I might as well laugh about this or I’d just cry.we had a 12 year old Sprite Quattro from new. Usual services most years occasionally went 18 months between.
Anyway we noticed a small drop of water on the inside below the front window. Kept an eye on the area and slowly over time it got worse. Local mobile caravan guy came out with damp meter. We found the window had bowed and wasn’t sealing properly. A bit of mastic sorted a temporary repair whilst we estimated what we should do. We were talking £1300 upward for a new window etc, but that wasn’t replacing the wood, which wasn’t actually rotten just wet.
anyway, enter Covid19 and everything locked down. So several months later I go to the van to take the battery back and I see the front window is sporting a new look. It’s a 3rd full of water, hence the fish tank reference. So I am pretty upset thinking I will have to get a new window etc which on a 12 year old van is a substantial amount of its value, especially if we need to replace wood and wallboard, looking at £2000.
so I had a good look and found a split in the window, hence the water. Inside the van smells damp.
At at the hinge in the middle of the window, I found that at one of the screw holes, the front panel of the van was split, This ran behind the hinge and through to the window opening.
To cut a long story short, we part exchanged it for a Super Sprite Quattro FB , which we were looking to do in 2 years time anyway, so it just brought forward our decision.
We were pleased with what the dealer offered us, obviously we were 100% on honest with them and actually did the deal without going to the showroom .