Its funny how things workout. After what seems like an eternity, we finally took our first delivery of the Go Motorhoming Books. The excitement was heightened when our web designer gave me £10 for what was the first book sold. He had an advantage, as he had kindly allowed us to get the books delivered to his shop, as we were busy.
Writing and publishing a book is neither easy, nor cheap, and our Swift motorhome had to be sacrificed to pay for print and web design costs. Curiously when we advertised for free in the Motor Caravan magazine we had a poor response. We had about four enquires from the advert placed on UK Motorhomes.net. Perhaps being February March time had an effect, I guess this is a good time to buy a campervan for early bird buyers. In the end we sold our Swift motorhome to our web designer, who appears to have suddenly taken great interest in motorhoming since designing our website. Ironically as I knew would happen, we started getting plenty of calls from the adverts in the Motorhome Motorcaravan Monthly magazine, MMM, and its sister publication Which Motorhome.
So our web designer got a cheap motorhome and we were able to pay our bills. Having calculated what money we had left the search began for our next camper. Within four days, I am reminded regularly, I found our next camper a 1991 Hymer Camp 55. The thing that clinched it was it was 4x4 and probably now the only one in the UK. Two weeks later we collected our motorhome from Germany.
So how is it possible to find and negotiate importing a motorhome from Germany so Quickly? Simple, really, I searched the German equivalent of auto trader, http://www.mobile.de/. By chance the sellers were Palmowski Hymer main dealers who regularly advertise in the Motorhome Motorcaravan Monthly magazine. They have a policy of ensuring their campers are in the first couple of cheapest adverts. Certainly our Hymer seems to be a bit of a bargain and in very good condition.
The logistics of getting out to Germany took three days of research. Not only were we travelling from a difficult destination, Exmoor, we also wanted to spend as little as possible. So a complicated timetable of walk, bus, walk, train, tube, B&B, walk, train, plane, hire car and walk were carefully mapped. Amazingly it only cost £300 for both of us including ferry and all worked like clock. We arrived at our dealers at midday.
The first thing they said was ‘Who are you and what are you doing here?’ Not exactly the welcome we were looking for and we optimistically assume this was a joke lost in translation. It is always interesting seeing the camper van you have purchased blind for the first time. Thankfully it was in better condition than we thought, but being a 4x4 you do need a stepladder to get in. The German DVLA equivalent was closed so we would have to wait for the morning to start the importation process. So our first night was spent sleeping on the dealer forecourt (in the motorhome).
You do have to take your brave pills when importing a motorhome. We have done it before, arriving in Bremen at 5pm and being back in Kent at 5am. This time things weren’t so quick and we didn’t get away until 7pm the following day and had a hard drive to make our ferry. Although spending the night on the dealers forecourt is very unglamorous, we do recommend this as we discovered some problems, primarily with the water heater that needed to be resolved. Unfortunately we were at the dealers at their busiest time and it took to us prowling around like demented caged animals for it to get fixed.
So you would think that once in the UK things would go smoothly. The process of importing a motorhome from Europe is actually quite simple but is not necessarily that easy. Thankfully the motorhome sailed through its MOT. Having sent off documents to DVLA, after spending many hours cross referencing and double checking, we completed our drive extension to fit the motorhome. Our neighbours had been very interested in our recent activity but were very disappointed with the continental large white flower that now adorns the front of our property.
The DVLA in their wisdom posted back all the documents, this includes sufficient information to make a clone of me, a worrying thought (Very worrying, one of you is quite enough – Ed). The only problem was, one of the many boxes in the registration form lacked the registered keepers address and I had not made the cheque for the tax disk out for enough. You would have thought a phone call could have sorted this out, but I suspect its policy.
I had a little fun getting the number plates made, as you can if you ask, have in very small writing some words of wisdom printed along the bottom, normally reserved for ‘Dave’s Discount Motors’ or the equivalent. So one day, probably sooner rather than later, someone will buy a motor caravan from me, with the words Go Motorhoming on its plates. The reason for selling is I want to import a motorhome from either Belgium or Holland to see if that is more viable. (There is more information on importing on the forum www.go-motorhoming.co.uk/forum and full details are in the book www.go-motorhoming.co.uk/ordering.htm - Ed)
So there you have it an exciting week followed by our maiden motorhome voyage over the weekend on British number plates, I will try to get some romantic pictures of campers in their element on Exmoor, to brighten up this blog.
Happy motor caravaning
From the Go Motorhoming Authors
Writing and publishing a book is neither easy, nor cheap, and our Swift motorhome had to be sacrificed to pay for print and web design costs. Curiously when we advertised for free in the Motor Caravan magazine we had a poor response. We had about four enquires from the advert placed on UK Motorhomes.net. Perhaps being February March time had an effect, I guess this is a good time to buy a campervan for early bird buyers. In the end we sold our Swift motorhome to our web designer, who appears to have suddenly taken great interest in motorhoming since designing our website. Ironically as I knew would happen, we started getting plenty of calls from the adverts in the Motorhome Motorcaravan Monthly magazine, MMM, and its sister publication Which Motorhome.
So our web designer got a cheap motorhome and we were able to pay our bills. Having calculated what money we had left the search began for our next camper. Within four days, I am reminded regularly, I found our next camper a 1991 Hymer Camp 55. The thing that clinched it was it was 4x4 and probably now the only one in the UK. Two weeks later we collected our motorhome from Germany.
So how is it possible to find and negotiate importing a motorhome from Germany so Quickly? Simple, really, I searched the German equivalent of auto trader, http://www.mobile.de/. By chance the sellers were Palmowski Hymer main dealers who regularly advertise in the Motorhome Motorcaravan Monthly magazine. They have a policy of ensuring their campers are in the first couple of cheapest adverts. Certainly our Hymer seems to be a bit of a bargain and in very good condition.
The logistics of getting out to Germany took three days of research. Not only were we travelling from a difficult destination, Exmoor, we also wanted to spend as little as possible. So a complicated timetable of walk, bus, walk, train, tube, B&B, walk, train, plane, hire car and walk were carefully mapped. Amazingly it only cost £300 for both of us including ferry and all worked like clock. We arrived at our dealers at midday.
The first thing they said was ‘Who are you and what are you doing here?’ Not exactly the welcome we were looking for and we optimistically assume this was a joke lost in translation. It is always interesting seeing the camper van you have purchased blind for the first time. Thankfully it was in better condition than we thought, but being a 4x4 you do need a stepladder to get in. The German DVLA equivalent was closed so we would have to wait for the morning to start the importation process. So our first night was spent sleeping on the dealer forecourt (in the motorhome).
You do have to take your brave pills when importing a motorhome. We have done it before, arriving in Bremen at 5pm and being back in Kent at 5am. This time things weren’t so quick and we didn’t get away until 7pm the following day and had a hard drive to make our ferry. Although spending the night on the dealers forecourt is very unglamorous, we do recommend this as we discovered some problems, primarily with the water heater that needed to be resolved. Unfortunately we were at the dealers at their busiest time and it took to us prowling around like demented caged animals for it to get fixed.
So you would think that once in the UK things would go smoothly. The process of importing a motorhome from Europe is actually quite simple but is not necessarily that easy. Thankfully the motorhome sailed through its MOT. Having sent off documents to DVLA, after spending many hours cross referencing and double checking, we completed our drive extension to fit the motorhome. Our neighbours had been very interested in our recent activity but were very disappointed with the continental large white flower that now adorns the front of our property.
The DVLA in their wisdom posted back all the documents, this includes sufficient information to make a clone of me, a worrying thought (Very worrying, one of you is quite enough – Ed). The only problem was, one of the many boxes in the registration form lacked the registered keepers address and I had not made the cheque for the tax disk out for enough. You would have thought a phone call could have sorted this out, but I suspect its policy.
I had a little fun getting the number plates made, as you can if you ask, have in very small writing some words of wisdom printed along the bottom, normally reserved for ‘Dave’s Discount Motors’ or the equivalent. So one day, probably sooner rather than later, someone will buy a motor caravan from me, with the words Go Motorhoming on its plates. The reason for selling is I want to import a motorhome from either Belgium or Holland to see if that is more viable. (There is more information on importing on the forum www.go-motorhoming.co.uk/forum and full details are in the book www.go-motorhoming.co.uk/ordering.htm - Ed)
So there you have it an exciting week followed by our maiden motorhome voyage over the weekend on British number plates, I will try to get some romantic pictures of campers in their element on Exmoor, to brighten up this blog.
Happy motor caravaning
From the Go Motorhoming Authors
