I write this with only 4 days to go until we pick up Major Tom, our new (to us) Autotrail Tracker EKS Motorhome. Major Tom is only 6 years old and has travelled for the small figure of 11,000 miles so he’s virtually brand new!
Needless to say Mary & I are very excited, this new investment is going to change quite a few things that have been embedded in our lifestyle for many years. It’s not an off the cuff decisions either although we find ourselves lumped inn with a post-Covid lockdown statistic with so many others doing the same as us at this time. We’ve been thinking about such a purchase for a long time with our favour swinging between VW Camper and Motorhome and back again many times.
Our good friend, Mark, bought a brand new VW Camper by VanWorx and it’s quite beautiful but Mary, although impressed by it, couldn’t see us and Eddie the dog in such a confined space on a rainy day. The catalyst to the purchase was Jo & Wilf’s sudden announcement that they’d bought a Motorhome and on our next visit to their place we had a whistle stop tour of it. Mary’s comment was that she could see herself in one of these! I was given the green light.
The next week, I spent the day on a friend’s boat, the weather wasn’t perfect so we put the anchor down in a nice bay and sat around chatting and reading, just myself and Simon, the owner of the boat. His wife, Pam, had recently bought a VW Camper too and she loves it and makes god use iOS it taking their 2 daughters away regularly. During that day I surfed the net and found a suitable looking vehicle at a Motorhome dealership about an hours drive from our house, I sent a link to the candidate to Mary and she was also keen. We vowed to go and see it the next day!
The next day was a Thursday and we all jumped in the car and drove to the dealership near Taunton, Somerset Motorhome Centre, where we parked up, put the dog on his lead and stepped out into the display area looking like rabbits in headlights at the huge selection on display.
Zac, the Salesman, came over to greet us and asked if he could help, yes he could I replied, I told him about the Motorhome we saw the previous day and he confirmed that it had been sold that same previous day. He announced that they’d sold over 80 Motorhomes in the 2 weeks since lockdown measures had eased, they were selling like hot cakes, everyone saw them as a way to holiday without flying or visiting hotels.
He offered to show us a few similar models, one more expensive and in better condition (the one we bought) and a couple of others, older and more tired looking. Those two not to our taste.
We negotiated a while, back and forth as you do, and settled on a price that represented a saving from advertised price for us and, most probably, a decent profit for him. We paid a deposit and arranged to come back 5 weeks later to collect our new baby. That date hasn’t changed and in 4 days time it arrives.
Since making the purchase, we’ve paid the balance (obviously), bought a few items that we know we will be needing, joined the Caravan and Motorhome Club, added the vehicle to our RAC recovery package and insured us both to drive it anywhere in UK or mainland Europe for the next year. We’ve also booked our maiden trip to a campsite on the edge of Dartmoor, the area we know, the site we don’t but we’re meeting some friends there for the weekend and it’s sure to be fun!
Plenty of jobs to do, things to buy, space to be filled but all of it is going to be a Labour of love for us and we look forward to many trips away over the coming years, I’ll be working on the move too!