Yep,Ah! - so it was you who got the good one?, well done
(sorry, couldn't resist)
Can't fault it.
Would buy another tomorrow (if I could afford it!)
Can't fault it.
Would buy another tomorrow (if I could afford it!)
i think that swift aren't selling enough caravans due to quality issues. i was looking at a swift challenger, twin axle with a fixed island bed and it had a plastic molded bed base, plastic molded shelves and thin, flimsy wood and the price??-
Crikey !!!!!!!!
We started caravaning when my daughter was 1 and said we would do it until she was 5 and then go abroad again. Well my daughter is 5 next year and my wife and I have discussed selling our swift.
Yes, caravaning is getting more expensive but so is everything else. We have a Swift Charisma and bought it new, great caravan and love it 2 1/2 years on.
When we bought the caravan we also decided to get a new car as my Golf was borderline with towing weights, so we got a passat after test driving many smaller 4X4's.
We came home off of our holidays last week after spending 2 glorious weeks near Weymouth. It was some 250 miles and I got 35 mpg towing which used just under 3/4 tank of diesel (about
We started caravaning when my daughter was 1 and said we would do it until she was 5 and then go abroad again. Well my daughter is 5 next year and my wife and I have discussed selling our swift.
Yes, caravaning is getting more expensive but so is everything else. We have a Swift Charisma and bought it new, great caravan and love it 2 1/2 years on.
When we bought the caravan we also decided to get a new car as my Golf was borderline with towing weights, so we got a passat after test driving many smaller 4X4's.
We came home off of our holidays last week after spending 2 glorious weeks near Weymouth. It was some 250 miles and I got 35 mpg towing which used just under 3/4 tank of diesel (about
Peter - you could carry on caravanning and still have foreign holidays! There are fantastic sites on the continent - offering all the facilities found in first-class hotels - and sometimes this can be had for as little as
Sidney,
Whilst I do agree with some of your points.
You paint a very doom and gloom picture,where's your british bulldog spirit? lighten up,if we all had your thoughts and attitude we would all be taking anti depression tablets.Just because a few people have been laid off doesn't mean the end of caravanning, not likely,as far as Ostriches are concerned get your head out the ground and look to the bright side of life.I also see that you sent your message at 01.38am which says your not sleeping to well.Jimbob
Whilst I do agree with some of your points.
You paint a very doom and gloom picture,where's your british bulldog spirit? lighten up,if we all had your thoughts and attitude we would all be taking anti depression tablets.Just because a few people have been laid off doesn't mean the end of caravanning, not likely,as far as Ostriches are concerned get your head out the ground and look to the bright side of life.I also see that you sent your message at 01.38am which says your not sleeping to well.Jimbob
WOW time out folks
Think about it, let Sidney sell his caravan ultra cheap to some poor mug (have to be cheap now people can't afford one).
Revel in the fact this is going to make booking a site 1 bit easier and since there is no point in him even considering a car we can all move up one place in the traffic jam.
Be trully gratefull you ain't filling your aquroll up next to him before going back to the caravan for a rope
Think about it, let Sidney sell his caravan ultra cheap to some poor mug (have to be cheap now people can't afford one).
Revel in the fact this is going to make booking a site 1 bit easier and since there is no point in him even considering a car we can all move up one place in the traffic jam.
Be trully gratefull you ain't filling your aquroll up next to him before going back to the caravan for a rope
Well, I can see that mine is the minority view here 
One thing does puzzle me - there are several replies to the effect 'If people can't go on foreign holidays, then they'll go caravanning'
Firstly, people who go on foreign holidays do so (obviously) because they choose to. The caravan option has always been there for them, yet they decided against it. Why one earth would someone who didn't go caravanningWhy before , suddenly decide to take up the hobby just because Teneriffe was too expensive?
These people don't want to empty toilets, trundle water, run big cars to pull big vans! - if they can't go to Spain they'll go to Bognor - but it will be in a guest house or hotel
Secondly, there is a general assumption here that we must all have a holiday, whether that involves jetting of to the sun, or towing off to the rain. It seems to be an assumption that we have a right to leisure activities, and that need will be fulfilled one way or another.
Sadly, while holidays are very desirable, our expectation of them is born out of the high living standards we have experienced during the last few decades. We have become cosseted in luxury - we *expect* a holiday, we *expect* a good wage, we *expect* warm dry homes filled with electrical gadgets and appliances, we *expect* a car, we *expect* to live comfortably for the rest of our lives.
It's our right, isn't it?
Well no, actually, it's not. We have no 'right' to any of these things. Hundreds of millions of people on this planet will live and die without ever once experiencing one percent of the luxuries we petulantly think of as our 'right' - "I've worked hard for this, I deserve it", etc, etc, etc.
In the couple of minutes it takes you to read this post four more children will have died of hunger - every thirty seconds a life is lost due to preventable malnutrition. If we were to factor in the tens of millions who die from other poverty related causes we would scarcely be able to comprehend the magnitude of the disaster that is taking place behind our resolutely turned backs.
Of course, it's all happening far far away. We don't see it, we don't have to hear about it, we can forget it.
In short, we are extremely pampered and incredibly rich - wealth that could only be ours because others in those far far away lands had none.
Now, annoyingly, they want their share. They want hot running water, electricity, DVD players, cars - all the things that oil can provide.
They just don't seem to know their places anymore, they seem to think that they can live at the same level as us! - the cheek of it.
So pressure on the world's natural resources grows exponentially, prices rise, demand outstrips supply - and, eventually, there's nothing left for anyone.
When that happens it's back to the gutter for the third world - but this time we will be sitting there alongside them.
Our 'rights' will be laughable when we too are starving, our cars rusting and idle, our homes dark and unheated. We tell ourselves that it can't possibly happen to us - we are technologically advanced, we are not third-world savages, we are 'different'
But we're not! We raped the earth to fuel our lifestyle and everything we have created relies on resources that we always knew were finite. That makes us pretty stupid - and probably deserving of what's in store.
How long have we got? - don't ask me, I'm no prophet. All I know is that we are on the very edge of a disaster unprecedented in this nation's history - and yet we still seem to think that we are 'entitled' to carry on living like Roman Emperors!
One thing does puzzle me - there are several replies to the effect 'If people can't go on foreign holidays, then they'll go caravanning'
Firstly, people who go on foreign holidays do so (obviously) because they choose to. The caravan option has always been there for them, yet they decided against it. Why one earth would someone who didn't go caravanningWhy before , suddenly decide to take up the hobby just because Teneriffe was too expensive?
These people don't want to empty toilets, trundle water, run big cars to pull big vans! - if they can't go to Spain they'll go to Bognor - but it will be in a guest house or hotel
Secondly, there is a general assumption here that we must all have a holiday, whether that involves jetting of to the sun, or towing off to the rain. It seems to be an assumption that we have a right to leisure activities, and that need will be fulfilled one way or another.
Sadly, while holidays are very desirable, our expectation of them is born out of the high living standards we have experienced during the last few decades. We have become cosseted in luxury - we *expect* a holiday, we *expect* a good wage, we *expect* warm dry homes filled with electrical gadgets and appliances, we *expect* a car, we *expect* to live comfortably for the rest of our lives.
It's our right, isn't it?
Well no, actually, it's not. We have no 'right' to any of these things. Hundreds of millions of people on this planet will live and die without ever once experiencing one percent of the luxuries we petulantly think of as our 'right' - "I've worked hard for this, I deserve it", etc, etc, etc.
In the couple of minutes it takes you to read this post four more children will have died of hunger - every thirty seconds a life is lost due to preventable malnutrition. If we were to factor in the tens of millions who die from other poverty related causes we would scarcely be able to comprehend the magnitude of the disaster that is taking place behind our resolutely turned backs.
Of course, it's all happening far far away. We don't see it, we don't have to hear about it, we can forget it.
In short, we are extremely pampered and incredibly rich - wealth that could only be ours because others in those far far away lands had none.
Now, annoyingly, they want their share. They want hot running water, electricity, DVD players, cars - all the things that oil can provide.
They just don't seem to know their places anymore, they seem to think that they can live at the same level as us! - the cheek of it.
So pressure on the world's natural resources grows exponentially, prices rise, demand outstrips supply - and, eventually, there's nothing left for anyone.
When that happens it's back to the gutter for the third world - but this time we will be sitting there alongside them.
Our 'rights' will be laughable when we too are starving, our cars rusting and idle, our homes dark and unheated. We tell ourselves that it can't possibly happen to us - we are technologically advanced, we are not third-world savages, we are 'different'
But we're not! We raped the earth to fuel our lifestyle and everything we have created relies on resources that we always knew were finite. That makes us pretty stupid - and probably deserving of what's in store.
How long have we got? - don't ask me, I'm no prophet. All I know is that we are on the very edge of a disaster unprecedented in this nation's history - and yet we still seem to think that we are 'entitled' to carry on living like Roman Emperors!
Well Sidney, you must be one of the most miserable pesemistic so and so's that I have heard in a long while. I'm not sure if you are a stooge for a religeous sect or speaking up for the greenies - but you certainly gave me a chuckle. I'm off for a few days in my van to a
Well nobody can deny that there is a bright side to this massively increasing cost of our hobby; our estates will have less death duties to find!
Life is just far far too short to lose even a few camping trips let alone give it all up and sit in misery trying to convince those making the best of it to look on the worst side.
Just be thankful that those taking the depressed view and selling up will not be on site to "cheer" us all up.
By the way at
Life is just far far too short to lose even a few camping trips let alone give it all up and sit in misery trying to convince those making the best of it to look on the worst side.
Just be thankful that those taking the depressed view and selling up will not be on site to "cheer" us all up.
By the way at
Jeeez Sidney, for the first time in a long time I was nearly speechless.
As entertaining as your post is, I was trying to keep out of this one in the fear that the suicidal tendencies that I don't have, manifest themselves, but your last entry has gone far too far.
No one in their right mind can actually be sitting at home worrying over the imminent end of the world you are fortelling, with us sitting alongside starving children with our own begging bowls, in the gutters outside of our dark and unheated homes....Not at least in the next few millenia, Man will adapt !
But I've got you sussed !!
You are obviously testing the market for your latest sci-fi novel.........I sincerely hope !
As entertaining as your post is, I was trying to keep out of this one in the fear that the suicidal tendencies that I don't have, manifest themselves, but your last entry has gone far too far.
No one in their right mind can actually be sitting at home worrying over the imminent end of the world you are fortelling, with us sitting alongside starving children with our own begging bowls, in the gutters outside of our dark and unheated homes....Not at least in the next few millenia, Man will adapt !
But I've got you sussed !!
You are obviously testing the market for your latest sci-fi novel.........I sincerely hope !
Well, with respect, Ken, worrying about 'these things' (or, at the very least, thinking seriously about them) is *precisely* what people in their 'right' mind should be doing!
Surely, 'madness' is pretending that [a] 'it won't happen' and 'if it does happen it won't affect me'?
I have been genuinely surprised by the resolute attitude of people here *not* to face the truth! - it's all the more worrying because, if widespread, this attitude will rule out even the faintest hope of mitigating the worst of what is coming.
What will it take before people believe it? - diesel at
Surely, 'madness' is pretending that [a] 'it won't happen' and 'if it does happen it won't affect me'?
I have been genuinely surprised by the resolute attitude of people here *not* to face the truth! - it's all the more worrying because, if widespread, this attitude will rule out even the faintest hope of mitigating the worst of what is coming.
What will it take before people believe it? - diesel at
After saving for a very long time for a dream holiday to Florida, we blew the lot and more on a caravan last month. So not everyones wanting to go abroad instead of buying a caravan.
Well, Ron, what can one say? - other than, when you get a caravan with an on-board loo, you'll never look back
I have been genuinely surprised by the resolute attitude of people here *not* to face the truth! -
Ah the Truth, like the Facts they say something different to different people !!!!!!
Ah the Truth, like the Facts they say something different to different people !!!!!!
Sidney,
You must be a very depressive person or you are just plain winding people up,now please go away and do what you say an Ostrich does and stay there,Jimbob
You must be a very depressive person or you are just plain winding people up,now please go away and do what you say an Ostrich does and stay there,Jimbob
God I was having a great morning until i read your posts Sidney. Some of what you say might happen it may not. Whats the point in worrying yourself sick over it. you sell your big car you sell your caravan, at least then Ill have no fear in bumping into you on a camp site. Enjoy the time you have left on this ever decreasing world we live in, or darken someone elses forum
Kevin H
Kevin H
Well Bill - I live in Hull and it hasn't been reported on either the local radio or the local newspaper. They employ at lot of people there and I'm pretty certain that it would be big news for the area.
I would be sceptical until confirmation is received from Swift.
I would be sceptical until confirmation is received from Swift.
SIDNEY,THE CARAVAN I HAVE WAS MADE IN 1905 AND IS STILL GOING STRONG...........THE ONLY THING I NEED TO REPLACE EVERY FEW YEARS IS THE PONY THAT TOWS IT.FUEL -WHO NEEDS IT!!!!!!!!
ref janet and jason=it is true some people at swifts have been offered new jobs at there static plant on hedon road also nearly every caravan company in hull are on short time willerby holiday homes laid 99 people off 3 weeks ago.more people will be made redundant before the summer shut down at all caravan factorys that is a fact
Just got back from a lovely 3 week tour of the north east, starting at Berwick upon Tweed, to Durham and then CC Low Moor Whitby.
Sidney, I admire you for being a one man band but I am concerned with the inordinate amount of negativity and despondancy emanating from your posts.
What's needed here is a positive mental attitude.
Firstly many companies are laying people off as an indirect result of the USA sub prime mortgage collapse. The Bank of England have bailed out Northern Rock. Od that because for me if a high street bank get it wrong then why should I a tax payer ultimately bail them out??
I suspect Swift may be suffering from the old British Motor Corporation problem of too much badge engineering. Remember, Austin, Morris, MG, Wolseley, Riley, Princess. 1100s? All the same. So why have Swift, Sterling, Abbey, Ace etc? The logistical nightmare of organising manufacturing slots for so many variants is not economic and encourages internal competetion. It is an well used ploy to gain more market share and maybe this worked on the high street in the 60s and 70s but not today. Remember renting your tv from Radio Rentals or Rumbelows etc? They were the same company! In the long run it didn't work and proved uneconomic.
When Swift ditched the Bessacar badge I thought mm they must realise they are competeing with themselves.
Knauss no longer sell in the UK. Why? I don't know.
I'll leave the fuel thing for another post.
I do hope Sidney seeks professional help for his apparent depression. Throw away the Leonard Cohen cd and get a grip, a positive mental attitude and enjoy our wonderful caravanning hobby!!
Cheers
Alan
Sidney, I admire you for being a one man band but I am concerned with the inordinate amount of negativity and despondancy emanating from your posts.
What's needed here is a positive mental attitude.
Firstly many companies are laying people off as an indirect result of the USA sub prime mortgage collapse. The Bank of England have bailed out Northern Rock. Od that because for me if a high street bank get it wrong then why should I a tax payer ultimately bail them out??
I suspect Swift may be suffering from the old British Motor Corporation problem of too much badge engineering. Remember, Austin, Morris, MG, Wolseley, Riley, Princess. 1100s? All the same. So why have Swift, Sterling, Abbey, Ace etc? The logistical nightmare of organising manufacturing slots for so many variants is not economic and encourages internal competetion. It is an well used ploy to gain more market share and maybe this worked on the high street in the 60s and 70s but not today. Remember renting your tv from Radio Rentals or Rumbelows etc? They were the same company! In the long run it didn't work and proved uneconomic.
When Swift ditched the Bessacar badge I thought mm they must realise they are competeing with themselves.
Knauss no longer sell in the UK. Why? I don't know.
I'll leave the fuel thing for another post.
I do hope Sidney seeks professional help for his apparent depression. Throw away the Leonard Cohen cd and get a grip, a positive mental attitude and enjoy our wonderful caravanning hobby!!
Cheers
Alan
What a load of b---s,am of to enjoy my caravan now let my five giant breed dogs run free and even play football and cricket be cuss their will not be any one else on the site. the future sounds like sheer bliss to me roll on the great depression.
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