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Car_54

EssexExile said:

Car_54 said:

The MOTs show the same mileage. Is that correct, or a typo?

If the former, I'd be concerned that it hadn't truned a wheel n a year.

Both tests were on the same day. I assume it failed, was repaired and passed.

Fair point!

daveyjp

Unless someone has recently done a rebuild a 25 year old vehicle is going to be a project.

Baldytyke88

kevins12 said:

Hi,

Im looking at buying my first ever Romahome and I'm just a little worried about the previous MOT's and whether my concerns are justified. I understand its 25 years old now and isn't going to be perfect but Corrosion has been an advisory for a couple of years now.

I was looking for a bit of advice on whether this MOT is fixable or whether to give it a miss. He was selling it for £4,500 and has come down to £3,000.

You would expect to pay £3k for any van with an MOT, so if you can use it for 1/2 years thats great.

Goudy

You concerns are justified, it's a 25 year old "van".

You need to expect the worse and inspect it knowing it's probably/possibly full of rust that's likely covered up with plastic panels.
(Romahome were really a plastic company based on the IOW)

Back then manufacturers didn't exactly make and paint vans very well and most manufacturers vans crumbled with rust really quickly.

Romahomes started copying someone else's camper based on Japanese micro trucks, these just weren't rust proofed for our climate and quickly dissolved.
I doubt it's one of those, but if it is it might be a collectors piece these days as they didn't convert many and you can guess not many survive.

After that Romahome made the Duos which were based on the Citroen C15 and later the Citroen Berlingo.
The Berlingos were better built, but only just though.

The C15's were notoriously bad. Made from poor, ultra thin steel with virtually no rust protection. They rusted everywhere, there's not a panel on them that isn't noted to rust.
Even the French with their (at the time) relaxed attitude to vehicle quality didn't make them, most were made in Spain after the workforce had an extended "siesta" in a bar somewhere.

Later the made bigger vans based on the Citroen Relay, another notorious ruster but I seem to think they only made them from 2003, so I suspect the one you are looking at may be a Duo.

Most of these vehicles were chopped about to fit the plastic "camper" on the back which doesn't help with rust either.
Where water would normally drain down channels in and behind panels, these got cut which tended to send water that got trapped behind the plastics or take other routes that weren't made to take it, so trapped more water.

Also the protected metal, if it did have any protection to start with got butchered and exposed.

It appears cheap enough, but I'd want it on a ramp first so I could inspect it underneath.
Also, if it smells badly of damp inside, you can be certain it's also rusting inside out as well as outside in.

kevins12

Thanks for your comments, I have been to see it. . . and oh my goodness!!. . . it was a wreck, nothing like what was described on Facebook Marketplace. . . its a complete non runner!