Bricking it is great! (Volkswagen)

Member Name: Nolly

Product:	Volkswagen
Date:	02/08/04 (5202 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: quirky, unconventional, cosy

Disadvantages: not fast, in fact quite slow

I am putting this review here as it takes an age to get an item posted up...

We?ve been and gone and got us an addition to the family. No, we didn?t suddenly find that Dearest was in the family way, we decided to add another vehicle to the family fleet. Now I must say from the outset that we don?t choose what could be described as conventional vehicles?

After having taken the plunge last year and buying a tent, we decided as a family to take the concept one step further and buy a motor home. Copious amounts of research in various journals meant that we knew that some 10 year-old vehicles could still cost seven or eight thousand pounds. Brand new vehicles cost over twenty thousand pounds, which made me cough over my bowl of Wheetybangs one morning. We did, however, fall in love with one vehicle when we set eyes on it.


Introduction
=========

Now call me a frustrated hippy, but I was born 2 years after the Summer of Love in 1967. I have, however, had a strong admiration for the old Volkswagen Camper Van. You know the psychedelic ones with the spare tyre on the front and almost certainly a brace of surfboards strapped to the roof. Incidentally, the really old ones with a split windscreen are called the Type 1 (T1 for short). In the early 1960s these were replaced by a version with a solid windscreen, which was affectionately called a bay window ? this was the Type 2 (T2). This version ran on in production into 1979, and an exceptional one can cost in excess of £5000!

In 1980 the first model of the Volkswagen Transporter was built. It was much more box-like, and was also longer and wider than the T2. In the rest of the world this is classed as the T3, but in Britain it seems to be called the T25, and is nicknamed the ?Brick?, probably due to its angular appearance. This was built until 1990, when the T4 was introduced, and apparently now Volkswagen is producing the T5!


Camper Conversions
===========
====

I don?t know if you know this, and you will after reading this review, but Volkswagen never actually built a camper van! What happens is that different companies buy in standard Volkswagen panel vans and turn them into campers. That is why there are a few names that come after the Volkswagen name. Common ones are:

Westfalia
Auto-Sleeper
Devon
Dormobile

You may have heard of at least one of those.


Our Choice
========

Believe it or not, but I was a complete dunce with regard to camper vans before I did some research regarding our purchase, mainly because I needed to find out exactly what it was before I could insure it!

As it turned out, Dearest had set her heart on a Brick! It was a 1980 Devon Moonraker. It was priced at the dealer at £2495, and came with a year?s MOT, six months tax and a one-year warranty, which I thought wasn?t too bad, particularly as a lot of twenty plus year-old vans run for a long time and are priced at around £3000! It had only 54000 miles on the clock and had one previous owner. The colour was two-tone, with the top half being off-white, with a bright yellow bottom half. These two contrasting colours were separated by a band of black.


Feature Packed?
============

Now I have told you all that we have a Devon Moonraker, I had better tell you what is comprises.

There are various kinds of camper van, and they all have various designations and imply various styles:

Pop-Top: A van with a roof that can be raised to a higher level for living in when the van is not being driven.

High-Top: A rigid and permanent higher top is on top of the van, meaning that the van is always higher than standard.

Coach built: Sometimes called C-Class. A Separate living area is built and placed on a chassis ? this isn?t converted from a van and is consequently roomier.

A-Class: Not derived from a separate chassis or a va
n. A large motor home that looks like a motor home, if you know what I mean.

R.V. ? Recreational Vehicle. Big, bruising Winnebago type thing commonly seen in the USA.

Anyway, The Moonraker is a pop-top. It has two front passenger doors and a sliding door on the passenger side. As you enter the back compartment, you immediately find a seat with an extension and a liftable cushion. The space under the seat houses a portable toilet if you wish to have one. There is a space for a table, which is supplied and can be put up in 30 seconds flat, so a family of four can sit around and have a picnic meal. The rear bench seat, designed for two, converts into what is termed a ?rock and roll? bed, and will sleep two adults. In the raised roof there is room for 2 small people to sleep in relative comfort.

There are numerous cupboards and cubby-holes, as well as a gas stove with space of the blue bottle of Calor gas, and a fridge, as well as a sink and pump with a separate water tank, housed at the back of the van. So, all in all, the van has got a lot of features and is very handy for short or long trips away.


The Van ? Living with it and the cost of running it
====================================

Do you remember the VW Beetle? I had its engine at the back and sounded like a sewing machine on acid? Well, T2?s and early T25?s (T3?s) also had their engines at the rear, which was a bit disconcerting when I started it up for the very first time! It?s got a 1.6 litre engine which is compatible with unleaded fuel, which is refreshing for such an old vehicle. It will never be a high speed cruiser, but will poodle happily at 50 mph. It does slow up on hills, and this depends on how much you have loaded. We travel with two adults and two children, all the food and clothing, plus a 20kg tent in the back should we decide to take up more space on the campsite. Fuel consumption isn?t spectacular, but neither is it spectacularly awful, at a
bout 28mpg.

Insurance isn?t a problem for me, as I run it on a limited mileage, agreed value policy, very similar to a classic car insurance policy. The agreed valuation bit means that, should it get written off, there is an agreed sum that would be paid out, and not scrap value, plus I would be allowed to buy back the salvage!


Final Conclusions
=============

I like it. It?s quirky and not conventional. When you are in your mid-30s, greying, balding and working as a teacher, anything that makes you stand out from the crowd is, in my view, very positive.

We like the van. It will be christened soon, as soon as we develop a greater understanding of its personality. It will never be full of ?mod-cons?, mainly because it is 24 years old, and we don?t want a microwave that can dance the lambada while it heats up you bangers and beans- we just want a vehicle we can sleep in and can cook our tea in, and this suits us fine.

That is why, when bearing in mind the vehicle type?s nickname, we are quite happy to be ?bricking it?!

Happy Camping!

Neil
August 2004

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