Before you bought your Brazilian Bay ....

When I was looking for my camper I considered buying an original '70s model at the same time as looking at the Brazilian T2. To help me decide whether I wanted to go Classic or Kombi I hired a Brazilian T2 for a few days. Having handed the keys of the rental Bay back my mind was made up and Max was in my driveway pretty soon after that. I've owned plenty of Volkswagens over the years but had never had a VW Camper before. So it got me thinking - how did others find their path to a Brazilian T2?

We spent almost a year trying to decide whether to go down the old '70s route or get a new one. As it was going to be a daily driver our main concern was reliability, and not having the space to tinker around with a older '70s van we ended up getting a new Brazilian van.

Although we haven't had any problem with our van i don't know if I would do the same again. Would probably get a second hand Brazilian bay with low mileage, save around £10k and convert it myself.

Basically, we loved our 1976 T2 but I was afraid to stop anywhere in case we couldn't start her. I had a minor breakdown on the way to Vanfest in 2008 after having returned from vanfest 2007 on an RAC trailer. I saw my Brazilian for sale as I was leaving the site in 2008. We robbed all our kids savings, emptied our accounts got a loan ( until we sold our T2 ) and bought the Brazilian a couple of days later. It's a dream I am not the slightest anxious when I travel now, and hopefully she will see us through until I pop my clogs.

Just for a bit of drama, a couple of weeks later my everyday car caught fire on the motorway and my insurers wouldn't pay up, so I was well out of pocket for months.

All very encouraging stuff.

At the moment I dont have a Braz-bay and I have just sold my '72 bay to help fund the new one.

Looking for a drive everywhere, drive anywhere watercooled camper to keep for a long long time.

I guess I can comment again on this thread once I do have a Bra-bay and then see how its all panned out ....

Was the lucky owner of Bella, a 79 V reg with twin sliding doors. It comes with the territory but she did indeed soak up the cash in trying to keep her road worthy. Thought she would need another £10k to get her to a decent condition but opted to grab a Brazilian instead and try and ease the number of roadside breakdowns. No regrets whatsoever.

Was considering both but after a trip to Danbury I walked away with any empty bank balance.
Better than paying of part of the mortgage by far.

We had a '72 low light crossover bay before commencing our adventures with a BraziBay
Unfortunatley it became an MOT failure with too much work required - and before Vanfest 2010 for which we had tickets
So what could we do but "try before you buy" by hiring a BraziBay for Vanfest
Been hooked ever since

We too had many a long discussions over three years regarding to pros and cons of a 70's or a new Brazibay. Plus we needed to find out the limitations of different layouts and reliability issues between both old and new.

On hearing stories from mates regarding getting to know the AA men during touring and constant money pit issues, we as a family started to get disappointed. However, we decided to hire a relatively new Danbury Van from Snailtrail for a week (Ruby the Dr Who star). She instantly introduced us to the reliability side of the water cooled engine, but I was surprised how much the simple more spacious Diamond layout rather than a Rio, suited our needs.

Further discussions with Downunder and Danbury for a new van lead us to go with Danbury because availability and price (pre 20% VAT hike). But there was a van in the Danbury's showroom which we fell in love with and she had all the extras we wanted.

Eos is now a year old this week and with only a little rust on bumpers/guttering and a sticky passenger door lock. She has done nearly 10,000KM and is booked into Danbury next week for her first annual service. This will be a 7 hour round trip for me, but Danbury let me use their little office upstairs to work from while she is being serviced. So far I cannot fault Danbury's service.

I have had a canaburry split a devon low light bay a 2.0 Viking bay a 2.0 auto high roof wedge and a westy 1.6 diesel wedge and a lot of bugs and a ghia and got a Brazilian and have found it a lot less work

For me it was quite easy.

I was busy on the Long Mynd Hike and my wife - without discussion - went down to Danbury, ordered a van, and chose the colour and the specification.

The first I knew about this was the conversation the following day - "I've ordered a Campervan - you'll love it - I hope....."

We had looked at getting a restored 70's bus and looked at a few, however, as I am no mechanic decided to go down to Danbury and have a 'look'.
Fell in love with the idea of a watercooled bus, and that was that, deposit paid, then big lump of pension cash, never looked back...... drive Mish everyday and smile!!!

We looked at an old bus locally, but the thought of all that welding again (we had classic minis) the wife was not impressed!

So she found our bus on ebay, we tried to scrape the money together but eventually decided to sell our RX8 to fund the bus purchase. Unfortunately by the time the RX8 sold the ebay listing had ended , but luckily the wife had kept all the details of the garage selling it. We phoned the garage and were told the bus was sold, however the couple buying it had left a deposit but couldn't pay the rest as the husband had just been made redundant (due to credit crunch). Over the phone, we suggested we came to see the bus and if happy buy it at asking price so they could refund the deposit to the original purchasers and still sell the bus.

Is it wrong that we benefitted from the credit crunch?



P.S. No regrets selling the RX8, we still get the same miles per gallon and use the same amount of oil, and are far less likely to get speeding points!

I had been looking for an old T2 for a couple of years, with the intention of doing it up as a project for my son, (He of Kombi Kruise fame) as he now had three kids, not much money, and couldn't afford holidays away. After visiting several VW meets, we were at the Cruise to the Prom at Weston, and there were about 8 or 9 recovery trucks hovering, waiting for the breakdowns, which sort of made my mind up. I kitted the kids out with frame tents etc, instead and then went to Danbury. They were happy, and I haven't looked back. At first view it looks like they got the rough end of the deal, but when I finally turn my toes up they'll get Dizzy anyway and by then, hopefully she'll be a classic in her own right!

we work in the family farm shop and a brazi bay came in ,wife fell in love straight away never owned a camper before.

I was out cycling with my business partner when he told me he'd seen an ad for Kombis in the national press with a sale on!

He brought the cutting in and the rest is history...

*not sure the "sale " was key to our purchase given where the price ended up after we'd been tempted by Danbury extras!

I have a wife with a 20 year obsession with wanting to own a splitty, and although I do enjoy a little tinkering, I would prefer to tinker on my own terms and not HAVE to tinker in order to get home or have an ongoing relationship with an AA man.

Tallulah was an excellent compromise - as was the decision to hire her out to help with ownership/running costs and finance package to pay for her.

Stronger jaw muscles and upper arms are the symptoms of just 8 months of owning/driving a Kombi, although the wife rarely let's me drive it!

We still have Betty our 73 Devon sitting in our drive tucked up next to Clementine. The heads are blowing and she has no power what so ever, so she's now a longer term project to get her back to her former glory, Maybe as a wedding hire van but not sure yet. Planning to get the engine out this winter and strip her down!

peppa wrote:

late one night on the internet

.... I didn't mean to Your Honour, honest!

We have always wanted a vw camper, but were fully aware that our mecanical inclination and ability was not up to the job. However we would dream the dream for about 10 years. We came across Danbury and their Brazilians early on in the dream, and i remember pricing up one to our dream full spec, and then getting it down to £26k for the essentials. This was all way back, when an empty van was £13k. Alas, with 2 young children to raise, that sort of money was not avaliable. Then we heard the rumour that Brazil was stopping making them, and we forgot about them for a few years.
Then we had the oppitunity to get a camper, and the hunt was on. We quickly ruled out all of the other makes and models, it just had to be a vw. We even test drove a T4, which was nice and comfortable........but........it just wasnt a vw. We knew that if we were parked up along side a dub, we would be for ever looking out our window at it longingly. And then we came back to Danburys website, and lo and behold, brazil hadnt stopped making them.
2 quick visits to the showroom later, and an awfully large sum of money and.......... WAHOOOOOO.

Two visits!!! You have way more will power than me

Lol, the first was to look, the second was to pay, needed a couple of days to think before handing over that much money. Only ever spent more than that on the 2 house's we have owned, and it was getting up towards the cost of our first one.

kiteman wrote:

Two visits!!! You have way more will power than me

Haaaaa, my first visit was to pick up the camper......

Another factor that has become increasingly significant since this thread started, is the fuel cost of a Classic Bay versus a Kombi. Petrol is on the way up yet again - today a litre of unleaded is around 135p. A Classic Bay will return somewhere in the region of 20mpg, an AquaBay will do double that. On that basis a 600 mile round trip - the kind you'd do for a holiday for instance - will end up costing you £183.60 in a Classic Bay and £91.80 in a New Watercooled T2.

My wife had loved the "Herbie" films since she was a kid and thus wanted a "bug". When she became disabled in her early twenties she transfered her loyalty to the "Beetlevans" as she could no longer get into a bug, but never dreamed she would ever realy get one. Then 16 months ago, her father died suddenly in the middle of selling the family home. Her mum came to stop with us last winter during the snows of last winter as her heating failed and she was in shock at losing her husband and family home at the same time.
Then one night we were watching "One man and his van" the Martin Dorey series, so Hedgie said to her mum, "That's what you can buy me as an inheritance from my dad." Mum said "OK" and Hedgie's jaw hit the floor. Within an hour we were on Ebay looking at vans. We found a beautiful red and white 70's bay, fully restored, rust free and mechanicaly sound, £10,000. we contacted the seller, offered and were accepted. Before we paid, we hired a local mechanic to go check her out, his report came back "It's a shed, doesn't run, rusted throughout, 2 holes in chasis, doors don't shut, worth £3-5,000, would need as much again spending and a year in a garage."
Disapointed, Hedgie mentioned they still make t2's in Brazil. We were on Danbury's website within the hour and spotted a sage green T2, rang up, only to find it was sold From then on we were checking the site multiple times per day. Then a blue and white one came on, ex-demo 2,000km on the clock, 25% off list price. We bought her on the spot without going to see her.
Boy did we get more than we bargained for. We didn't expect to fall in love with a van, or how great the "Bug scene was. Adie has been a holiday vehicle, daily transport, ambulance to get Dad to hospital and removals van. She is so practical and comfortable, Hedgie can get in her and travel further and longer than any vehicle we have ever had. We have just surrendered our motorbility vehicle, as Adie works better for Hedgie's needs. Adie is now a part of our family.

Great story Yabbit.

We met another Brazi owner at Brighton Breeze last year who bought her Brazi Bay so she coudl transport her autistic son around more esily. She too was not expecting to 'fall in love' with the Brazi Bay/Dub scene, but she had!