Vauxhall Vivaro
*** Offers accepted ***
To drive, the van is excellent. Very economical (About 150 motorway miles from Salisbury to Nottingham for around £30), great handling and drives like a car (I drove a Fiesta before this!). The van fits under a 2.2m height barrier so you can still go most places, and I’ve never once heard a strange noise or anything like that.
Before me, she had two owners – one was a water company who maintained her extensively and serviced very regularly, and the other was a young man who’d been bought the van to start his business but hadn’t done so, so it had sat on his Mum’s drive for 6 months before being sold to me.
When I bought the van, the mechanic who inspected it said “I can’t believe I didn’t know this was for sale – I’d have bought it in a heartbeat”. Another mechanic has said similar, expressing their surprise that a van of this age has literally nothing wrong with it. No rust on the underside, nothing. I have the print out of the 136 point pre-purchase inspection that a mechanic completed prior to me purchasing Kony in September 2023.
The only rust on the van is the towbar (detachable, the van just came with it and I haven’t taken it off) and the latch on the back door (it’s not seized, and a replacement is £70). There are also a couple of dents and dinks which is to be expected given the age of the van, but they’re barely noticeable and just surface damage (see pics).
Needless to say, Kony comes with full service history. The last MOT had no advisories and failed on a seized handbrake cable, which was replaced straight away along with the brake pads. The last service was 6 months ago (full Castrol oil and Bosch filter changes) and she’s had new front and rear brakes in the last 6 months, as well as 4 new van tyres. Before I bought her, Kony had a new gearbox and exhaust system (gearboxes are the things that tend to go in Vivaros so this gave me confidence in the van’s reliability). The MOT is due in October so you have the whole summer before needing to think about it!
Overall, I have been very happy with Kony and am very sad to sell her. Unfortunately, my circumstances have changed and I now need to rent a house. If it wasn’t for that, I’d keep this van forever. I truly believe she will still be going strong in 10 years.
If you have any questions or want to come and inspect, you are most welcome. I will be driving her about until she’s been sold so the miles will go up a bit but definitely won’t go past 100k. I can be in Nottingham or Salisbury for viewings so let me know what’s preferred for you.
Thank you – put in an offer today 🙂
What you need to know (for full description scroll to bottom):
Purchased in September 2023. Now at 98,000 motorway miles.
Stealth camper
Conversion by professional, specialising in bespoke designs; high-quality materials used.
Features:
Insulation: Dodo Thermo Liner foam, Dodo Mat sound deadening, Dodo Thermo Fleece.
Electricals: 130a Lithium battery, Durite split charge relay, 130w thin solar panel.
Temperature regulation: Powerful intake/exhaust fan, diesel heater with muffler, cab air conditioning.
Treated exposed metal with rust converter after purchase.
No windows in the back for stealth; option to fit a window in the sliding door.
Interior:
Thermal blackout curtain between cab and living area for stealth and light management.
4 LED ceiling lights, 2 USB sockets, and 2 12v sockets.
Pull-out small double bed with £300 thick, firm memory foam mattress.
Plenty of storage under and next to the bed for clothes, cookware, fridge, and toilet.
Full-sized pull-out desk with chair for working.
No fixed sink or cooker; uses camping stove and insulated canteen for water.
Driving:
Economical and great handling; fits under 2.2m height barrier.
Previous owners: water company (extensive maintenance) and a young man (brief ownership, but new gearbox and exhaust fitted during this time).
Positive mechanic inspections; no rust on the underside.
Full service history; last MOT had no advisories; recent service and new brakes/tyres.
New gearbox and exhaust system prior to purchase.
Circumstances require selling.
Viewings available in Nottingham or Salisbury before auction ends.
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Extended description:
It is with a heavy heart that I am listing for sale my pride and joy, Kony the Campervan.
I bought the van in September 2023 with around 93000 miles on the clock and have put about 5000 mainly motorway miles on since.
As you can see from the pictures, Kony is a stealth camper. I’ve been living in her for the past 6 months when I’ve travelled up to Nottingham for weeks at a time for work and have never had any issues parking in car parks etc. This is my second stealth van, so I took everything I’d learned from my first and applied it here!
The conversion was done by a professional converter specialising in bespoke designs. This van is one of a kind, and has been converted using high quality, low weight ply and professional materials. All wood is either coated in anti-mould paint or several coats of low VOC interior varnish. I mean it when I say no expenses have been spared on the important bits:
Insulation: Dodo Thermo Liner closed cell foam insulation, Dodo Mat sound deadening, and moisture repellent thermo liner (Dodo Thermo Fleece). Expensive, high quality, light weight and most importantly, anti moisture.
Electricals: 130a Lithium battery (much better than your standard lead acid), Durite split charge relay (so the battery charges whenever the engine is running) with voltage sensitivity, 130w thin solar panel that you can’t see when walking past the van.
Temperature regulation: A powerful intake and exhaust fan, which doesn’t look obviously like a camper fan on the outside. A high quality diesel heater from Craft a Camper that is extremely efficient and fitted with a muffler for quietness. Kony also has lovely cold air conditioning in the cab 🙂
When cleaning the van immediately after buying her, I made sure that any areas where the metal had been exposed were treated with rust converter.
For stealth reasons, there are no windows in the back of the van. This choice meant that I didn’t have to worry about light or sound coming through. If you would like to fit a window, the sliding door would be a good place for it as there’s no cabling behind the carpeted panel and it can be removed.
The curtain that divides the cab and the living area is a blackout curtain with thermal interlining and high-quality fabric over the top – it doesn’t let any light through, but when drawn back, enough light comes into the living area for it to be fully illuminated. When you look into the cab from the outside with the curtain drawn, it just looks black, so you wouldn’t know there’s a whole living area hidden behind it! Having a curtain means you can get from the cab to the back without exiting the van – handy in the rain and when stealth camping. I removed the middle headrest to allow for this, but I still have it and the van will be sold with it.
Inside the living area, there are 4 LED flat ceiling lights (front and back controlled separately). Other switches control two USB sockets (I have a dimmable USB ring light for mood lighting which will come with the van) and a 12v socket. There is another 12v socket under the bed for the fridge (the fridge won’t come with the van but it cost £250 and has been going for 5 years, draws barely any power and is still available on Amazon – I’ll send you a link if you buy – but any top loading fridge would work here).When the double bed is fully extended, you can still access the fridge.
Under the bed is plenty of storage, custom made for the fridge and the toilet (also won’t come with the van, but will send you a link to where I bought it). The space should fit a standard camping loo. Additional under-bed storage gives a place to store cookware etc.
The bed pulls out to a small double and has a very comfy £300 memory foam thick mattress on it (I have back problems so this was a must!). There is plenty of clothes storage, including a proper wardrobe with a rail. The storage easily fits 2 weeks of clothes in it.
You’ll also see that Kony has a full-sized pull-out desk and comes with a chair. I do a lot of working from home, and there is nothing better than pulling up somewhere pretty, opening up the cab divider curtain, folding out the chair and getting to work like that. You can buy 12v laptop chargers for £20 on Amazon.
What the van doesn’t have is a sink or a fixed cooker. This was a deliberate choice. My old van had a sink and tap, but I found that the reservoir would get hot and so would the water (hello microplastics!), and cleaning out the system regularly was a pain. Instead, I use a big insulated canteen with a push top that acts as a tap (like the ones usually used at conferences etc for coffee).
To wash up, I use a bottle of white vinegar and water and some paper towels. You produce a lot less water waste that way and don’t have to carry around (and find somewhere to empty!) your waste water. If you wanted to fit a sink, you could do that above one of the storage cupboards by cutting a hole and sinking in a metal mixing bowl or similar. Sink kits don’t cost much and you just need a jigsaw and sander.
The lack of cooker hasn’t been an issue for me – I just use a camping stove on the counter top with the door open a bit and the fan on, but again you could easily install one on top of one of the cabinets if you wanted to. I generally don’t cook much in the van due to stealth reasons, and when camping, the stove goes in the awning (not included) anyway.
If you have any questions or comments, please send me a message. This van is listed for 15k but reasonable offers are more than welcomed. Thank you.
One adult small double bed. It is fixed as a single and then slides out with ease to become a comfy small double bed. 2 adults can fit comfortably on this bed.
The contact details for this vehicle are no longer available because it has either sold or the listing has expired.
Insurance options are available through our partner, Ripe Insurance.
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