Hey welcome back to the channel. Now this video is called the 5 Things You
Need To Know About Mileage On VW Camper. Now I've actually covered this topic a couple
of times in other videos, but I wanted to record a video purely on the topic of mileage
because it comes up time and time again, and we get asked this question so many times. This is a really important topic when you
are looking to buy a completed camper van or actually buy a van that you want to have
converted by a company or convert yourself. So I'm going to cover 5 really important things
that you do need to know about mileage on VW Transporters specifically and how that's
going to impact you when you come to buying a camper or buying a van to get converted. So the first thing I want to cover is residual
value, so when it comes to VW Transporters they are probably the most reliable vehicle
on UK roads, certainly in the top 3 of the most reliable vehicles that you can buy, so
you can't really go wrong with a VW Transporter in the long run. So the window of zero miles to 60k miles,
that kind of window of time or that window of mileage is where the vans actually lose
the least amount of value during that time period. OK, so if you're buying a van between zero
and 60k miles that van is going to uphold its value really really well. After 60k miles they start to obviously depreciate,
all vehicles depreciate as soon as you buy them but some vehicles depreciate much quicker
than others, so VW Transporters will start to lose their value a little bit quicker after
they've reached the 60k mile range, but that is not a reason to not buy one over 60k and
I'm going to cover that in a couple of minutes. So when you're buying any vehicle obviously
depreciation is something that you do need to take into account, you do need to think
about reselling the vehicle especially if you're going to buy a camper and maybe only
have it for a couple of years and then maybe resell it, so obviously mileage does come
into the picture of the depreciation, so it does have to be considered for that reason. Now the second thing I want to cover is when
things start going wrong, people ask me this all the time, when do I need to replace things
like cam belts and water pumps and when can I expect to start having to spend money on
my VW Transporter. So typically when you get to around 50k to
60k miles on a VW Transporter or around 4-5 years, that is when you are going to need
to look at changing the cam belt, so the cambelt is a fairly expensive part to replace, it's
usually around 4-5 hundred pounds fitted, sometimes a little bit more it depends on
where you go. But around that kind of fifty to sixty thousand
miles or four to five years whichever one comes first, that is really when you need
to fit a new cambelt to the van, really is a preventative thing rather than actually
needing to because at some point around that four to five years or 50k to 60k miles that
cambelt is going to wear out and it could eventually snap and if that cambelt snaps
then it can do a lot of damage to the engine. If you are going to buy a van with around
50k- 70k miles just make sure that you always check that it's had the ca belt replaced and
the water pump replaced and it's also been regularly serviced and had oil changes, because
that's the window of time where things will typically go wrong with a VW Transporter. So even though 50k- 60k miles is really really
low on a on a Transporter, that is the time period where things will need to start being
replaced, so always make sure any vehicle that you're looking at around that kind of
mileage, you ask if the cambelt's been fitted and get proof of that being done, and also
make sure it's always had regular oil changes, at least once, twice a year and it's been
regularly serviced, that's really important for the long term kind of life cycle of the
van. Now the third thing I want to cover with you
is when is the optimum time or what is the optimum amount of miles to really go for on
a VW Transporter or a camper van. So based on my experience of buying quite
a few vans now over the last few years to turn into campers, I would say that there
are two kind of optimum times in terms of mileage to buy a VW Transporter and that is
a really really low mileage van so zero to say 10k miles, so it's virtually like a brand
new van obviously that's going to give you a lot longer life cycle on the van, especially
if you're going to be doing low miles in it, it's going to last you a long long time, so
if you're intending to keep your camper for years and years maybe decades then obviously
having a really really low mileage van is going to be the way forward, but from my experience
when you're looking to buy a base vehicle to turn into a camper or you're looking to
actually buy an already completed camper, another really optimum kind of amount of miles
would be 70k to 90k miles, and the reason I say that is because most of the most expensive
parts that need replacing like the cambelt and the water pump and other things that are
due to be replaced around that kind of 50k to 70k miles tends to have already been done,
so it's absolutely fine to be buying a WB Transporter with say 50k to 70k miles, but
just make sure when you are buying a van with that kind of mileage you have checked that
it's had those those things done, but typically from my experience most of those kind of jobs
and those more expensive kind of replacements have already been done on vans of that sort
of mileage, so once the cambelt's been changed at say 60k miles and it's had a few other
bits done to the engine then that will typically run to 150 000 miles without needing any more
money spending on it. Now of course all vans are different so of
course these things do happen at different times but typically that 50k to 70k miles
is when things do need replacing, so if you are looking to buy a camper or a van with
that kind of mileage then typically most of those jobs will have been done which is going
to save you a bit of moneym and it means that the engine's going to run for at least another
50k- 60k miles without needing any other sort of major work doing. Now the fourth thing I want to talk about
is how you are going to be using your camper, because this really does need to be considered
when you are looking at the mileage of the camper that you're going to buy or the van
that you're going to have converted, because a lot of people that we speak to are selling
a second vehicle a second car in their family and then they're buying or replacing that
car with a camper van, and then they intend to use the camper van as a daily driver as
a vehicle they're going to use every day, and if that is the case of course you do need
to consider that when you look at the mileage, because if you're going to be using it as
a second vehicle and you're going to be doing say 10k 12k ,15k miles a year in that camper
van that's going to be racking the miles up a lot quicker therefore work's going to be
needed to be done on that van more often, just because of the upkeep and the wear and
tear, so if you are going to be using your camper as a second vehicle I would advise
to try and get one with a little bit less mileage just because you're going to be putting
more miles on it as you're going to be using it every day. Now of course if you're buying a camper purely
just to be a camper and to go away on weekends or maybe just the odd weekend in Europe every
now and again, then of course the mileage that you're going to put on the van is going
to be very very minimal, so that means you can get away with having a much higher mileage
on your van because you are going to be putting less miles on the van, so for example if you
bought a van with 100k miles on it, and you were only doing 5k miles a year, you would
only have 150,000 miles on that van after 10 years of using it as a camper, so this
is a really important thing that I want to get across, and that is you don't need to
get a really low mileage van if you're only going to be doing say around 5k miles a year
just doing the odd weekend away and maybe doing the odd European trip and things like
that, because the wear and tear isn't going to be anywhere near the same as if you are
using that van as a daily driver. So if your budget is under 40k pounds for
a camper van then you are going to need to look at vans with a lot more mileage on them. Now used VW Transporter vans are very expensive
at the moment that's due to the fact that there's a real lack of new vans coming through
due to supply chain issues and semiconductor issues, and all those kind of things that's
going on so that means there's less new vans coming into the market, which means people
are having to buy used VW Transporters so that has caused the price of them to go up,
so if you're looking for a brand new converted VW Transporter, you want it with low mileage
and you want the tailgate, and you want all these boxes ticking then that's going to really
put the price up, so you have to be realistic that if you have only got 30k - 35k to spend
on a VW camper you are going to need to look at vans with really 70k to 100k miles on them,
but again this just is not a problem if they've been well looked after and they've been well
serviced, because VW Transporters are workhorses, they will last for years and years if they
are well looked after and regularly serviced, so that leads me on to the fifth and final
thing that I want to talk about, and that is how long will a VW Transporter van last
if it's well looked after. And like I just said they are absolute workhorses
and VW Transporters are famously reliable, they do last a long time if looked after and
it's not unusual for a VW Transporter to do 250k or as much as even 500k miles, l have
actually seen a few with over 600k miles and that's not like a one-off, you know that's
quite a regular thing and this is why it's really important to kind of change your mindset
when it comes to mileage on VW Transporters because it cannot be seen the same as a car,
because when a car is on 100k miles it is typically coming towards the end of its life,
where with the VW Transport 100k miles is still considered to be fairly low mileage,
especially if it's going to go on and do 500k miles, so try not to dismiss camper vans that
you come across that you really like that tick all the boxes, but you then avoid them
because they've got a 100k or 120k miles on them because that should not be a reason not
to buy that van as long as it's got really good solid service history it's been well
looked after, the cambelt's been changed, and it's had some good love and care given
to it over its kind of lifetime. But I would add to that that I would try and
avoid going for vans that have been used as a builder's van or it's been used to lift
heavy machinery or bricks or things like that, because that is going to have an impact on
the chassis and the suspension and things like that, and it's going to have more marks
and dents so if you can find a camper that's been used for just maybe deliveries or it's
been used as a Kombi or a day van, like a family van now they are the perfect kind of
base vans because they haven't been pushed too hard throughout their life and they will
of course last longer because of that. OK so that's the 5 things that you really
must know about mileage on VW camper vans, I really hope that's been helpful to you,
if you've got any questions for me or you've got any comments please put them below the
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and I look forward to seeing you in the next video [Music] [Music] you
