Stay Well Clear of Alpine Motorhomes!

Well I've certainly learned a very hard lesson on this one - never buy a motorhome that's more than 10 years old and certainly never one from AlpineMotorhomes.co.uk.

This one-man company owned and run by Richard Cooper, gives the impression of being a bonefide motor home dealership with premises and a website, when really it is just a sideline to a printing company which obviously isn't paying all the bills. Richard is a nice-enough bloke it seems and on the day he couldn't do enough to help sell the motorhome, including throwing in a number of useful extras. But since the van was sold and delivered, save for one further visit, he hasn't really wanted to know.

My 17 year old Peugeot Boxer Autosleeper Symphony looked OK for its age when I saw it and so, although I thought it was a little overpriced, I bought it on my first visit to see it.  I should have spotted that there were no other motorhomes about on this small industrial estate in Bromsgrove where the company rents an office, and that there were no obvious signs of a garage and tools which you'd normally find in a place which buys and sells vehicles. And Richard was far too smartly dressed to get his hands dirty underneath a van.

It's easiest to list the motorhome's 2014-2015 fault history in order of their occurrence to explain the unbelievable catalogue of problems I've had over the 16 months I've owned it:

• The van broke down in a cloud of steam whilst being delivered to me by Richard in later October 2014. I was told a pulley had broken on the journey and this resulted in requiring a new camshaft, the cylinder head being skimmed and the head gasket being replaced - pretty major stuff to kick off with before I even got it.
• The day after delivery I notice the engine coolant light was coming on and so I phoned Richard who told me just to top it up as it was probably an airlock.
• On our one and only overnight trip in the motorhome we broke down in Anglesey with a burst radiator hose and had to be recovered 150 miles at night.
• The radiator hose was replaced but the coolant light still came on from time to time and so I kept topping up the reservoir on a number of very short trips
• Then on a trip to Southport the heater started blowing only cold air and the engine started to overheat. I got home slowly, stopping and starting all the way and took the van to a local garage the next day who said the radiator was faulty.  Fortunately the repair was covered by my insurance.
• With a new radiator fitted, I went on a short trip and the bottom hose blew and I had to be recovered which cost me £50. A new bottom hose was fitted and this blew again immediately.  The garage said that the head gasket must have gone again!
• The vehicle was taken away and the warped head reskimmed or replaced I'm not sure which and the head gasket was replaced. The repair cost £1300 and I had to pay £300 towards it.
• However on driving the vehicle only short distances, I noticed there was a drip from near the radiator, and sure enough I was told that the new radiator had been blown, probably as a result of the head gasket failing. This second radiator was not covered by insurance and cost me over £300 to have replaced.
• A second new radiator was fitted and the day after I was about to set off on a short trip so I just decided to have a look under the bonnet to satisfy my paranoia. I found that the top radiator hose was sucked flat.  I called the garage and the van was taken away for testing.
• Whilst it was being tested in the garage the brake servos failed and had to be replaced. This was another insurance claim and the repair took over a month to get the parts fitted.
• During all this time, the motorhome's MOT had run out in October and so after the servos were replaced the MOT was done and it failed on corroded sills and faulty brake lights.
• £400 later and I've got the van back with an MOT, but no Tax as that's run out.  I'm wondering what to do with it - should I try to run it for a couple of years and get some value from it or should I take the hit and sell it immediately. 

Please note that this is the short version of this woeful tail, which has involved two different garages, several insurance claims and well over £1000 of my own money to get the motorhome back on the road.  That doesn't include the vehicle tax and insurance that I've wasted over the last 12 months and more whilst not being able to drive the vehicle.

Other minor problems included the Carver heater not being fixed as quickly as it should have been, the toilet pump not working on delivery, damage to two table tops, a cushion that makes the double bed missing, terrible squeaking when the engine started, the windscreen wipers not working, a headlight bulb was broken and the cab interior light not working.  This van had been habitation checked and had an MOT when I bought it - I can't see how it passed.

And the guy from Alpine Motor Homes has the cheek to advertise 'A Happy Customer is a Returning Customer' on his crudely put-together website which is still showing my motorhome and exactly the same supposed stock as a year ago a year later!  The only 'returning' I can imagine that anyone does is to get their money back.

So what's the point of this post. Well does anyone who might read this think that I might have any chance of taking this guy to court and getting my money back? Please email me at jones_mp@yahoo.com if you can tell me what to do.

Thanks for listening :)

Nearly there

Well, the initial euphoria of Bessy being delivered was tempered by the disappointment of everything not being as it should have been. 

There was a great deal of squeaking when I first fired up the diesel engine on Saturday morning and the coolant light came on a little while later. The driver's courtesy light and heating control lights weren't working and so the cab was almost pitch black at night and the driver's side windscreen spray didn't spray. Finally, we hadn't noticed it but both tables were slightly damaged and an infill cushion was missing which makes up the double bed.

So with a heavy heart I had to email the dealer again who agreed to come back up on Tuesday and sort everything out, returning it to the garage that had done the work if necessary. True to his word, he did this and everything was fixed by Tuesday evening. I really can't fault the dealer on his excellent service, and I've spoken with him so often that I almost I've got to know him as a friend now. He'll be a very good person to know in the future too I'm sure.

So we're good to go now and tomorrow I'll be loading Bessy up and we'll be off on our maiden voyage to Anglesey via a couple of stops on the North Wales coast on Saturday morning.

Watch this space for some photos of Penmon Point.

Our Bessy Finally Arrives

After a three week delay mainly due to significant engine problems, Our Bessy was delivered today.  The initial minor delay was caused by a failure in the blown-air heating system requiring that the heater was reconditioned by a Carver specialist.

However, she also overheated on the M6 delivery journey from Worcestershire and had to be taken to a commerical garage in Middlewich where she spent a few day having a new camshaft, cambelt and associated gear and pulley systems, followed by pressure testing in Stoke to make sure nothing else had been damaged due to overheating.

So today was an exciting occasion as I waited in expectation for 10am to arrive. But nothing seems to go to plan with Our Bessy and it was 11:20am before she actually turned up outside our house.  And then, as the dealer went though the handover demonstration, we discovered that the toilet pump wasn't working!  At first I had thoughts of Bessy being taken away to get it sorted, but all credit to the dealer who tried everything to get it working, and following a few phone calls, he eventually did.

So now we have her to ourselves - watch this space for more news as we familiarise ourself with Bessy's controls and prepare for our first short overnight trip to Anglesey.

Welcome to the Adventures of Our Bessy

Bessy is shortly to be our new campervan (or motorhome if you're a bit posh).  She's a 1997 2.4 litre diesel Peugeot Boxer fitted with an AutoSleepers Symphony van conversion and she's in pretty good nick for her age.

We're buying her from a dealer in Worcestershire and she's due to be delivered on Thursday - needless to say we can't wait for her to arrive.

After weeks of deliberation, including looking at a brand-new Volkswagen California which was over £45,000,  we decided to dip our toes in the world of motorhomes with a somewhat cheaper option.

Cheaper and the fact that it has a built-in toilet and shower cubicle which the very nicely designed but incredibly expensive California doesn't have.  So after seeing a couple of vans in the flesh and viewing many for sale on websites, we plumped for the AutoSleepers 'Symphony' model, which seemed to have everything we need.

OK, so it's not brand new, but we're not really brand new kind of people.  Who knows? If we like it, we may buy a newer model at some time in the future.

Bessy is chiefly going to be my birdmobile.  I want to be able to go out birding at a moment's notice and stay overnight somewhere without the fuss of worrying about accommodation -  a motorhome with a toilet, shower and cooking facilities seems to fit the bill.  But Sarah is very keen to use Bessy for travelling around the country and perhaps even abroad.

We used to have a static caravan on Anglesey and we've really missed it since having to give it up in 2010 when it was well past its 'use by' date.  In fact, we'll probably take Bessy to one of our favourite places on Anglesey for her maiden voyage - Penmon Point.

Watch this space for photos of her first adventure.