Hi Nettie
Price, layout and equipment levels are the things to decide on, why not make a list of the things that you want and those that you can do without in your new caravan.
Where will you be doing most of your caravanning? Will you go to rallies where a fairly large end washroom but no microwave would be advantageous or do you intend to use only club sites which have clean shower / toilet blocks which you have paid to use in your site fee? EHU is available on these sites so you might decide that a microwave oven and one electric and three gas burners as fitted in Swift caravans is for you.
Your Freelander should cope with most 2 berth caravans easily, do you envisage moving it by hand to put it on your drive? If that's the case then weight is definitely a consideration, layouts and weights are shown in the Buyers guide of Practical Caravan magazine (page 126) and there are reviews of the latest caravans on offer from UK manufacturers.
Many caravan dealers will be holding 'events' within the next few weeks, these are often free BBQ's which give the dealers a chance to move stock before the main exhibitions. Generous price discounts are normally available at these events so perhaps these might be worth a look.
You could have a look around caravan dealers in your locality within the next few weeks to see if they will price match NEC offers, don't forget that a new caravan has to be serviced and warranty work is normally carried out by the supplying dealer.
The NEC show affords a good opportunity to see every new model at the same time but because there is so much choice it might be worthwhile going for a couple of days, it can be hard to see every caravan and come to the right decision on what to buy in just one day if you don't have any preconceived ideas before you go.
If you decide to order a caravan from the many dealers competing for sales at the NEC bear in mind that towing your caravan considerable distances for servicing etc will soon eat up any discount that you might gain.
I almost forgot to mention that Nigel Donnelly and other members of the Practical Caravan team are usually at the NEC where they are on hand to offer good advice to prospective caravan buyers.
Good Luck in finding your ideal caravan and don't forget to let us know which one you decide on.
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