I looking for a bus/campervan. Not for full-time living but as small adventure bus for weekend or week-long trips and to also use as daily driver.

I am usually by myself or with 1 other person and occasionally with groups of up to 9 people (which might be a stretch, but just throwing out some numbers).

I am completely new to ownining a car and campervanning in general so am looking for people with experience with this type of model for spare time use and advice on what to look out for.

I’ve had my eye on the VW id. Buzz because it’s electric and has a nice size for being mobile but large enough to to fit many people or lots of gear or a bed + living basics.

I am relatively tall (190cm) so am worried about not being able to stand up in it or having to permanently remove some seats to install a bed lengthwise.

I am open to looking at other models but It’s important for me, that it is an electric car for the lower environmental impact and maintainence cost.

  • blarghly@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    18 days ago

    I don’t have experience with electric vans. But I’ve been more or less full time in my van for the better part of a decade.

    My opinion is that if you are buying a car, you should buy it for its main use case, and then maybe compromise a little around edge cases, and then just make it work. So if, for example, you are buying this van to ski bum in during winter weekends and vacations, and you are serious about skiing as much as possible, and you aren’t really driving it as a commuter much, then it could be a good fit for you. Most of the use you will get out of the van will be as a camper.

    But if your use case instead is to be a daily driver that you take from home to work to the grocery store, then, imo, you should look into smaller, cheaper commuter cars. A larger vehicle will be more expensive than a smaller one, and will take more money and time to charge. It will be more difficult to drive around narrow streets and to find parking for. And you have to deal with these issues all the time, while you may only use it as a camper or a big group hauler .1% of the time.

    In the daily driver use case, I think you should explore other possibilities. For example:

    • In the case where you need to transport a lot of people, you could rent another car, rent a larger car, or ask someone else with a car to also drive.
    • In the case of going camping, you can just use a tent.
    • If your camping use case requires sleeping in the car, much smaller cars can work for this. The classic is the Prius, which has a fold-flat back seat that will work as a bed area for all but the tallest people. I’ve seen builds in Honda Civics as well.
    • If you want a luxury van camping experience occasionally, you can buy a practical commuter and then rent an already built Promaster or Transit. This would be far less expensive than buying your own van, far less work than building it out yourself, and you would have a more spacious and better equipped camper for the time you have it.
    • If you want the experience of owning and working on your own camper, you could get a practical commuter that has decent towing specs, then buy or build out a small camper trailer. Then you get all the luxury and experience of owning the camper, without having to bring it with you each time you get grocieries.

    It’s all about what you really plan to do with it. But I’m just worried that you seem to be chasing a lot of rabbits here, and if you try to catch all of them, you’ll end up with a compromise that isn’t really good at anything

    • Whirling_Ashandarei@lemmy.world
      2·
      18 days ago

      Thanks for this comment as I’m in a boat of wanting my own camper but not going full van life, I think I’m gonna do the last option… Eventually… When I have extra money… Lol

      • blarghly@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        18 days ago

        I mean, if you were already considering buying new, then if you buy a bit cheaper on the car, it shouldn’t be too much more up front to buy a used fixer-upper trailer. The bulk of camper trailers made for the last 50 years were built with kinda shit quality, which means there is a huge market of mechanically sound but “needs tlc” trailers out there for dirt cheap

    • flint@lemmy.zipOP
      1·
      18 days ago

      Thank you do much for the detailed reply! Lots of solid advice here. Very much appreciated.

      You’re completely right that I might be trying to do a bit too many things at once. I’ll take some time to figure out what exactly it is I want to do most with the car before picking the exact model. Although I must say I’m pretty sure that day to day I won’t be using it much for commuting as I already live in the city where it’s pretty easy to get around by public transport or by bike. It’s the idea to be able to take all my camping, surfing, fishing and whatever else gear with me and go wherever I want to have an adventure that excites me the most.

      I like the idea of the camping trailer. Might look into that as an alternative to a full van as I do like the idea of being convertible between small car and bigger camping setup. But it might also fall into the “not really good at anything” trap.

      I’ll have a think and see what the next step I come up with will be.

  • reddig33@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    18 days ago

    Keep in mind that this vehicle currently only has about a 235 mile range. Plan your week long trips accordingly. You will need to stop and charge from time to time. Adding weight to the vehicle may also reduce range.

  • Mastema@infosec.pub
    1·
    18 days ago

    Depends on what your budget and diy ability is. You might consider getting one of the GM Brightdrop vans, which are no longer being manufactured and are therefore way cheaper than they were. 275+ miles of range and full standing room. There are companies who convert them if your budget allows that. We should receive ours in August.