Help and advice - roof repair, about to buy

[TDL]

Time to start again then, feeling pretty miserable as thought we'd found 'the one'.
Any tips on when/where/how to find similar??

 

[TDL]

Should maybe add, we are total novices, looking for a 4 berth for family. Loved the california we'd found but struggling to find anything much like it within budget of 10-12k....

 

[sidepod]

Probably a lot of effort but Germany is a good source, mostly better nick than UK stuff.

Mobile.de Is the website.

 

[sidepod]

Nice red one on eBay at the moment?

 

[sidepod]

There is another red one on Ebay at £11995 in Milton Keynes.

I think that may be a guy that used to run Just Westys, a company specialising in these vans. Tread carefully, I bought from him and the van looked good on the surface but it turned out to need a lot of work. I concluded he buys junk, sprays them and sells it as good stuff.

 

[TDL]

I

There is another red one on Ebay at £11995 in Milton Keynes.

I think that may be a guy that used to run Just Westys, a company specialising in these vans. Tread carefully, I bought from him and the van looked good on the surface but it turned out to need a lot of work. I concluded he buys junk, sprays them and sells it as good stuff.

Is that the engine rebuild? Good to know.....
I'm guessing the dual-fuel red is a no go?

 

[sidepod]

I


Is that the engine rebuild? Good to know.....
I'm guessing the dual-fuel red is a no go?

Indeed. There is no way a T4 engine should need attention at that mileage so it’s either been mistreated or it’s had a hair cut.

 

[sidepod]

There is a nice late One on eBay. Silver 150. Guy on here is selling it. It needs a bit of bodywork and roof canvas but it’s a nice van.

 

[TDL]

There is a nice late One on eBay. Silver 150. Guy on here is selling it. It needs a bit of bodywork and roof canvas but it’s a nice van.

is it 16500? Had a look at that one a few times - just a bit too much over budget tbh....nice though

 

[sidepod]

I’d stay clear of the dual fuel one.

 

[sidepod]

Example. First impression look good.

https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/...searchId=439e4408-0026-6168-ea0c-b675755126f4

 

[bxl_lad]

For choice I second Sidepod's suggestion to have a look in Germany - it's what we did, although we're living in Belgium so that made it a little easier...
That said, some tips if you decide to go down this route:
Take a look at mobile.de
https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/...xPowerAsArray=KW&minPowerAsArray=KW&scopeId=C
(hope this link is what I hope it to be - All VW T4 Cali's) - incidentally you can set the website to be in English for easier navigation and google translate is your friend for the rest), there's also marktplaats.nl (Netherlands) which can be a good source too:
https://www.marktplaats.nl/z.html?query=vw+t4+california&categoryId=0&postcode=&distance=0

Germany is though a big place and being as you'd be making a trip over to view vans i would suggest picking a region and focusing on that or you'll be driving around for hours (we choose Stuttgart, as there were plenty at the time, went for a weekend and saw around 13vans in the time).

Obviously you need to be prepared to go quite quickly once you've made your list of targets as they might not be there weeks later. Make contact with the sellers to let them know you're coming - a lot of people in Germany speak English so that shouldn't be a problem (the Netherlands even less of an issue).

You should though check what the import steps are as that will be important to know - I could tell you for Belgium but that doesn't help I guess... But for example we only viewed vans being sold by garages as then we could get a receipt showing VAT which avoids having to pay the VAT again in the UK when you import... But like i say, you'd have to check the rules.

Buying the vehicle should be possible with a bank transfer, so much easier these days, can even be done with your phone, but check with your bank how long it takes for an international transfer as you might need to wait until its gone through before they'd let you leave with the van... By law they offer a guarantee on certain aspects of the vehicle, but what this will be worth to you once you've shipped the vehicle home, I guess no use at all...

Another important issue is how you would get a van back once purchased. The far easiest would be to trailer it back or even have a transport company ship it. More complicated, though not by any means impossible, is to have temporary transit plates and insurance (we did it this way but had help with the admin) - that way you can drive it back.

So, buying abroad is not easy, you'd need to do your homework and be prepared to spend some time and money to do so, but if you're set on a T4 Cali then you're likely to find the best choice in Germany or the Netherlands.

Good luck and be sure to check all the threads on here about buying, don't be caught out by a ringer or non-original van, lots of tell-tale signs to look for so be sure you swat up on what to look for before you buy... (remember though that at the end of the day, you're looking for a good Westfalia, so focus on the Westfalia components first, then of course the bodywork is very important, but mechanical niggles can be easily sorted - there's plenty of T4 spares available, but missing or broken Westfalia components are getting harder or impossible to come by... Dodgy brakes easily fixed, but a broken cupboard or ripped upholstery not so...)

Happy hunting!

 

[2into1]

Just thinking about the relative values here. There is a 2003 Freestyle on here at £18k. Say you could get that for £17k (it’s been up a while).

The red one here was a 96 at £11.5k. No air con, not a freestyle and the equipment levels that go with the model, and that tricky rust.

The freestyle would be £5.5k more and 7 years newer. That’s £780 a year in depreciation if you ignore all the freestyle benefits. We know the freestyle will fair better than that because of the spec and it was one of the very last of the iconic T4s, so owning it could be much cheaper than that.

I reckon if there is anyway you could stretch to the freestyle (bigger loan) then it would be a slam dunk in terms of value......and enjoyment with the air con etc.

You could apply similar logic to the silver 150 out there and much discussed here (it replaced a stolen van).

Just my logic.

 

[sidepod]

Now then, £16500 for the Silver red i on eBay that needs work or this peach

https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/...searchId=d08d1c0b-011d-46c1-c65d-c0704d58ecf4


I know where my money would be.

 

[sidepod]

Bugger. This has got me fired up again. There are some lovely vans on Mob.de at the mo.

I wonder if Miss P would notice another van on the driveway?

 

[T6Beach]

Bugger. This has got me fired up again. There are some lovely vans on Mob.de at the mo.

I wonder if Miss P would notice another van on the driveway?

Sorry for the thread hijack, I was looking to pop over to see you next week as we are now seriously considering a pod

 

[sidepod]

I think you may have me confused with the man that sells those silly box things with stoves in them for the boot of a van?

 

[larrylamb]

Bugger. This has got me fired up again. There are some lovely vans on Mob.de at the mo.

I wonder if Miss P would notice another van on the driveway?

Are you keeping your '93 Cali now?

 

[sidepod]

Eh? What? Me? That went over a year ago. Kind of miss it too.

 

[larrylamb]

Eh? What? Me? That went over a year ago. Kind of miss it too.

Aaah, thought you had them both as your forum signature mentions the pair of them.

 

[TDL]

Just thinking about the relative values here. There is a 2003 Freestyle on here at £18k. Say you could get that for £17k (it’s been up a while).

The red one here was a 96 at £11.5k. No air con, not a freestyle and the equipment levels that go with the model, and that tricky rust.

The freestyle would be £5.5k more and 7 years newer. That’s £780 a year in depreciation if you ignore all the freestyle benefits. We know the freestyle will fair better than that because of the spec and it was one of the very last of the iconic T4s, so owning it could be much cheaper than that.

I reckon if there is anyway you could stretch to the freestyle (bigger loan) then it would be a slam dunk in terms of value......and enjoyment with the air con etc.

You could apply similar logic to the silver 150 out there and much discussed here (it replaced a stolen van).

Just my logic.

you're making a lot of sense there.... hmmmm

 

[sidepod]

Out of interest, what does a 2004 T5 Cali sell for?