I've been having a look at the new Erbacars on the internet.

A number of things come into my mind. Firstly, surely the very essence of Eriba ness is the poptop, which the new Eribacar doesn't have. Though I admit that Hymer have branded all their caravans of recent years as Eribas. But therefore, what has happened to the Hymer policy of all motorised tourers being branded Hymer and all caravans Eriba?

Life's too short to try and find an equivalent model in the Hymer branded range, but my money is on there being an identical van with different furniture colour, fabrics and vinyl stickers branding it Hymer. Good old 1960's BL badge engineering.

I thought it was funny on one video where the Lowdham sales person was lauding the smooth windows on the 602 model and then came face to face with the bulges on either side on the 600 model.

Having been round Bailey's Bristol factories back in September and seen their campervan production line I was intrigied by the comparison. A Bailey Endeavour B62 is akin to the Eribacar 602, albeit on a Ford body, rather than VW. It comes in at £69,999, whereas the Eriba starts at £71,120. However the Bailey has auto transmission, alloy wheels, microwave, Thule wind out sun canopy, mud flaps, an oven/grill and a solar panel as standard. An autobox on an Eribacar will cost £2,560, mud flaps £120, alloy wheels £1,820, microwave £350 and the oven, canopy and solar panel aren't even listed amongst the copious range of factory options for the Eribacar.

So to get near the same spec. on an Eribacar will cost £6,000 more than the Bailey, plus you won't have an oven/grill, a solar panel or a wind out sun canopy which you'd have to arrange to have fitted or do without.

Plus, of course the side door of the Eriba is not on the correct side for the UK.

Having run two Transit based PVC's over the years I can't say that they're any better or worse than VW and their spares were a lot less costly.

I've had 2 VW Transporters, a T4 & 5, both nice vans. I'm running a Transit custom at the moment and must say that the Ford has been much cheaper to run, more reliable, more comfortable to drive too.
A good friend has a later Transporter and has spent quite a lot more than I have, keeping it running.