It's not a convertible this time, although it would be a stretch to say it's a coupe.
Aerodynamics even worse than the VX.
Vastly more spacious though.
Power and power to weight ratio a little down in comparison.
Rear quarter visibility still poor.
It's an ex-Swiss post office Renault Master L3H2. First registered 5 years ago, making it one of the last pre-facelift ones. Only done 119,000 km's (74,000 miles), although most of those were probably stop start. Seems to have brand new tyres and apart from needing a service, a good clean and a lowish adblue tank all seems pretty much in order. No corrosion on the body, a little on the subframes. Paid < £9k for it, which in Switzerland is pretty cheap.
As you can imagine, it's quite basic spec. No cruise control, although I might get this retro fitted at a later date. It does have a reversing camera, electric windows and a basic stereo. The computer is in French, which apparently you can't change without some dealership obd tool. Only has 130 bhp, so pretty slow, although acceptable for a van.
Plenty of room for hand luggage. Those aluminium panels are missing a few rivets and rattle like a whole orchestra of maracas.
It drives like a van. A pretty big van. This is not one of those car like vans. Not so loud once you get going but at idle the 2.3 litre diesel is a bit tractor like.
I bought it, as you can imagine, to turn into a motorhome #vanlife.
Living in Switzerland we want to make the most of the four seasons, so it's going to be a four season motorhome. At my age I like to be comfortable, and that means being warm and dry, and not having to sleep like this.
Or this.
Actually, I think I'm short enough to sleep sideways in a van. We're going to try it out. It gives an extra 50cm of length in the van, which when there's only 3.7m makes a huge difference.
It is going to be properly insulated, not the utterly crap way you see in most #vanlife videos. It will definitely be getting a bathroom and toilet.
We borrowed a friends Mercedes Marco Polo a year or so ago, and while we liked camping we hated that it didn't have a shower/toilet and you had to set everything up every evening. We don't like camp sites very much. In Switzerland at high season they're more expensive than a hotel and very crowded. We never had a problem wild camping.
Anyway, i'll probably update as I progress with this thing, but it won't be rapid progress as it's a bit of a back burner project.
