BAILEY New Pageant vs Used Senator

[kathryn_5122141]

Hi - we are buying our first expensive caravan and have £12,000 to play with.

Do I go for the new Bailey Pageant Burgundy or a used (twice) Bailey Senator Indiana with all the kit (awning etc) for the same price?

What are the benefits of the Senator - any advice would be appreciated.

 

[cris_408518]

If the senator is near new youa re saving

 

[kathryn_5122141]

If the senator is near new youa re saving

 

[Ken_5040834]

We've got Series 5 Burgundy and, if we'd had the option of a slightly used Indiana for the same price, we would have gone for the Indiana - 4 inches wider, but heavier, so you need to consider whether your car will pull it, or whether you will need to change that.

If you know its only been used twice, you should be okay. Just make sure the seller shows you how everything works and check whether the remainder of the warranty can be transferred to you - I'm not sure when Baileys introduced this, but the seller should have the information with the handbook etc. Make sure the seller has the CRIS registration and that it agrees with his name and address.

If the van is 12 months old, it ought to be serviced as a condition of the warranty - if it hasn't, you could try to make it a condition of the sale that this is done, either funded by the seller or whatever you can agree. The service should also confirm that everything is working properly.

Good luck! Ken

 

[cris_408518]

We are in between vans at present but our last van was a late 90's Senator, it had been used 3 times only and was like new.

Simple thing to do is ask the seller to give you a full demo, and if near new you should be able to transfer the warranty, I doubt that you would buy a car without a test drive so any genuine seller should be pleased to hook up the van to test the fridge and electrics and water. Our van as it had been left doing nothing for a few year had no problems apart from a stickinf impellor on the water pump that took about wo mnuts to fix and it neaded a replacement sealed battery for the alarm(cost

 

[kathryn_5122141]

We've got Series 5 Burgundy and, if we'd had the option of a slightly used Indiana for the same price, we would have gone for the Indiana - 4 inches wider, but heavier, so you need to consider whether your car will pull it, or whether you will need to change that.

If you know its only been used twice, you should be okay. Just make sure the seller shows you how everything works and check whether the remainder of the warranty can be transferred to you - I'm not sure when Baileys introduced this, but the seller should have the information with the handbook etc. Make sure the seller has the CRIS registration and that it agrees with his name and address.

If the van is 12 months old, it ought to be serviced as a condition of the warranty - if it hasn't, you could try to make it a condition of the sale that this is done, either funded by the seller or whatever you can agree. The service should also confirm that everything is working properly.

Good luck! Ken

Thanks for all the advice Ken - really appreciate you taking the time to respond

We are getting very excited and are going to see it on Sunday so will go armed with your sound advice

kathryn

 

[kathryn_5122141]

We are in between vans at present but our last van was a late 90's Senator, it had been used 3 times only and was like new.

Simple thing to do is ask the seller to give you a full demo, and if near new you should be able to transfer the warranty, I doubt that you would buy a car without a test drive so any genuine seller should be pleased to hook up the van to test the fridge and electrics and water. Our van as it had been left doing nothing for a few year had no problems apart from a stickinf impellor on the water pump that took about wo mnuts to fix and it neaded a replacement sealed battery for the alarm(cost

 

[cris_408518]

Let us know how you go Kathryn.

Quite a lot of people buy new vans and hardly ever use them for a wide variety of reasons, some just decide to buy on a whim and then don't like it and find dealers offer a poor price to buy the van back.

The wife of the owner of our van was scared of the size and kept shouting at her husband to "look out" when they were near anything and they had blazing rows on site re parking it. They

used it three times and then it just sat under a shelter in the garden for5 years cleaned and waxed but un used !

 

[kathryn_5122141]

Well update is that we went to see the Senator Indiana and it was like new - had been serviced once in accordance with the Bailey warranty at a Bailey reg dealer, is cris registered and all the sellers info checks out.

So we have sold our Abi Marauder on ebay for what we paid for it last year and that went so quickly - we advertised it on the Friday night and it went this evening. We pick up our new caravan on Saturday morning and we are so giddy it feels like Christmas did when you were a kid!

So we are off to try it out this weekend - thanks for all the help and advice guys

 

[VonRyan]

Hi Kathryn,

We have the latest series 6 burgendy and looked very hard at the Senator indiana. The Senator is a great piece of kit and I hope you and your family enjoy your second Christmas and I am sure the Senator will meet all your expectations.

Rob

 

[kathryn_5122141]

Thanks Rob - we are picking it up on Saturday and will be off for the night to try it out

Keep looking at the pictures on the Bailey website - we won't be used to such luxury. we didn't even have running water in our last van!! (our fault really cos couldn't suss it out)

 

[Ken_5040834]

Kathryn

well, how did you get on with your first trip in it?

Regards

Ken

 

[kathryn_5122141]

Oh we absolutely loved it. I am glad we chose the Senator as it has lots of little extras that the Burgundy doesn't have which aren't really necessary but are nice nonetheless.

It was cold and frosty outside but we were warm as toast inside. The only thing we couldn't suss was the gas and we have since learned that certain types of gas don't work below freezing.

It is a whole new experience and we are determined to get away as many times as we can this year - starting this coming weekend.

 

[kathryn_5122141]

Also - we found out that the warranty couldn't be transferred to us cos the van was bought in July 2005 just before the September 2005 when they brought it in. However I wrote to Bailey asking if they would transfer it to us and they were lovely and agreed to do so! So huge top marks to Bailey we were massively impressed with them as there was no requirement at all for them to help us out.