Rover 75 - It's an absolute cracker!
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From: Steve Firth on 29 May 2010 06:10 Mike P <stickit(a)up-uranus.com> wrote: > I towed one of the bloody things a mile once. It was enough to put me off > for life. I was towing it with a 4 litre Cherokee too , not a small car. Although now I own one, I wouldn't like to use a Cherokee for towing. The Ford's better for towing because it has the leaf springs at the rear and a better gearbox than the Jeep. OTOH the Jeep is permanent 4x4 which is better for towing but still let down by the relatively puny engine and the rubbish gearbox.
From: Ret. on 29 May 2010 06:38 Ed Chilada wrote: > On Fri, 28 May 2010 21:28:45 +0100, Harry Bloomfield > <harry.m1byt(a)NOSPAM.tiscali.co.uk> wrote: > >> It is also fitted with the Traffic Master system - So how does this >> work then? I know it does work, because it correctly announced a hold >> up ahead, but is it an annual subscription thingummy? > > I find TMC to be useless. The information just isn't accurate or > up-to-date enough. You know how often the gantry signs warn you of > something up ahead and when you get there, the next signs just say > "End" and there's nothing there, 70mph all the way? That seems to be > the same quality of info you get from TMC, and just imagine if you'd > decided to pull off the motorway based on that kind of info. Waste of > time and I soon learned to ignore it. Hmmm - that's not been my experience. -- Kev
From: Albert T Cone on 29 May 2010 08:57 Ret. wrote: > It's still an inexpensive holiday. Last month we had eight days on a > lovely CL in Shropshire. Site fees, including electric, was £100. You > wouldn't get 3 nights in a cheapo Travelodge for that - and the views > from our caravan windows were considerably more enticing than the view > from most Travelodge windows... It was a shame that the weather was a > bit ropey - but there's no escape from UK weather even if staying in a > hotel. > > We have absolutely no regrets about buying our caravan back in 1998 so > the 'waste of time' claim is the usual nonsense from you know who. Is it really inexpensive? The depreciation on caravans appears [1] to be not dissimilar to that on cars of similar ages and values, so if you spend £10k on a 'van to get something reasonably modern then it'll cost you something over £1600 per year in depreciation. There's a fuel penalty of something like 8p/mile whilst dragging the thing about, and many caravaners run a larger car than they normally would do, so they pay a financial penalty between holidays. Add it all up and I can easily see you being worse off by at least a couple of grand a year, even if you only take 3 or 4 trips a year.
From: Ret. on 29 May 2010 09:53 Albert T Cone wrote: > Ret. wrote: >> It's still an inexpensive holiday. Last month we had eight days on a >> lovely CL in Shropshire. Site fees, including electric, was £100. You >> wouldn't get 3 nights in a cheapo Travelodge for that - and the views >> from our caravan windows were considerably more enticing than the >> view from most Travelodge windows... It was a shame that the weather >> was a bit ropey - but there's no escape from UK weather even if >> staying in a hotel. >> >> We have absolutely no regrets about buying our caravan back in 1998 >> so the 'waste of time' claim is the usual nonsense from you know who. > > Is it really inexpensive? The depreciation on caravans appears [1] to > be not dissimilar to that on cars of similar ages and values, so if > you spend £10k on a 'van to get something reasonably modern then > it'll cost you something over £1600 per year in depreciation. > There's a fuel penalty of something like 8p/mile whilst dragging the > thing about, and many caravaners run a larger car than they normally > would do, so they pay a financial penalty between holidays. > Add it all up and I can easily see you being worse off by at least a > couple of grand a year, even if you only take 3 or 4 trips a year. I bought my caravan new in 1998. It cost me £8600. Searching on-line for used caravans I can find the same model and year being sold currently for £3500 - so it has cost me £5,100 pound in depreciation over 12 years, or £425 per annum. Caravans actually hold their value very well. I've also had to pay for servicing and insurance, of course but some years we have used the caravan for four trips each of two weeks, so the saving over hotel breaks is considerable. The last 4-day half-board UK hotel break we took cost £680 (Although b'fast and evening meal was included of course). Fuel costs are barely worth considering really. I haven't worked out the financial 'penalty' as you put it - but it's certainly less with my current diesel than it was with the two petrol cars I towed with. In fact, my towing mpg in my current car is about the same as the solo mpg in the Omega 2.0 litre petrol auto I once owned. Bearing in mind that you only tow to the pitch and then back home again, a few hundred miles max each way and the extra fuel cost is minimal. You make a fair point about the bigger car, although I tow with a Rover 75 and many people drive cars of such a size even though they don't tow. Also, by driving a diesel, even when solo I'm getting considerably better mpg than a petrol driver with a similar size car. If we *do* decide to get rid of the caravan then we may well downsize to a medium sized car - but we haven't decided on that yet either. So long as my Rover is running well, it makes financial sense to hang onto it really. -- Kev
From: Harry Bloomfield on 29 May 2010 17:52
Albert T Cone used his keyboard to write : > There's a fuel penalty of something like 8p/mile whilst dragging the thing > about, and many caravaners run a larger car than they normally would do, so > they pay a financial penalty between holidays. > Add it all up and I can easily see you being worse off by at least a couple > of grand a year, even if you only take 3 or 4 trips a year. I don't think the economics make any sense at all these days. I have simply always enjoyed the absolute freedom to be able to just hook the thing on the back of the car and always having my own 'home' with me, to go where and when I want. I have spent a lot of my working life in hotels and I grew to hate them. -- Regards, Harry (M1BYT) (L) http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk |