What Did You Pay For Your First Caravan

[ivan leslie]

just dug out the invoice for my first caravan - dated 2nd september 1972 from Midland Counties Caravans Ltd, Nottingham - a new Eccles Topaz 4, price ex works £522. 00 plus £10 delivery charge from factory. Bought a few necessities, Elsan toilet and fluid, extension lead,steps, 2 bottles Calor gas, hose and no. plate etc which brought the total bill to £570. 78.

 

kept it for nearly 6 years and exchanged for an Ace Award 15/4 from Spondon Caravan Centre near Derby in May 1978, which cost £2710. they gave me a p/e price of £850 for the Topaz, so I had to pay out £1860.

 

Just think - buy a van, keep it 6 years and get a p/e of £328 (60%) more than you paid for it!! those were they days both dealers went out of business a long time ago.

 

what did you pay for your first van??

[RogerL]

October 1984 - bought 1984 model demonstrator Ace Globetrotter, listed at £3,300 for £2,970 from Meriden Caravans - sold privately in 2001 for £400 including Isabella Ambassador full awning and Weekender porch.

[Martin63]

Paid £1000 for a 2nd hand ABI Monza 1000T from Michael Jordan Caravans, then in Rainham in Kent. Swapped it at the same Dealership for a brand new Compass Echo 360/2 with hot water, shower etc, three years later.

 

Got the Compass in the end of year sale for £2500, with £850 p/x for the Monza - 3yrs of holidays for £150!

 

My Sisters first 'van was a 10 year old Eccles Elan 14, bought for £500 in a private deal. She kept that for 10 years herself and we sold that privately for £300 18 months ago. ...........

[rascal]

Paid £1000 for a 2nd hand ABI Monza 1000T from Michael Jordan Caravans, then in Rainham in Kent. Swapped it at the same Dealership for a brand new Compass Echo 360/2 with hot water, shower etc, three years later.

 

Got the Compass in the end of year sale for £2500, with £850 p/x for the Monza - 3yrs of holidays for £150!

 

My Sisters first 'van was a 10 year old Eccles Elan 14, bought for £500 in a private deal. She kept that for 10 years herself and we sold that privately for £300 18 months ago. ...........

 

 

. .you've all been done! my nice brand new caravan was a sprite cadet priced at £247 in 1970, and I could'nt afford it then, and I had a company car and they paid the petrol and I still could'nt really afford it! But lovely memories of one double bed, one bunk stretcher thing for the lad, and the baby in her basket on the sink, all in the space of 10feet 4 inches.

[MauriceH]

£ 126 -- for a Sprite Cadet -early 60's though - wonderfull 8 cwt -- towed with a mini-clubman. .

 

 

Edited March 8, 2009 by MauriceH

[syborg]

my old 1984 5 berth esprite 16 cost me £900 notes, bought it early 2008.

price was a bit steep buts its in well good nick,

apart from a touch of damp.

i wont sell it till it gets weighed in,lol

 

peace

 

syborg

[angus]

Paid £650. 00 for an Eccles Amethyst (doubt I`ve spelt that right, I`ve downed several bottles of `Bishops Finger`) in 1987 which had a square front on it and was absolutely lethal to tow and leaked like a sieve.

We had three holidays in it, stripped out essentials like the aquaroll, waste container, aerial, porta potti etc, then got shut at £850. 00 at the end of the season.

Next van was a stunning little 4-berth Marden that I bought for £750. 00, kept for three years and then sold for £1500. 00.

 

Up to buying a new van 2 years ago (why??) I had lost £1450 in depreciation in exactly 20 years. I`ve since lost double that in 2!

[Guest madrat]

October 1984 - bought 1984 model demonstrator Ace Globetrotter, listed at £3,300 for £2,970 from Meriden Caravans - sold privately in 2001 for £400 including Isabella Ambassador full awning and Weekender porch.

 

We got our second van from them

 

Our first van was £995 in 2000. It was a 88 Abi Award Dawnstar. It came from Northan Farms in Brean. We traded it in for a 93 Abi Marauder at Meriden Caravans and got £1000 for it 2 years later Great van wish we had not swapped it for the Marauder as that was terrible.

[JanB]

We paid DM500 in 1974 for a 2nd hand 4 berth, 10 ft Cavalier complete with a fridge!!! Think the exchange rate then was about DM5 to the £. Even came complete with a an old Salou awning. Traded it in the next year and got DM1000 off the price of a brand new ABI Monza (they used to export a lot of caravans to Germany in those days). The Monza had the luxury of a cold water tap and a small gas fire (not flued to the outside in those days).

 

Both vans had a hammock style upper berth for the 4th bed.

[daisymaisy]

After packing our tent away at the end of a very wet and muddy weekend up in Fife we decided we needed a little bit of luxoury, so we looked through the local ads and paid £350 for our little 2 berth abi marauder in November 2004 we sold it november 2007 for £250 and the same day we bought our cosalt safari for £650

[steelerannie]

We bought a Fairholme Fulmar (can't remember the year) privately for £1500 in 1985. Included was awning, aquaroll, waste etc. , virtually everything except pots and pans as the couple weren't touring any more. Used it for 3 years then sold it for £1750, got £150 for the awning, kept the aquarolls and PX for an ABI Maurader 1988 - our first brand new van. Sold this in 2001 for £2000.

 

Ann

[Netty]

Our first caravan was a lunar metiorite (about 1980 ish) and cost us £50. It was a lovely van - very basic but great to learn on. We sold it a few years later for £450!!! Just shows what you can do when you look after your caravan.

[Guest madrat]

It's such a shame Abi are no more. I think everyone had an Abi at some point. They were great vans (most of them)

[Martin63]

It's such a shame Abi are no more. I think everyone had an Abi at some point. They were great vans (most of them)

 

Totally agree. They were well built, well finished and I loved my Monza to bits.

[ian dunning]

hi,

We bought a 1977 Piper 1200 in 1989 for £700, towed behind a Foerd Escort 1400,

Regards,

Ian.

[Guest madrat]

Totally agree. They were well built, well finished and I loved my Monza to bits.

 

Our Award was lovely, so Was the Marauder apart from the nose weight. and the Jubilee with end bathroom was wonderfully. We miss the front cuby holes that you could shove all the junk in

[JanB]

Totally agree. They were well built, well finished and I loved my Monza to bits.

 

 

So did we - caravanned all year in it, even used it when skiing in the alps - must have been much hardier in those days!!! Those were the days when you never thought of weights AND never had to book. Just had more muscles in one leg than the other from using the water "pump" .

[Martin63]

So did we - caravanned all year in it, even used it when skiing in the alps - must have been much hardier in those days!!! Those were the days when you never thought of weights AND never had to book. Just had more muscles in one leg than the other from using the water "pump" .

 

Same here, Jan. Out in all weathers and to all parts of the country. My Dad put a small heater in it for me and I did have a small 1 cubic ft fridge in it. My Nan made all new curtains for it, in the brightest Orange I've ever seen.

 

And I remember the water pump. ..........

 

Happy days!

[Guest madrat]

Ours weren't like that. They all had electric pumps, heaters and showers. but there were and still are used all year round. Never understand people buying a van and only using it a few times a year ???

[BertieBassett]

5 year old Ace Globetrotter for £200 in 79, kept it for 6months and bought a Bedford CF Dormobile.

Jeff

[MauriceH]

We went from a "hand pump" at the sink

 

-- to a modern innervation

-- the "black domed pad" on the floor

-- so you could stand at the sink and use both hands whist you jigged up and down on the Black Pad [the water pump] which was bolted to the underside of the van. .

 

The top bunk bed was two poles with a canvas between them

-- the kid on the bottom just loved kicking the one on the top when in bed!!!

 

Great times. .

 

Maurice

[ivan leslie]

We went from a "hand pump" at the sink

 

-- to a modern innervation

-- the "black domed pad" on the floor

-- so you could stand at the sink and use both hands whist you jigged up and down on the Black Pad [the water pump] which was bolted to the underside of the van. .

 

The top bunk bed was two poles with a canvas between them

-- the kid on the bottom just loved kicking the one on the top when in bed!!!

 

Great times. .

 

Maurice

 

we had similar top bunk bed - older daughter on bottom did exactly as you describe, but younger one got her own back by wetting the bed occasionally - with a not too closely woven canvas, you can guess the result oh happy times.

[ivan leslie]

Our Award was lovely, so Was the Marauder apart from the nose weight. and the Jubilee with end bathroom was wonderfully. We miss the front cuby holes that you could shove all the junk in

the Award we bought in 1978 was, i believe, one of the first "mass production" vans with double glazed windows. How proud we were

[peachy66]

Had a alpine sprite 1981 it cost me £250 private sale sold it 2 yrs ago on ebay for £550

[RoyH]

Bought my first new one from Gaily Caravans in Meriden near Coventry in 1971. An Elddis Tornado for £480.

 

I lent it a couple of times to a relative who originally came from Consett in Co Durham and it was when he saw the name on the front in his driving mirror that we realised Elddis were originally made by the son of a Haulage Guy called Siddle C Cook whose work dried up when the steel industry closed (Elddis is Siddle backwards).