Ebay sent me a heads up on a 2017 542 that's just been put up on their site. The sellers are using Motorhome Depot as an agent and they're asking £20k for what looks like a well equipped van in the Herefordshire area.

That got me thinking because we sold our 2005 540 in 2013 at 8 years old and that had a very similar spec. If I recall correctly she went for £12,500

So I looked up £12,500 in 2013 and what the equivalent would be in December 2023 on the Bank of England inflation calculator.

The answer was £16,800.

Going the other way, £20,000 now is the equivalent of £14,900 in 2013.

So, allowing for inflation that 542 is being sold with a 20% real price increase.

Mind given that new 540's were costing around £25,000 in 2013, that, according to the BofE is now £33,500, so not all that far from the £35,000 a new one costs now.

That suggests that the £20,000 being asked for this 542 is a bit OTT and £17,500 would restore the balance.

If £20k is a reasonable value for the 2017 542 then £19k would have been reasonable for a Triton, so no wonder yours struggled.

As I say, if £20k is right, then allowing for inflatio, used values have increased by 20% n 10 years, whereas new prices have only increased by about 5%.

If you think back to the days of Lechlade, there must be a helluva lot more new vans sold these days given the number of dealerships. The van's were always a style icon, that's one reason we love them but rather like a beautiful, tiny, unspoilt place you discover, these days through social media and commercial exploitation it becomes spoilt and overcrowded, nothing like the place you found so serene before.

That's correct in our case Randa, trailer tent blown down on a Sunday on The Gower, Triton 420 bought the following Thursday

Hi,
No criticism is intended here, genuinely; we’ve had old vans and new ones.

A lot of these comments seem to be along the lines that people had an iconic and fairly rare caravan, joined a club which waxed lyrical about how great they are and now they’ve got more popular and it seems to have devalued the ownership in some way.

Surely we should be encouraged that there is such an interest in the brand whilst still feeling free to concentrate on the models (and model year) of our choice.
Some of the comments, and regular posts about how ‘bad’ the newer models and build standards are, can seem quite alienating to those with recent purchases.

Personally, I wish that Eribas still came with real veneer etc, but they don’t, and we wanted a caravan that would last us out, rather than changing wwb’s every few years to limit depreciation. I wasn’t interested in restoration and had a list of features which we wanted, so settled on a new van.

We have been reasonably involved in the various interest groups and rallies, so I can’t see much difference between us all. It would mark the start of a decline if people stopped buying new Eribas.

Let’s try to be inclusive in our shared interest.

Steve.

Well said Steve. We don’t have a new van, in all honesty we can’t afford one. We’re happy with our van but know people with new vans who have fallen under the Eriba spell too. In the end, new or old they’re all Eribas. If everyone isn’t as keen to be members of “the club” then so be it. Doesn’t change anything for those of us who want to share our love of these ‘vans. I like meeting Eriba owners, new or old.

Getting back to the original point of the OP, which was that even after allowing for inflation used Eriba values have increased substantially, whilst new prices haven't increased much more than general inflation over the period. That actually runs counter to accepted economic theory which holds that as goods become more available and are easier to find, more on the market and therefore less competition to purchase it leads to lower prices, not higher.I wonder why that economic norm has been avoided by used Eribas as it certainly hasn't with other caravans, except maybe in the immediate aftermath of the lockdown years.

The other thought that has me a bit baffled is that despite the growth in Eriba sales over the last decade or so, I can't say that I've seen many more when we've stayed on sites over that period. It makes you wonder where they all go?

Zitat

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The other thought that has me a bit baffled is that despite the growth in Eriba sales over the last decade or so, I can't say that I've seen many more when we've stayed on sites over that period. It makes you wonder where they all go?

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There’s a diversion in Roundhill tunnel at the end of the M20 Andy; swallows ‘ribas. 👀
Beware when using Eurotunnel!
🤣🤣🤣

totally unscientific but Kath & I definitely saw fewer Eribas this year in our widespread road travels but also on sites - however we didn't go anywhere near the Inspecta's aforementioned Eriba-swallowing tunnel.....................!