Club 80-90 Forums

Been wondering what could replace a VW camper. Bongo's are cheaper,quite nice looking,prob easier to maintain. The ones with the side units like T25's are best but as I look at them I wonder where do they keep luggage.Also in physical size they are smaller than T25, so maybe toyota Hiace/Granvia. more like T25 in size but not very cheap to buy. So I wondered if anyone has looked at any or researched it. Of course this is hypothetical but maybe someone else has checked this idea out. Shall I go stand outside now?

Have you thought about a VW T4 / T5?
Seems a more natural progression to me, although I'm sort of with you on the Hiace front...There are some very nice looking conversions out there, and you obviously have Japanese reliability with them.

My brother recently made a camper out of a Toyota Previa He even put a YouTube video up of it, it's HERE but feel free to use the fast forward button though

About Seven years ago i used to own a Mazda Bongo Friendee. They are a different beast to the T25.

Good
- Mod Cons, Elect windows, power steering,tinted windows, electric roof
- Lots of storage under the seats and fitted a roof rack.
- Chop and change seat layouts easily by removing or rotating them 180degs on runners.
- 4 wheel drive


Bad
- Can't get from the front to back without getting out.
- Pop-up roof has a tiny hatch so you need to be very thin to sleep up there and 2 people was a squeeze.
- When things went wrong even the Mazda Garage in Bristol struggled to know these imports very well.
- Mazda did not have the build quality of a vw.

I'm sure there ismore but happy to answer any specifics.

I looked at the bongos a lot, also visited a lot of fan pages. Most complaints about the diesel were that the glow plugs were 15 plus years old and that it and it's 2.5 v6 petrol brother were heavy drinkers. The 2 litre petrol appealed to me the most but the main gripe about that was for towing...I would have thought most of the gear would have been inside the camper not on a trailer.
I also really like them main appeal for me was the 7 seats.

There's a lot of Japanese import pages that have bongos, regius and delicas on them for sale.

Also consider a Nissan Elgrand, 2 or 4wd versions. auto, fully loaded,3.0l turbo diesel (goes like stink) or 3.5 V6 petrol (v.thirsty). Seats slide and turn 90 or 180 degrees but dont come out very easily. Camper interiors made by a number of firms.
Now for the plug! Mine is up for sale to fund the resto of my T25.
Harvey

i met someone on my recent holiday with a Bongo, he talked of constant problems with overheating and because the engine is between the front seats it bakes through to the interior.

Thanks for your replies,
I don't think I'd go down T4/5 route as I'm becoming a bit disillusioned regarding our VW/Audi cars. We have a Y reg honda CRV that we are starting to like more than them.
Martin raised some good points about the cons of Bongo
Lloydy's bit about overheating is interesting since there is a low water warning kit made for them.!!
Previa and Elgrand, don't know about them,will have to look.
Thanks again.

when I was living in Oz I had a Mitsubishi L300 hightop people mover,was pretty good but they also did a 4x4 version that I really liked but could not afford at the time,still have a soft spot for one,not too many around over here I think

If I was looking for an alternative I think I would go for a Ford tourneo and convert it to my own spec.

I looked at bongos before I bought my van. Although cheaper and more modern they are nowhere near as a good a use of space as a t25. I looked at many ads and trawled the forums but in the end the vw won the day for me. I'm pretty keen on my bus and feel happy with my choice esp after a summer of driving, exploring and camping in it

A Gong/Allen fan too I see.

ghost123uk wrote:My brother recently made a camper out of a Toyota Previa He even put a YouTube video up of it, it's HERE but feel free to use the fast forward button though

I had the use of a Bongo for a few weeks (a good few years ago, during my T25 "engine issue" period) = Hated it. Uncomfortable, too small, poor engine access, souless, etc etc.

CovKid wrote:

ghost123uk wrote:My brother recently made a camper out of a Toyota Previa. He even put a YouTube video up of it, it's HERE but feel free to use the fast forward button though

A Gong/Allen fan too I see.

As am I
Ah, Deeply Vale festival in the 70's

Why is it that a car needs to be unreliable before it can have soul? Lol.

It is true I have two with soul; defender and t25 and one completely souless audi a4 which is ultra reliable.

The car without soul you tell it to do something and it does it the same way each time. With soul you ask it to do something, sometimes it does them sometimes it doesn't, . My van has a history of faking serious problems to get out of going to mot's for example. First time it had a major coolant leak at the point before the tester drove in, second time the starter motor stuck on on the way to the test. Generally it's fine at other times. Therefore I attribute a personality to it