sniffydog

Thinking of taking up caravanning to njoy our new lifestyle when we get down under!

1) Any one have experience of buying a caravan in Oz? Any good online sites to give idea of prices - the ones I've looked at seem phenomenally expensive compared to UK!

2) anyone exported a caravan to Oz ? Is it worht me buying one and shipping out? What would the costs be and would the UK model be any good over there?!

Thanks!

S.Dog.

heldownunder

Hi
we are just selling our 4 yr old uk caravan ( v nice) for 8.5k

having read your post we researched caravans on ebay.au and equivalent van is listed for $55k!!!!!

Apparently there is no tax just the cost of shipping... £3,500ish

we have a large loan on ours and i am arachnaphobic so am not convinced by caravanning in oz..

But now rethinking our plans we could just take it and sell it !!!

heldownunder

Ohhhhhh i forgot to say the caravans i refer to on ebay.au are British ones which were exported

sniffydog

Yes - just looked at a UK dealer today and decent vans seem to start at around 19k GBP - in Australia seems upwards of 70K !!

heldownunder

just researched containers...our van would be just too tall to fit in.. so it could be more expensive to export...

you must have owned the van for 12 months for no tax if not 5% we think

sniffydog

Probably 10% GST?

Gems

Caravans are stupid price here, you regularly see very old caravans (20years old and older) for around $15-$20000
Caravans this age and state go for about 500-1000 pounds in the UK.

A decent new caravan and your looking at $50000+
Also a lot of the Aussie have rubbish layout with big double bed that takes up half the caravan. So not so good for families, although some Aus firms are starting to copy the better European layouts.
We saw a lovely 6birth Geist caravan on tv and it is around $50000 but the same caravan new is around half the price in Europe.

We didnt bring ours with us and now wish we did as you would get so much use out of a caravan here.

Gems

renth

Yeah, and I'm pretty sure it's not 10% of what you paid for it but 10% if its value in Australia.

ABCDiamond

Yep, that will be right

lapin_windstar

TBF, vehicles and caravans will maintain their value longer and better here because of the market and also because (usually - not in Tassie probably!) less damp etc that take their toll in Northern Europe. But the initial expense and the long distances (= petrol) will make it less economic for a lot of people.

smurph22

Hi I noticed when I look at caravans for sale in Australia they refer to them having 12 months rego...? is this some kind of MOT that you need to get for caravans over there and does anyone know if there are any special adaptations that you need to make to a UK caravan to get this. We are seriously thinking of taking ours with us. Also if anyone knows how hard or expensive it is to get airconditioning fitted to it once you get there, or do you just get a portable unit? Angx

Sherlock Holmes

Trailers and Caravans etc have to be registered separately and have a different registration number to your car. Very odd to someone who expects to see the same number on the towing and towed vehicle. So it's not like an MOT.

Portable a/c units seem to fit just fine. Small reverse cycle units similar to those used in homes here.

As an anti caravanist in the UK, I'm pleased to say that you can overtake them easily here owing to light traffic and good views for overtaking!