but to put an awning up is a fair amount of work for me and my OH and I'm in my 40's, it's not something I'd want to start doing at 60 or 70.
Until they've tried touring they aren't going to know if one trip is enough or if it's soemthing they love and will do again.
For not much more than the cost of fitting a towbar some caravan shops hire out caravans by the week. If they are sure they want to buy new this would give them an opportunity to test the water.

hey, my husband and i are 63 and 65 and still manage to put our awning up in 30mins or less:huh:

choccyface2006

Codger - I wasn't getting at you! I think you missunderstood me.

I look at things very similar to you, breaking the cost down so that it seems more relevent and in context, exactly the way you have. I was just saying that I'm glad my parents haven't in some ways because they seem happy with their deal and we get cheap weekends away!

I would rather have the hassle of busy holidays too and the experiance of discovering new places!

Sarah x

codger

Yikes Sarah!

My fault: my clumsy post wasn't directed at you or anyone else -- 'twas Mrs Codger's prompting because she thought I might inadvertently have given the impression we were "anti-caravan" when we're not, er, anti-anything: everybody's different and everybody makes their own choices according to preference and circumstance.

It was just that we were surprised, how so many otherwise rational friends we happened to mention the subject to, got so heated about caravans, one story after another about being stuck-behind-this-blasted-caravan-for-mile-after-mile etc etc. Yes, well, we often get stuck for mile after mile behind a truck, or a tractor, it's just something that happens, hardly worth bursting a blood vessel over.

I think you've got the best of all situations, by the way: free use of the family's van and plenty of other opportunities to see the world as well!

In view of which, I'm now toying with the notion of hinting to mother-in-law that a holiday static would be a Good Idea, except. . . naw, much too mercenary!