I'm buying a new caravan! How exciting!

Actually, it's not brand new - just newer than the one I've got (which is nearly twenty years old). This 'new' one is five years younger. Nevertheless, its previous owner looked after it, as it is almost immaculate. It will be a step up for me in terms of space, comfort and equipment, and will make my caravanning even more pleasurable. 

It will carry me through the next ten years. By then - 2036 - I'll be approaching my eighty-fourth birthday, and ready to switch to nice hotels and the odd cruise. 

So this purchase is an investment in the future, but not too far ahead. For that reason, it made no sense to buy a new caravan - I'd never use it for long enough to get full value for money from it. A used caravan would cost less, and I could let it go in ten years or less without feeling that I'd paid way too much for enjoying it during those years. To speak of figures, this year's 2 berth caravans - the sort I use - cost upwards of £26,000. The one I've now bought was priced at £8,599. Not too much to pay, I think, to ensure that I can continue with my caravan outings, something I love, in comfort and some style. 

You might think that £8,599 is rather a lot to pay for an older caravan. But caravans hold their value well, so that nothing good is ever cheap. Depreciation is always low, sometimes zero when demand for them is high, as it is at the moment. Bear in mind that they can be towed by anything with enough power - it won't matter if, halfway through my ownership of this new caravan, I change from a diesel-engine car to an all-electric one. Not that I intend to change cars before I need to, but inevitably some really big expense will loom, and as much as I enjoy driving Sophie, I will be hard-headed about saying goodbye to her. I haven't got enough money to keep her going for sentimental reasons. (I did that with Fiona, and it was an expensive mistake)

So what have I bought? It's a Swift Corniche 15/2, a well-regarded 2 berth model from 2011. I saw it first on Sunday 4th January, when attending a New Year show put on by the dealer I've used since 2006, the Sussex Caravan Centre at Ashington. I went with one of my friends, Valerie. Having said hello to the staff we encountered - they all know me, as I've been a regular customer for twenty years - we consumed our free bacon roll and coffee, then had a good look at many of the caravans and  motorhomes, new and used. We took our time. 

I was more than normally interested in the 2 berth caravans on display. The caravan I am now trading in - a 2006 Elddis Avanté 362 - was a small 2 berth. It had been towed some 50,000 miles in its career, and had taken a lot of punishment from indifferent roads. I'd been saying that I needed a replacement caravan for years, without doing anything about it. But now I was a little more serious. 

The new 2 berth models were very nice, but very expensive. So I paid most attention to the used ones. And lo, we saw this one:

We had a look inside. Forrard, a nice, bright lounge/sleeping area.  

Valerie tested the seating comfort for me. 

The Swift was a little longer (and a little heavier) than the Elddis, but would still fit on my drive. And it was well within Sophie's towing limits. Click on the shot below to see the detail.

The seats doubled as single beds; or you could pull out a support structure from that front-end cupboard to create a king-size bed, the long backrests on each side filling the gap in the middle. Exactly the same as on the Elddis. Such a large bed tended to be left permanently in place. But I wouldn't want or need that. 

Midships, over the wheels, a kitchen area, far more spacious that I had on the Elddis. So many useful cupboards too. You can see a worktop with sink, a fridge/freezer, a microwave oven and a gas cooker. The cooker had an electric hotplate as well as three gas hobs. Plus a gas grill and gas oven. As I cooked most meals in the caravan, all this was most welcome.

Aft, through that door, lay the bathroom. The Swift was noted for having a rather special bathroom. In the past I'd tended to pooh-pooh the need for a decent-sized washing area, but I'd gradually come round to see the point. This one impressed me. 

And yes, a full-sized wardrobe. Most important.

We went on to look at many other caravans and motorhomes, all of them 4 berth or larger. It struck us that in recent years the keynote was on luxury: good design, great equipment, lovely carpets and fabrics, and extraordinary use of hidden lighting, all of it adding up to a stunning place to relax in. The 2026 models made even the well-appointed Swift Corniche seem a little plain. 

We went into the reception area for a chat and to look at the shop. I went so far as to express definite interest in buying something to replace the elderly Elddis  - but only once the HP on Sophie was fully repaid in October. I learned from Aaron the sales manager that right now he would offer a no-quibble £750 trade-in allowance on the Elddis. Really? It had suffered so much wear and tear - costly to fix, if all of it were dealt with at once - and bearing that in mind, £750 seemed very generous. Food for thought!

Back at home that evening I thought again about the Swift. I hadn't jumped at it because I considered a 2011 model just a bit too old. But was I looking at it in the right way? Next morning, I processed my pictures from our visit and decided that the caravan needed a second look. I phoned Aaron to check it was still available: it was. I checked to see whether my bank would offer me a loan of £8,500 repayable over three or four years. It did, instantly. I went off to a favourite café to collect my thoughts. Then drove out to Ashington to view the Swift. Aaron had turned on the interior lights, and the space heater, so that it was wonderfully warm inside - so welcome on such a cold day!

I then spent forty-five minutes looking at every nook and cranny. I was even more impressed. I took a hundred pictures, mostly with my phone, but the ones of myself were taken with the little Leica, to properly capture the subtlety of my emotions. Here are just some of the shots.

You can see that I was falling in love. And I wasn't fighting it. The lounge and kitchen areas looked perfect. Now for the bathroom.

That's a walk-in shower, where there's no door: the watery part is contained behind a perspex wall. This picture from the dealer's website shows what I mean:

The decidedly small bathroom in the Elddis isn't carpeted - it's basically a wetroom. This was sumptuous by comparison. And hot air could be blown into it! The toilet had a push-button electric flush.

The bottom of the wardrobe had shelving for shoes. How handy. 

There was no doubt in my mind. It was a definite YES!

Back at reception, Verity and Rebecca were eagerly awaiting my return. For years I'd been saying I'd like another caravan, but had stuck with the Elddis. So they were amazed (but thrilled) that I had finally made up my mind and intended to buy.

Now the serious business. But it was all right. The last damp check was satisfactory. Among the things thrown in would be a fresh full service and valet. I got that £750 trade-in allowance. I signed on a couple of dotted lines, and paid a £500 deposit by credit card. We agreed on a date to bring in the Elddis, and a date to pick up the Swift, with number plate and propane gas bottles swapped over. I got a free toy dog of my choice - I selected a black and white puppy, now named Jess. He'll be company for a brown toy sheepdog I bought a long time ago called Fang. They can together guard the Swift in the front windows. Here's Aaron holding Jess, with Verity smiling on the right. 

Aaron was especially pleased to handle this sale. His father Colin had sold me the Elddis back in 2006. They had kept it in the family.

That evening I asked my bank online for a loan of £7,500 repayable over 42 months - three and a half years - meaning monthly repayments of £196.59: perfectly manageable. The money was in my account almost at once. All I have to do now is transfer £7,349 of it to the Sussex Caravan Centre bank account in time for the handover on 21st January. 

There is of course more expense than just this. Some of the stuff I used in the Elddis will look too scruffy for the Swift, and will need to be replaced. Then, as the Swift is three feet longer than the Elddis, it hogs more of my drive and I'll need to install a hardstanding for my car Sophie, alongside the caravan. (That's in hand) But offsetting this will be money from selling the Leica X Vario (maybe £455, but probably less), and I won't now have to pay for the annual service on the Elddis (I estimated £500, as new tyres would be needed). The insurance for the caravan won't be much, as it's fifteen years old, the cut-off age for expensive new-for-old cover.

So there you are. I think I've got myself a pretty good deal, and can now contemplate some ambitious trips with confidence. The deposit I eventually hope to throw at a new car (some years down the line) will still be decently fat, despite being some £8,000 less than it might have been. And a new car sometime in the early 2030s is the only major upcoming expense presently revealed in my crystal ball. 

I intend to return to Winchester with the Swift for a four-day shakedown as soon as feasible - perhaps the first week in February if the weather looks OK. Then, from mid-March a trip to Cornwall. I shouldn't freeze in the Swift down there, though I might have in the Elddis!

Selling my Leica X Vario

I've decided to sell my larger Leica camera, the X Vario. I haven't used it much since its shutter was replaced last summer. Instead, I've reverted to my older, smaller and lighter Leica D-Lux 4, and that versatile little camera has performed nobly since getting back into full-time harness from early June 2025 - in fact I've taken 16,000-odd pictures with it since then. The total number of shots I've taken over the years with the D-Lux 4 - since buying it in 2009 - is now over 114,500, rather more than you'd expect from an old model that ought to be long retired. But it shows no sign whatever of faltering. It has technical limitations, of course, but my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra phone can step in as necessary to handle shots beyond its capabilities. 

Bottom line: the X Vario has become redundant, and I might as well turn it into cash. It was made in November 2013, and I paid £599 for it in May 2023. mpb.com have offered £455 for it as a first response on their website. I don't think they will necessarily give me that when they examine it, but I should get something for the three accessories I added to enhance its appearance and user-pleasure: a handgrip, a leather carrying strap, and a hot shoe cover, all of them proper Leica parts. So maybe I'll be offered £250 to £300, taking it all together - useful money that I have an immediate use for (as I will explain shortly in my next post).

Here are shots of my X Vario and the accessories I added. It's a handsome camera, although the metal lens hood on the front of its zoom lens doesn't add any beauty. That hood has, however, always been a great protection for the lens. 

Its lines are classic Leica, and more than once this camera has been mistaken for the one of the famous (and mega-expensive) Leica rangefinders. It was a camera that would attract notice from photo enthusiasts and appreciators. But it also occurred to me that one day I would be the victim of a mugging, on the assumption that I was carrying a camera and lens combo worth thousands of pounds. Not a comfortable thought. Another reason for our parting. 

Until recently I was very much onboard with Leica. Certainly, the little Leica D-Lux 4 showed what the brand's products were capable of. But in fact that long-lived, robust and completely reliable camera is at heart a Panasonic, and was made at the Panasonic factory in Japan - and not at Wetzlar in Germany. Many Leica enthusiasts are sniffy about that. Yes (they say), it may have a very good Leica lens; and yes, it may have been made to Leica's quality control standards using 'pick of the parts bin' components; and yes, it may have Leica firmware installed; but (they will say) it wasn't made in Germany, at Leica HQ, by dedicated craftsmen! 

All true; but does it matter? And in any case, the little Leica has never let me down. But the X Vario - a Wetzlar product - has stumbled, and has needed a vital replacement part after a shorter life, and only 69,000 shots in my hands. It may look good, and feel marvellous, and turn out very nice pictures, but it hasn't stood up to heavy use. The shutter was replaced, and the camera is working again. But what else might fail? Its long-term reliability is now in question. In fact, I can't trust it any more. So selling it is the right thing to do, at least from my point of view.  

The Leica-enthusiast website Macfilos has a long-held axiom: never sell a Leica X Vario. But I'm going to. And I don't feel that I should be seen as a Leica renegade. Once faith in a product has been lost, it's no good. Time to discard it and move on. 

So it'll be hello to another brand, probably (depending on my needs) Nikon or Ricoh, but not until the little D-Lux 4 shows unmistakable signs of senility. And, like me, it's not there yet.  

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