Done deal

The van, a Ford Transit Carioca 200 CI, was just over 6 metres in length, plus a bike rack. Two boxes ticked, bike rack and, not too long.
I was wary of driving one these things as it was, without it being 7 or 8 metres long. 

Carioca? Never heard of it...

It had a fixed bed. Hang on, we'd dismissed every fixed bed van that we'd looked at, out of hand because too much floor space was taken up by the bed....Ok, moving on. The cupboard doors were a high gloss finish, a finish that would never been seen in our kitchen at home because, 'old people had them'. 

In the van though, they worked really well. The main thing for me was that it was a 2012 with only 7500 miles on the clock, and a Ford to boot. Less chance of things going wrong at this age and, surely, worth a premium.

Interior of the Carioca ci 200

We thanked our helper and disappeared to the pub to have a chat about it. Nothing else had come close that we'd seen. Nothing under 45k anyway! We made our decision and were back within the hour. 

Fixed bed eh? OK, I'll go with that...

*******************

We negotiated the fitting of a Gaslow system,

full service, and new MOT into the price and the deal was done. The MOT was good until March but we already knew that we had to come back to the UK when the MOT was due and the UK in March was definitely not part of our plans. 

Gaslow, a god-send!

Now we wouldn't have to come back until September unless we wanted to avoid the crazy high season

We left a deposit and were told that the van would be 'ready' the following week.

That gave us one week to prepare for our maiden voyage, as it were. We also had to sell both cars, keeping one of them to make the trip back, and collect the van. It was going to be manic, to say the least!

Thank god for places like 'We buy any car'. You won't get the same amount of money as you might in a private sale but, it is a great solution when you want to sell your car at the last minute. The service we used is based in Sharston and, it couldn't have been easier! They gave us a better quote than We buy any car and, the process was as easy as could be. We were in and out in fifteen minutes with the promise of a bank transfer by the end of the day. They were as good as their word.

Now all we had to do was keep hold of my car until the following week when we had been to collect the van.... 

Picking the van

We ended up with our Carioca ci 200 quite by chance and, I suspect like many others, because it just felt, and perhaps more importantly, smelled, right when we stepped inside. We had seen a Starblazer on the web in Somerset that looked like it might fit the bill but, we wanted to see one closer to home rather than drive all that way from Manchester, only to be disappointed. 

Example of the Autotrail Starblazer

We spotted another about an hour away in Wem and had a drive out to have a look.

It was a 2007 and the asking price was close to 29k. We were thoroughly disappointed. It was shabby, at best, and had a lingering odour. Bits were broken here and there and, it had been well 'used' by the previous owners. The drivers seat felt a bit narrow for my liking and nothing looked as spacious as it did in the photos, except for the 'garage' which I was particularly keen on. No, this wasn't for us.

We looked around 4 other vehicles with a very patient gent who was showing us around with no apparent sales pressure at all. We gave up. They all fell short and I couldn't help but feel that none of them offered value for money.

I now know that, that's how it is. Motorhomes are very expensive and, after a certain point from new, they hold a substantial portion of their price, very well indeed.

******************

We were in the car park and got Harry out so he could get some fresh air, stretch his legs and, urinate 40 times in 40 places, just because.

That's where the more expensive vehicles were parked. We hadn't even stopped to look on our way in. Now Sue was peering in through the window of the locked van. At that moment, our helpful salesman passed with two loaded carrier bags, on his way back to the office. 'Do you want to have a look inside?' he offered

helpfully. 'No no, thanks anyway'. I shot back, 'We're just letting the dog stretch his legs, we've taken enough of your time'.

'It's fine, no trouble, I'll just get the keys'. I shot Sue a 'look', but she just smiled and said, 'What can it hurt?' He arrived back with the keys and we stepped inside, Sue first. 'Ohh, I like this!' I followed behind and could see why. It was pristine and, smelled brand new. We were in trouble now....