Buying a caravan in Germany or france questions

scully74

We're thinking of buying a caravan, has anyone experience of buying in other countries, like germany or france....maybe the North too, thanks

stapeler

scully74 wrote: »

We're thinking of buying a caravan, has anyone experience of buying in other countries, like germany or france....maybe the North too, thanks

Banbridge is the place to go up North apparently, good choice on view.
Buying in Europe typically the caravan door is opposite to what's here, also European models tend not to have an oven.
There's a CRiS registration in operation since 1992in the UK which helps combat theft, not sure if there's an equivelent across Europe.
That's the extent of my knowledge of caravans.

niloc1951

A friend of mine bought a top of the range Hymer caravan, only to find out that all the 12 volt stuff works off a transformer, so no EHU = no 12 volt stuff. The battery on board is only for the motor mover

Also, continental caravans seem only to have the minimum of cooking facilities (two burner hob, no grill, no oven), I suppose it reflects the different type of use, mostly outdoor living there in the nice hot sunny weather as opposed to our mostly indoor living as we shelter for wind and rain.:(

db

With buying on the continent there is also the cost of the ferry to get back. A top spec caravan is maybe half the cost of an equivalent motorhome so even if you saved a lot on the cost of the caravan, your cost of getting back would be a much higher % than if you bought a M/H.

T650

You can check here for prices and equipment

http://www.caraworld.de/

You want Wohnwagen in the search

Betsy Og

Bought in England in February, very happy with the caravan and good in terms of pricing. You can either view the ferry as a dead cost, or make a mini-break out of it which is what we did.

Simpler than importing a car (did that from the North last time) as no VRT and all the paperwork hassle. The CRIS system seems to work and its simple to navigate.

Doom

Betsy Og wrote: »

Bought in England in February, very happy with the caravan and good in terms of pricing. You can either view the ferry as a dead cost, or make a mini-break out of it which is what we did.

Simpler than importing a car (did that from the North last time) as no VRT and all the paperwork hassle. The CRIS system seems to work and its simple to navigate.

Was it a private purchase or through a site, can you recommend some thanks.

Betsy Og

caravanfinder.co.uk is a good site, a very handy feature is that you can search by layout, so say if you want a fixed bed you can filter your search for those.

I bought from a dealer, and got an engineer to go through it and report before I went over. Might have cost £150ish but cheaper than a wasted trip or buying something with a major fault. Think there's a website of chartered engineers or assessors, you put in the postcode and it tells you who is nearby BUT many dont want to know about caravans so you might be on your 6th call before someone agrees.