Just thought that I would introduce ourselves - Pete and Cheryl, 50 somethings from Wiltshire.
Over the years we have had tents (when young), trailers tents (when son was young), and since 2008 a proper caravan (Hymer Nova, once we had seen a Hymer nothing else would do!).
Having toured Europe a lot with the Hymer after we sold our business in 2008 we are now both working again part time, and the Hymer was a bit too big for quick short breaks away so we decided to look at the Eribas, having seen quite a few in Holland etc. We visited AL in Poole a couple of times to see if we thought that we could manage with the smaller space and came to the conclusion that we would be fine, so the big Hymer was sold in May.
After a lot of thought we decided that we wanted a 530 Troll with a fixed bed, ideally a couple of years old, but it seems that fixed beds are not very popular in the UK and that was not negotiable for us. We therefore widened our search a bit and found a 2012 fixed bed 530 for sale new in a dealer in Holland. It had the onboard water tank and water heater we wanted (we use the van in the winter more than the summer) together with blown air heating and was only missing the Truma Ultraheat electric option we wanted. After a couple of phone calls we bought it, and last week went over to Holland to collect it. Dealer was lovely guy and very helpful about arranging the Dutch export paperwork and sorting out an Alko hitchlock. We had a quick trip back with a couple of overnights in Holland and Belgium. We have already fitted a carpet and the Ultraheat kit is on order, and I have to sort out gas cylinders (we used BP gaslight 10Kg ones on the Hymer).
Pros and cons of personal import - well we only have continental sockets for mains, and the upholstery does not have British fire labels, only EU ones, but that seems to be it. On the plus side we paid £16500 which I reckon is about £3500 less than a new similar spec one in the UK, so I will put up with the round plugs for that!
Looking forward to a first proper trip in the next week or two, followed by a long Germany trip in September.
If you see us, then give us a wave!
Pete