Hi
@JTMonza -- I looked into this myself as I would have very much liked a long wheelbase twin slider Beach.
I was particularly taken with the offerings of Uberbus (they do a lovely looking "Beach" model). Uberbus seemed to do high quality work (I visited them at Busfest), slightly different to the rest, and had a good reputation.
In the end, I think the main reason that chose a Beach over a conversion was that I was confident of the resale value of the Beach, so that if I realised I'd made a mistake I could sell and go down the conversion route. So I've taken a compromise but I think I will be happy with it
I spent quite a lot of time thinking about this, looking on the T4forum -- the other reasons I went for the Beach over the conversion were as follows:
1)
Price - not much difference between a new Beach and a similarly specified converted Kombi/Shuttle bought new
2)
Type classification - I was keen to have the van registered as a 'car, mpv etc' and not commercial vehicle (50mph speed limits on A roads). This would have required either to have a built in kitchen (which I didn't want) or to have converted a Shuttle / Caravelle (with extra conversion costs due to the need to move ducting etc in roof)
3)
Second hand vans - looked like hard work to find a second hand van that one could be sure had been treated OK. Too many ex-builders vans / taxis etc. Felt more confident that a second hand Beach would have been cared for
4)
Hassle factor. Didn't want the hassle of going back and forth with convertors - & the potential for getting stuck between VW dealer & the convertor throwing blame for things going wrong & getting stuck in the middle. I was very uninspired by the VW approved convertors such as Jerba, Bilbos etc (& no price benefit with these firms). Also, the convertors I did get in touch with took ages to reply to emails (if they did at all) --- can't be bothered with that.
5)
Scams, dodgy dealers. Too many stories of convertors taking your money and not delivering, delivering a poor product, or taking forever to do what they say they will. T4 forum full of these kind of stories. Unfortunately these stories do put a shadow over the whole conversion trade (in my view) and it's difficult to tell as an outsider whether a company with a once good reputation has now hit hard times.
6)
Carpet - the ubiquitous grey carpet that seems to cover the walls of virtually all conversions. Yuk.
7)
Self conversion. I'm not good with my hands so wouldn't do it myself.
8)
The discount on new builds - I managed to get about 10% off from list price on my factory order which seems about standard from others on this forum. And I didn't work very hard on price negotiations unlike some here.
)
