Talbot Auto Sleepers

[BongoBongo123]

I often see these (The Harmony box van, the square old looking one) about and when I look I think....

Rusty, unreliable, ugly, classic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Sleepers

But for some reason I like them in some strange way. Are my ignorant comments unfounded ?

Any Bongo people owned one before? Anything to say about them out of pure interest ?

I just saw a photo of the driver cabin... "Gear box like a bag of spanners" looks about right. Definitely look like a step back in time from Bongo technology. Got a early 80's tech look to them.

[Bob]

A mate of mine had one for some years.

Left hooker which he gave six grand for, it did him very well and only died when something came off a non UK truck (travelling to opposite way) and wrote it off.

Thankfully no injuries and the insurance sorted it.

[BongoBongo123]

I have to say that these kind of vans and similar kinds of white beige variants from late eighties and early nineties seem to hold their price in a surprising way. 100K miles on them and still £6-7K from 1991 I would have thought they would be 3K's worth tops given their dated appearance and old fashioned styling and tech. Just look at that steering wheel.

£6-£7K seems ludicrous.

[Bob]

That's camper van prices for you.

That said, he used it for some years and the insurance payout was very fair. He'd likely still have it but for the bump, so I guess if you can have a camper van for a few hundred quid a year its not too bad.

Depreciation on new cars is horrifying, and we all know the price of newer motorhomes.

[winchman]

I had a Holdsworth top of the range conversion.
The conversion was first class but the van was shocking, unreliable, obsolete at 10 years old ( That's Fiats policy) they rust before your eyes.
When it ran it was fine but slow, but I have had a good few vehicles and this was the most unreliable, I sold it as a none runner to a mechanic who got it running had it 12 months and then sold it due to the rust.
Many older ones that you see are just full of filler, some have been extensively restored but its not cheap to do.
This bloke keeps many of them alive by manufacturing obsolete parts and making improvements, nice chap too.
http://www.jktowers.fsnet.co.uk/motorho ... edures.htm
Good owners club too.
http://www.talbotoc.com/portal.php

Personally I wouldn't have another but some people love them

[dvisor]

We had one of these before the Bongo, a 1983 Talbot Express Diesel, 1900D if I remember correctly. It was a great little camper, and had some great times in it. We always felt like we were stepping back in time, in a good way. We just had to get rid of it, though; too expensive to maintain, and worst of all, it was a pig to get up even the slightest incline. I would be tearing down hills to build up the momentum to get up the other side; and then someone would overtake, cut in front of me to slow me down marginally, and that would be it - we would limp up the rest of the hill, with me cussing and swearing. My normal driving position was hunched forward over the wheel, as if that would make it go faster. We replaced it with the Bongo - much more practical for touring Europe, but I still hanker after comfort and facilities we had on board.

[BongoBongo123]

Kind of what I thought that they might be a bit mechanically unreliable given age and I think Talbot's always had a bad rep for rust in the 70's/80's. Nice to see them though a real classic looking van.