Hi Everyone,
We are currently doing our due diligence research prior to coming to the UK in March 2025 and buying a used motorhome to tour the UK and some of Europe for 6 months until September 2025.
I had a telephone conversation with a very helpful motorhome salesman at a larger dealership yesterday and he said a couple of things that I didn't know and one that surprised me a bit.
He said that even though they have used vehicles for sale and photographed for the online adverts etc. that the delivery time for any particular used vehicle that they have in stock would still be about 3 weeks. They have stock available, but don't do the MOT, habitation checks, damp checks, interior detailing etc. until you decide to purchase it.
Obviously for a regular UK resident who is getting themselves ready for future travel, 3 weeks isn't that big a time frame for an organized person. While I hadn't expected to be able to walk into a dealership, hand over a briefcase full of pounds and drive away in a few hours, just transferring the dollars and converting them to pounds then paying into bank accounts will take a few days, I hadn't considered it might take as long as 3 weeks.
My question here is does this sound fairly normal from people's buying experiences?
Buying privately if the vehicle has a valid MOT is much faster I assume?
Another bit of news he had for me is that I am possibly going to be buying at the highest price time of the year and trying to resell at the lower price time. I guess we use caravans in Australia all year around and price seasonality is more likely just affected by school holidays/Christmas/Easter, central bank interest rate fluctuations or COVID 19 outbreaks.
Does the time of year make much difference? Do people often sell in Autumn after their summer holidays so they don't have to pay for storage over winter?
Interested to hear your thoughts and experiences.
Cheers
