I agree completey, I think there is an element of snobbery starting to appear. We have only beeen caravanning for a couple of years, and we're lucky enought to be able to afford a new van, however the first van we bought was a pre 1980's Esprit Panache.
Not everyone is in a position to buy new, and since holidaying abroad is becoming more expensive, there seem to be a lot more new caravanners around. Naturally, if you're trying something new, you dont want to be investing £10k - £20k unless you're sure that its the way you want to go, so logic would dictate that you spend a smaller amount to test the water so to speak.
I have seen the snobbery for myself recently at a CL site, there were 4 vans including ours, and the oldest van onsite was only a couple of years old, then a family turned up in what I would suspect to be a mid 80's van. We were the only ones that spoke to them, and tried to be friendly, the other 4 vans blanked them for the whole of the easter bank holiday.
This family had recently bought the van to try out caravanning to see if they liked it, before committing to something more expensive.
What sort of welcome is that for new caravanners? It wouldnt suprise me if they decided that caravanners were anti social, and they went back abroad.
I have also seen the opposite, 'reverse snobbery'.
We have been to sites with our (now traded in) 2008 S6 Pageant Burgundy, where the majority of the other caravans were older, and we were completely ignored despite trying to spark up conversations with other people.
What is the world coming to, I thought that we were supposed to go caravanning because we enjoy it, and we enjoy meeting new people etc, Its not a competition is it? Would you ignore a guy in a pub just because he lives in a large detached house, and you live in a terrace?