Market research - Conversion companies

[California4x4]

Links to Forums

list of trade events and shows

Good ideas both, a diary view of events would be good.

 

[The Merle]

Thank you. Are you still in Scotland?

Where have you ordered your Jokers from please? A third party dealer or directly through Westfalia? If someone was looking for a LWB Transporter sized campervan with a shower and loo, how would you recommend I include the Joker option on the website please? Currently companies are found on the map, either by searching by name or by location. In time, once the companies have updated their information, users will also be able to search for the features they want, like an interior shower. I might need a wild card (or Joker) area for campervans that are not tied to a geographic location.

Yep still in Scotland.
About to head back soon as haven’t seen my daughter in 10mths (has a massive diy list for me!).

There’s a few westfalia dealers in the UK, Rob at campersales is who I would recommend if you want one.
Others at wandahomes, harbour creek (was I’m not sure now), and Roseisle (again was not sure if they still are).

 

[California4x4]

Thank you. I’ve got a private wild camping spot here, if you’d like to stop off near Lockerbie on your way south. It would be great to meet you in person.

 

[The Merle]

Will bare it in mind, I’m just crap at planning anything as I was waiting on my new van.
My daughter is getting a bit annoyed I haven’t gone back as was supposed to go see her in May!

 

[Zebedee]

Another thing to consider....I met a lovely couple in the supermarket car park in France this week who were pining for my Cali. They moved over to France with their conversion only to discover it was impossible to register it in the EU and they had to sell it!

 

[dartmoordingoe]

We were impressed with Rolling Homes in Worcestershire …. not cheap but good quality of finish

 

[Ch1pbutty]

Bilbo - We owned a 25year old conversion. 180k miles & everything still worked as it should with no rattles / squeaks.

Would assume newer versions would have same build quality. Choice of layouts.

 

[Phoenix387]

When using a website such as yours, thinking back to when we were looking at converters the following would be useful criteria for a search engine:

Approved VW converter?
Ability to source the base vehicle?
Pop roof manufacturer used? Reimo, SCA, Hi Lo etc…..
Pop roof elevation? Front, Rear, Side?
Kitchen? Slide out pod, side fitted, rear fitted etc…
Kitchen options? Sink with cold water? Hot water? 1 or 2 burner hob, microwave, oven, grill options?
Water supply? Underslung? submersible pump & container?
Waste tanks?
Gas supply? Bottle? Underslung tank?
Berth? 2/4
Solar panels?
No. of belted seats? Isofix Y/N
Bed type? Rib bed, sliding bed seat (which manufacturer?), genuine VW California bed system?
Optional extras? A converter that offers a variety of dealer style options including genuine VW accessories such as stereo upgrades, cruise control, headlamp upgrades, soft close sliding doors, power mirrors, towbars, tailgate spoilers and paint upgrades generally give confidence to any prospective purchaser, particularly if they are CANBUS compatible where applicable.

Suspension, brake, alloy wheel upgrades plus remapping are also useful attributes as they often suggest a deep seated knowledge of the type of vehicle they are working on.

Knowing what can be customised is also helpful in choosing your converter, e.g. Choice of seat fabrics and colours, flooring options, kitchen colours, worktop materials, roof linings. Some converters use flat packed pre manufactured furniture available in only a handful of colours. Others make to order with an in house CNC machine.

I looked at many converters and eventually shortlisted those that met our requirements but also had the ability to do everything in-house. It is useful to know if your converter outsources any of its work. We chose a converter that had an in house auto electrician, roof fitter, seat trimmer, joiners, plumbing experts and an automotive mechanic as we thought it would be easier to have any problems resolved quickly if they arose.

Hope this is of use.

 

[Louis II]

A searchable database is a great idea. Would it be possible to somehow start with the customer experience. So instead of simply filtering based on the raw features perhaps a series of questions about how the van will be used and what is most important to the buyer which then produces recommended types of van with pros and cons and a list of suggested converters and hire companies.
That would definitely have helped me. I new why I wanted a van and what I wanted to do with it but had no idea of the specific features / options I needed or which company would best provide them. So I took the easy option and bought a Cali.

 

[California4x4]

A searchable database is a great idea. Would it be possible to somehow start with the customer experience. So instead of simply filtering based on the raw features perhaps a series of questions about how the van will be used and what is most important to the buyer which then produces recommended types of van with pros and cons and a list of suggested converters and hire companies.
That would definitely have helped me. I new why I wanted a van and what I wanted to do with it but had no idea of the specific features / options I needed or which company would best provide them. So I took the easy option and bought a Cali.

This is an excellent suggestion. Rather than connecting it to the filters, I hope to create a web app that could do this. A new user could click on the web app and answer a series of questions like the number of people, whether they want to camp in a camp site or off-grid etc, the app would then recommend the sorts of campervans that would fully or partially meet their needs, with a list of recommended features and some pictures of what such a campervan might look like. A bonus and the hard part would be getting the output from the form to populate the search filters. Thank you again for taking the time to help.

 

[California4x4]

When using a website such as yours, thinking back to when we were looking at converters the following would be useful criteria for a search engine:

Approved VW converter?
Ability to source the base vehicle?
Pop roof manufacturer used? Reimo, SCA, Hi Lo etc…..
Pop roof elevation? Front, Rear, Side?
Kitchen? Slide out pod, side fitted, rear fitted etc…
Kitchen options? Sink with cold water? Hot water? 1 or 2 burner hob, microwave, oven, grill options?
Water supply? Underslung? submersible pump & container?
Waste tanks?
Gas supply? Bottle? Underslung tank?
Berth? 2/4
Solar panels?
No. of belted seats? Isofix Y/N
Bed type? Rib bed, sliding bed seat (which manufacturer?), genuine VW California bed system?
Optional extras? A converter that offers a variety of dealer style options including genuine VW accessories such as stereo upgrades, cruise control, headlamp upgrades, soft close sliding doors, power mirrors, towbars, tailgate spoilers and paint upgrades generally give confidence to any prospective purchaser, particularly if they are CANBUS compatible where applicable.

Suspension, brake, alloy wheel upgrades plus remapping are also useful attributes as they often suggest a deep seated knowledge of the type of vehicle they are working on.

Knowing what can be customised is also helpful in choosing your converter, e.g. Choice of seat fabrics and colours, flooring options, kitchen colours, worktop materials, roof linings. Some converters use flat packed pre manufactured furniture available in only a handful of colours. Others make to order with an in house CNC machine.

I looked at many converters and eventually shortlisted those that met our requirements but also had the ability to do everything in-house. It is useful to know if your converter outsources any of its work. We chose a converter that had an in house auto electrician, roof fitter, seat trimmer, joiners, plumbing experts and an automotive mechanic as we thought it would be easier to have any problems resolved quickly if they arose.

Hope this is of use.

Thank you. This is really helpful. I agree with you and would love the ability to search to this level of detail as a user. For this to be possible, all of the companies will have to enter what they do to this level of detail. I will make this easy for them by providing a form with check boxes. But, I fear may will not take the time to do so if it is too onerous a task.

For the details you mention about a specific option, I think the companies listing what pop-tops they work with would be very helpful. Beside the search filter, I could place a link to a comparison page that lists all of the roof types with their attributes. That way a user could step out, educate themselves with what roof will best suit them and then select that roof. The website would then return only those companies that could fit the specified roof.

This is really helpful. Thank you again.

 

[Bellcrew]

This is an excellent suggestion. Rather than connecting it to the filters, I hope to create a web app that could do this. A new user could click on the web app and answer a series of questions like the number of people, whether they want to camp in a camp site or off-grid etc, the app would then recommend the sorts of campervans that would fully or partially meet their needs, with a list of recommended features and some pictures of what such a campervan might look like. A bonus and the hard part would be getting the output from the form to populate the search filters. Thank you again for taking the time to help.

Perhaps a new club called the" VW Camper Club" could be started that would encompass all the various types/conversions of VW based campers including those with high tops, alternative sizes, home builder stories etc.

Existing owners could let prospective buyers know what is available, the costs/dis/advantages of various alternative options/layouts, share stories and fixes to common problems, rate the many conversions/manufactures and provide a market place for the convertors etc.

At the moment a percentage of the visitors to this site who do not own or wish to own a California insist on telling us why, in their opinion, their alternative choice is so much better than the one made by the poor suckers who splashed all that cash on VW's hopeless effort, the new site would be an excellent outlet for their enthusiasm.

Of course the second visitor to the new site would be there to sing the praises of the Fiat Ducato.

 

[California4x4]

Perhaps a new club called the" VW Camper Club" could be started that would encompass all the various types/conversions of VW based campers including those with high tops, alternative sizes, home builder stories etc.

Existing owners could let prospective buyers know what is available, the costs/dis/advantages of various alternative options/layouts, share stories and fixes to common problems, rate the many conversions/manufactures and provide a market place for the convertors etc.

At the moment a percentage of the visitors to this site who do not own or wish to own a California insist on telling us why, in their opinion, their alternative choice is so much better than the one made by the poor suckers who splashed all that cash on VW's hopeless effort, the new site would be an excellent outlet for their enthusiasm.

Of course the second visitor to the new site would be there to sing the praises of the Fiat Ducato.

Amongst the jabs, you make excellent points. I hope the forum on comparethecampervan will feel like a safe place for people to ask those sort of questions and to get helpful responses.

 

[downthepub]

Appreciate that it’s been mentioned, but as well as the technical side, there should be a customer service element too - pre and post sales. For instance, before we bought our California, we tried speaking to a number of Scottish conversion companies - with zero response from any of them.