Motorhome Dealer Delivery Times

Ausgold

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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
 
In my experience it is normal for a large dealer to take a couple of weeks to prepare the vehicle, but knowing your circumstances they should be able to offer a shorter time.
As far as the time of year affecting value, they would know better than anyone but I think condition is a more important factor when re selling.
 
Yes, 3 weeks sounds the norm in my experience too. You can buy privately however you would have no recourse if anything went wrong whereas the dealer would give you at least 3 months warranty.

As mentioned above have the re-sell conversation with the dealer you buy from however they will still take a decent chunk off the price they sell to you at in the first place anyway, regardless of the time of year. If you go down this route then this becomes the equivalent cost compared to renting I guess.

Of course you could sell privately but then you would have that uncertainty at the end of your trip and may end up not selling at all.
 
Yes, 3 weeks sounds the norm in my experience too. You can buy privately however you would have no recourse if anything went wrong whereas the dealer would give you at least 3 months warranty.

As mentioned above have the re-sell conversation with the dealer you buy from however they will still take a decent chunk off the price they sell to you at in the first place anyway, regardless of the time of year. If you go down this route then this becomes the equivalent cost compared to renting I guess.

Of course you could sell privately but then you would have that uncertainty at the end of your trip and may end up not selling at all.
A dealer by law must give 6 mths warrenty on used goods, all in the trades discription act, many will try and bull sh-t you, dont fall for it.
 
Yes, 3 weeks sounds the norm in my experience too. You can buy privately however you would have no recourse if anything went wrong whereas the dealer would give you at least 3 months warranty.

As mentioned above have the re-sell conversation with the dealer you buy from however they will still take a decent chunk off the price they sell to you at in the first place anyway, regardless of the time of year. If you go down this route then this becomes the equivalent cost compared to renting I guess.

Of course you could sell privately but then you would have that uncertainty at the end of your trip and may end up not selling at all.
Hi GMJ,
Thanks for your reply. I've looked at rental costs which over 6 months come to about 24K. I really hope we can buy and sell and not lose that sort of coin in only 6 months. The uncertainty of selling at leaving time does factor into my thinking. Re-selling back to a dealer would hopefully be Plan B or Plan C.
 
On the flip side, we have just bought a 4 year old van from Devon conversions, and we rang on Friday about it, saw it the next day, paid and drive it home straight away. They have a (limited) stock of PVC's ready to go.

Also, Devon would buy it back when you are done with it.

I am sure there are other independent dealers that do the same.
 
If you know someone in the UK that is trustworthy, you could sell the van through Motorhome Depot. Their agent organises everything (advertising, viewings etc). You could be back home while the sale goes through. I sold my last van with Motorhome Depot and was happy with them. You would just need somewhere secure to park it up.
 
A dealer by law must give 6 mths warranty on used goods, all in the trades discription act, many will try and bull sh-t you, dont fall for it.
I have noticed that mostly in the UK people seem to have a fairly high regard for used motor vehicle warranty from dealers. In Australia we generally have a pretty low regard for warranty provided by used car dealers. They do have to provide some warranty law, but getting them to honor it can be very fraught. I've read some much happier posts from UK customers so am hoping that if we buy from a dealer and if we have a problem that ours can be a happy story also.
 
If you know someone in the UK that is trustworthy, you could sell the van through Motorhome Depot. Their agent organises everything (advertising, viewings etc). You could be back home while the sale goes through. I sold my last van with Motorhome Depot and was happy with them. You would just need somewhere secure to park it up.
Hi Maingate,
That' is the sort of good news story we like to hear!! I do have an Australian cousin who has lived in England for about 30 years so that could be an option for us.
Cheers
 
On the flip side, we have just bought a 4 year old van from Devon conversions, and we rang on Friday about it, saw it the next day, paid and drive it home straight away. They have a (limited) stock of PVC's ready to go.

Also, Devon would buy it back when you are done with it.

I am sure there are other independent dealers that do the same.
Thanks Dave,
I'll check them out.
 
Also bare in mind that a dealership will want Around £10k markup on vans of £30k . So if you are buying and selling in 6 months expect that loss.
interestingly a Aussie person I knew had a deal with a dealership where he arranged to buy/sell in six months on a fixed price loss. worth asking about.
 
If it were me I might be tempted to buy private. Sounds like you are looking for a smallish motorhome under 6m and 3500kg. If I am reading the market right its going down on its post pandemic surge and you may get lucky and find a private bargain as people decide its not for them. However be careful as some are totally over valuing what they still think their motorhome is worth but there will be bargains to be had. Lots of Motorhome groups on UK Facebook and they are up for sale every day. I would also not go too expensive. Maybe £20-£25k. That way you cant possibly lose that much when you sell it six months later especially if you get a good private deal. From a dealer you can expect to lose £5k as soon as you drive it away I would think.

Getting one with a dealer warranty is all well and good but its not going to help you or your trip much if you are a thousand miles away from said dealer if you have a problem and then you will have the issue of potentially waiting weeks for them to sort it.
 
Hi GMJ,
Thanks for your reply. I've looked at rental costs which over 6 months come to about 24K. I really hope we can buy and sell and not lose that sort of coin in only 6 months. The uncertainty of selling at leaving time does factor into my thinking. Re-selling back to a dealer would hopefully be Plan B or Plan C.

A few thoughts

1) The rental costs include road tax / insurance / breakdown cover.

2) Have you contacted a rental agency and asked about long term rental?

3) Rental costs will increase if you want to travel outside UK.
 
I'm currently selling a van through Motorhome depot. They tell me the autumn/winter market is flatter this year than it's ever been. It's definitely a seasonal market which makes me think that rental or agreeing a purchase and return deal with a dealer may be the way to go.
 
The bubble has started to burst, I know someone that gave £70 2 years ago and after unsuccessfully selling it privately
Have just today taken £40k from a dealer for a 2018 Autosleeper with only 9000 miles on the clock.
If I were you I would definitely look at buying privately, saving yourself around 10k on dealer prices,
Yes you might get warranty from a dealer, but as already mentioned it won’t be much use to you if you are many hundreds of miles away, the £10k saving could be used anywhere to get any breakdowns fixed.
Have you thought about exporting it back to Australia when you have finished with it, asi believe they fetch more money over there than they do here.
 
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