At 02:06 PM 2/16/2013, Stuart MacMillan wrote:
>right about the US conversions, but Americans seem to want all this
>stuff.   I think a reasonable conversion could be done for $10k to
>$15k over the price of the vehicle, and an "empty" Transit chassis
>should be in the $20s, maybe low $30s with options.

Sigh...my first sight of a VW camper was a brand-new UK Loaf that my
family dinghy-racing friends had shipped over here when they came to
the International 14 championships in Annapolis Maryland in '68.  I
don't remember it's specific details other than that it was red and
had a sink and curtains, but I fell instantly in love; which is how I
eventually came to have an '84 Westy.  At the time in the UK there
was a purchase tax on automobiles that was not levied on caravans
(campers), and the amount was enough that a minimum camper sufficient
to satisfy the requirements could be done for the amount of the tax
that would have otherwise been paid.  Several companies were doing
conversions.  So if you bought a Loaf, you could have it as a
strictly passenger vehicle or as a minimal-but-very-real camper for
exactly the same amount of money out of pocket. <envy>

These same folks' mother gave my mother a bit of a start when she
phoned up prior to them coming to dinner and offered to provide a
joint for the affair.  Although it was many many years later that my
mom finally listened attentively to _La Cucaracha_, even she knew
what a joint was in 1968.  Two peoples divided by a common tongue... <g>

Yours,
David