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Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:30 pm
by wishinforbongo
Hi, new to forum and have decided to buy a Bongo for our family. We are near Cardiff and wondered if anyone knows of anything good about? Have about £4000 to spend but could go a bit higher maybe for the perfect one. Think we want a diesel if possible, anyone have any opinion on the petrol/diesel debate? we have had diesel cars our last few. Have seen a Bongo for sale privately near cardiff airport, and another at a garage in Risca??? Anyone got any advice please?
Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:37 pm
by scanner
Welcome to the forum..........
If you are happy with diesel stick with it - in my opinion the power characteristics of diesel are far better suited to both the type of use most Bongos are put to and increasingly to everyday motoring in general.
The occasions you are able to exploit horsepower are increasingly rare (and usually illegal), whereas superior low down torque is increasingly useful all the time.
I've been dieselised for 22 years now and wouldn't even think of going back.
Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:40 pm
by missfixit70
Welcome to the forum & happy hunting

, this may help to get you started -
http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =43&t=7229
Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 3:00 pm
by mikeonb4c
Welcome wishinforbongo
£4k is a tight budget if you want one with a lifting roof. You'd need to source a good private sale and for that to have a chance of being successful it is v. important to read and digest advice on here and to plan to test drive and inspect a few in detail in order to get a feel for what is a solid Bongo. There's plenty of BF members around Cardiff and for a pint they may come and look at machiens with you if local (though you must expect to travel to bag a good one and to do question asking by phone, email and emailed pic. requests - thats how I did it before travelling 250 miles on spec, and praying).
Good luck, enjoy the hunting, be patient, keep a level head, don't rush.

Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 5:38 pm
by dom_e
£4k was about our budget a couple of years ago. We found a mechanically sounds (well, pretty much bar a few niggles), but slightly tatty paint work wise one for that (private sale, in the UK with a service history for about 5 years). Had to travel to nr Weston Supermare in the end.
Keep looking - we saw a few dogs in the Cardiff area!
Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 9:31 pm
by Mikey B
Have found 2 down here is Swansea in the same garage, unfortunately the cheapest one is £7K. Both are on page 2 of the stock list.
Might be worth a browse thought. They are just off the M4 J47 in Penlegaer opposite 3M's
http://dealerservices.autotrader.co.uk/ ... 4&pageid=3
Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 9:37 pm
by mister munkey
I'm liking that black Freda, pricey but clean with plenty extras.
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Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 12:32 am
by wishinforbongo
oh, thank you for looking for me, that is a bit too much though, for us right now Im afraid. forgot to add, needs to be unconverted as we need lots of seats as theres 6 of us. just saw a crazy conversion with a tv/computer/mixing desk in hengoed listed currently on ebay!! well fancy!
Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 1:04 am
by Alison01326
A fair old trek from you, but I flagged this one up for another forum member the other day (and he said it was too far from him as well). Don't know anything about it but drove past it the other day and would love it if I could afford two Bongos!!!! It looked very lovely from the road. Don't know anything about the dealer either but
http://users.autoexposure.co.uk/vehicle ... City=Truro
It's got its folding rear seats in the photo, so I assume that kitchen is removable.
Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 1:12 am
by wishinforbongo
oh that does look nice. gonna try and see what we can scout out locally tomorrow have a bit of a look round. as we have no transport at the moment browsing is a bit difficult, to say the least. I just want someone to say, here you are, this is a great vehicle, have this and hand it over tomorrow really!!!!
Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 1:17 am
by mister munkey
Maybe Alison could pop by & have a nose around for you if she were to pass by again. She knows her stuff & could give you an honest opinion.
That long train ride may well be worth it then . . . . .

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Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 11:07 am
by Alison01326
mister munkey wrote:Maybe Alison could pop by & have a nose around for you if she were to pass by again.
She knows her stuff. & could give you an honest opinion.
That long train ride may well be worth it then . . . . .

.
I do? Thank you

.
Seriously, I'd be happy to as it's only 20 minutes away but as work has suddenly picked up it would either be Sunday if the place is open or next Thursday onwards.
If you did need to come down on the train I'd be happy to pick you up from the station if we could sort out a mutually convenient time (all of you, if necessary

- don't you just love Bongos!!)
Ooh, the responsibility

Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 1:03 pm
by grb
mister munkey wrote:I'm liking that black Freda, pricey but clean with plenty extras.
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We drove (some distance) to see that one, on the promise of a milage certificate. The bloke we met denied it had one... and didn't have any service history.
These two stickers were on the vehicle... the 72k matches up to the 45k miles advertised. They didn't have a clue what the other sticker referred to...
g.
Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 8:58 pm
by madmile
Just hope the current mileage is showing more than 108000km

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Re: Looking to buy a bongo
Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 10:02 pm
by wishinforbongo
Feeling ever so cheeky now, thank you for your kind offer Alison. If you do get the chance and fancy going and looking at the red bongo for us that would be amazing, as long as you dont mind and have the time. wow. people around here are so nice!
we will keep looking round here as well, and all over really, today each garage we went to or person we called seemed to have just sold a handful of bongos! only got to see one and it looked a bit beaten up, and was £5499 so quite over budget too. we are clueless with cars too which doesnt really help.
My husband has some time off over Easter so could come down, in fact I am just looking at last minute holidays to cornwall as there seems to be more action down there Bongo wise! would have to hire a car for a few days to go down but may be worth it. We do have a 2 seater van we have borrowed from friends which we can use while the kids are in school for searching, but its not really gonna get the 6 of us anywhere so we cant even look this weekend except online.