Anyone Own a Mazda Bongo Camper Conversion?

pugheaven

pugheaven

pugheaven

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Bryn Celyn Wales
Me and the missus are fancying one... just wondered if anyone on here has experience or owns one?

Kinda looking at this style with all the interior done...

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@pugheaven These do look pretty cool and from a driving perspective I like its compactness, but looking into the beck of the thing I can envisage having to spend most of my waking hours, when touring, scuttling about on my knees trying to cook a meal or get dressed. For that reason I'd go for a proper motorhome (if that's the correct name) because at least you could stand up in it. It would just be a pain driving it in the countryside.
 
That's why you have the pop top roof - so you can stand up in it. It's a compromise between something that's easy to drive and manoeuvre but also practical.

A proper motorhome is better but not great if it's your day to day vehicle, plus, nearly everyone that drives one is 60+
 
batfink said:
That's why you have the pop top roof - so you can stand up in it. It's a compromise between something that's easy to drive and manoeuvre but also practical.

A proper motorhome is better but not great if it's your day to day vehicle, plus, nearly everyone that drives one is 60+
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Ahh I see. I thought the pop up bit was where you slept!
 
bainbridge said:
@pugheaven These do look pretty cool and from a driving perspective I like its compactness, but looking into the beck of the thing I can envisage having to spend most of my waking hours, when touring, scuttling about on my knees trying to cook a meal or get dressed. For that reason I'd go for a proper motorhome (if that's the correct name) because at least you could stand up in it. It would just be a pain driving it in the countryside.
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Yeah, as said about it's why they have the roof, so with the seats in seated position instead of down for the bed, there's loads of room. Yes, a true camper will be better but only from a space perspective. The reason UI want one of these is, they're like driving a normal car, not slow, massive and clumsy and you can just use them... easy to park on the drive without storing them or being offensive to neighbours (not that I have any lol)... but yeah, I just want something for me and the missus to just ona friday say right pack a bag we're off... and I can also do the work on it myself as well. Nopthing worse than the massive peugeot camper vans, they just look so tragic!
 
Does the whole roof pop up or is that pic showing the roof fully raised? I get the concept but if that pic is showing the roof at full height, there's literally a few square feet of standing room near the front, then you'd be stooping towards the rear.
 
bainbridge said:
Does the whole roof pop up or is that pic showing the roof fully raised? I get the concept but if that pic is showing the roof at full height, there's literally a few square feet of standing room near the front, then you'd be stooping towards the rear.
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On some the whole thing raises, on others it allows a sleeping area etc, all depends how it's been converted, I've got to start looking at a few when I've got the coin but the missus is becoming obsessed, she keeps shouting Bongo at me... hahaha I might get in one and think no chance, BUT at the end of the day you attached a tent etc to it as well... it's about a cheap anc cheerrful way of just turning up somewhere and having a kitchen and a bed to sleep...

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So, you can see from this how some of the roofs work:

 
If the whole roof went up it would be fine in there, if it didn't then my back would give me grief stooping over lol. The compact size would be great to reach areas that other tourers cannot reach! It might also fit in a multi storey car park which would be handy for the odd hotel stay in a long tour.
 
bainbridge said:
If the whole roof went up it would be fine in there, if it didn't then my back would give me grief stooping over lol. The compact size would be great to reach areas that other tourers cannot reach! It might also fit in a multi storey car park which would be handy for the odd hotel stay in a long tour.
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Exactly. I like the VW Campers T5's etc, BUT they're mega money and everyone has them, just fancied being different and was hoping we had a Bongo owner on here... not sure we do lol... too rich on here with their AMG's and Ferraris to be "bongoing" lol
 
Mate do it... lifestyle choice alone, it'll be epic if you can make use of it. A pal has a T5 without the roof popper and it is a nightmare (more so because the rules changed and he can't reclassify it as a leisure vehicle because it doesn't have the popper therefore commercial tax and speed limits imposed) but he is having a whale of a time.
 
dLockers said:
Mate do it... lifestyle choice alone, it'll be epic if you can make use of it. A pal has a T5 without the roof popper and it is a nightmare (more so because the rules changed and he can't reclassify it as a leisure vehicle because it doesn't have the popper therefore commercial tax and speed limits imposed) but he is having a whale of a time.
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100% mate... we're gonna start looking around now I think... hard to know how much to spend... its like a house you start at 7k then the next thing I'm looking 15k hahaha
 
pugheaven said:
100% mate... we're gonna start looking around now I think... hard to know how much to spend... its like a house you start at 7k then the next thing I'm looking 15k hahaha
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They seem to hold their value really well though - I know COVID has made stay-cations a bit of a gimmick this year but I think these kind of things are pretty well established!
 
A friend has one and loves it. My father has an old VW which is pretty cool, but then you pay the VW 'scene tax'
Small campers make a lot more sense to me than a big motorhome. Just be aware prices are inflated at the moment and a lot of places are cracking down on 'wild camping' in vans because of the mess some people leave.
 
A mate had a really really nice T6 camper with a pop top like that, he sold it a couple of months ago as after using it a few times to go away it was just too small and compromised for him. It was only him his wife and his young daughter but only being able to fully stand up in a couple of square feet at one end of the van was quite limiting and then having to constantly move stuff around to do anything. They've ended up getting a small trailer to take a massive tent and a Volvo SUV to tow it, it seems to suit them a lot better as you're not driving a van around the rest of the time and loads more space when they do go away and from his perspective a lot less faffing around on a daily basis with a tent you only set up once at the start of the holiday rather than packing and unpacking a van several times a day.

I'd recommend renting something similar for a week before you commit to buying, some people love it but for others the shine comes off pretty quickly once you realise how small a space it is to live in.

And finally you're buying right at the very peak of the market so be prepared to lose a lot of money over the next couple of years when foreign travel returns and loads of people lose interest and sell their vans on. The joke at the moment is you can do a straight swap for a villa in Spain for a Bedford rascal camper with how crazy the prices of any camper are currently...
 
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