[babyrhino]

Hello everyone

As you do from time to time, I started wondering about selling the van and having a change so did a little bit of research. When I bought Hettie in 2007 the pound was very good against the Euro and prices were excellent in Germany so I went there to buy and imported a very nice privately owned Hymer Starline 640.

At the time (January 2007) I paid 39,000 Euro, which was about £26,000, and I was always confident that I would be relatively depreciation proof as the prices were much higher here (would have been about £32,000 for the equivalent here at that time).

So, fast forward to the present.

Had a look on www.mobile.de (excellent website where I started over two years ago) and what do you know? I can now get the roughly equivalent vehicle for 32,000 Euro, so in Euro terms, I have lost about 7,000 in 28 months - not bad.

If we then translate this into our good old pounds (!) the 32,000 Euro would be £28,000! Does this tell me to go and sell to a German? Certainly seems like it - repatriation in practice!

I then had a look at the Hymer independent specialists over here and the MMM classifieds for private sales and some interesting things emerged. Firstly, the private sellers on MMM seem a bit optimistic on price but I suppose that is natural - if I could achieve their price levels I would probably recoup my money after all this time - not bad!

The more significant thing is that the specialists seem to have dumped premium Hymer A Class vehicles big time.

Edgehill - used to have loads of big price newer models - not now.

Deepcar - always older models anyway but have dropped back further into the cheaper B Classics rather than full blown Hymermobil models

South Hereford - significantly reduced numbers of Hymer A Class.

Even Hambilton have less than before.

So, where do I go from here? Probably sell back to Germany or hang on - but if I sell where do I find the next good buy? Have all the full, decent Hymers already gone home?

Regards

Brian

 

[DTPCHEMICALS]

Makes you think doesn`t it

Dave P

 

[GerryD]

The current financial situation has produced some peciliar phenomena.
1. There is a serious shortage of chassis available for new build
2. There is therefore a serious shortage of new motorhomes
3. Demand is higher especially for UK built motorhomes due to the pound/euro exchange rate
4. As there is a shortage of new vehicles, there is a subsequent shortage of late used motorhomes
Going by valuations that I have had recently, the value of my nearly two year old motorhome is currently increasing as dealers struggle to fill their forecourts.
Gerry

 

[DTPCHEMICALS]

Sounds good to me Gerryd


Dave p

 

[karlb]

so why are lots of dealers closing sites down?

 

[babyrhino]

In response to Gerry's post, I can see some logic in the situation on newer vans but the point I was making was on older vehicles and specifically Hymer.

Brian

 

[JohnsCrossMotorHomes]

so why are lots of dealers closing sites down?

Because they have no money in the kitty, the banks have cut back on overdrafts and stocking plan finance plans have been slashed dramatically.

Peter

 

[DTPCHEMICALS]

I had similar problem in 1987 when i started my business.
Plenty of orders but the banks would not lend me money to buy stock.
Struggled on for 6 months without them and never looked back , until this recession. A real nutcracker this one. Green shoots of recovery i see them not,and all my customers are manufacturers.

dave P

 

[moblee]

A sign of the economic times? but not Motorhome related unless they have ago at mine :roll:

Is that there has been 3 house burglaries in our village in the last week a
Virtually unheard of crime until recently,why do the have nots think they can steal their way out of hardtimes :evil: .

Rant over!!

 

[DTPCHEMICALS]

We the workers do work and pay taxes to keep the scroungers in the manner of which they have become accustomed.
If they require extra income they, some of them, steal. That is there job.

Dave P

 

[mikeyv]

A sign of the economic times? but not Motorhome related unless they have ago at mine :roll:

Is that there has been 3 house burglaries in our village in the last week a
Virtually unheard of crime until recently,why do the have nots think they can steal their way out of hardtimes :evil: .

Rant over!!

Our MP up the road got burgled a fortnight ago, then 2 cars in the street had their doors bent back by two blokes in Hi Vis jackets (they were on my cctv trying my car door) - a week back I watched a young lad take a mobile phone from an unlocked car down the street before pedalling away on his bike - then saturday night we had three houses in the street burgled.

Over the years we've had sporadic bother in the area, but this is ridiculous - we almost feel like we daren't leave the house.