renting out bongo

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Jon75
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renting out bongo

Post by Jon75 » Wed Mar 23, 2022 6:48 pm

Hi all

I'm hoping to buy a bongo soon, and am wondering how feasible it would be to rent it out privately and through the various peer to peer hiring sites. I'm hoping that this might be a viable way to at least off-set some of the running costs, though i appreciate renting it out will also involve some costs of its own.

I'd be really interested to hear if anyone here has experience of this and what it's been like. Thanks :)
Bob
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Re: renting out bongo

Post by Bob » Wed Mar 23, 2022 8:00 pm

Certainly one of the old regulars on here (Scanner) used to do it successfully, but personally I would be very wary of renting out my own vehicle, especially a Bongo, with the potential to stuff the head it it overheats.

A motor trader was telling me just yesterday of someone trying to claim on warranty for a new engine while admitting he drove it for 20 miles after the overheat warning light came on because he 'wanted his tea'.

Personal choice, but I wouldn't.
Jon75
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Re: renting out bongo

Post by Jon75 » Wed Mar 23, 2022 10:32 pm

Thanks, yeah I guess I'd be a bit at the mercy of the sensibleness of the customer! Though I imagine insurance would offer some protection from recklessness, which also makes me wonder how prohibitively expensive insurance on renting out is, especially with an old vehicle.
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g8dhe
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Re: renting out bongo

Post by g8dhe » Wed Mar 23, 2022 10:44 pm

Why not see about hiring a vehicle yourself first to see what the process and costs are then working out if its viable. I know a local firm near me did it for about a year before the two vehicles were scrapped!
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Bob
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Re: renting out bongo

Post by Bob » Wed Mar 23, 2022 11:45 pm

Jon75 wrote: Wed Mar 23, 2022 10:32 pm Thanks, yeah I guess I'd be a bit at the mercy of the sensibleness of the customer! Though I imagine insurance would offer some protection from recklessness, which also makes me wonder how prohibitively expensive insurance on renting out is, especially with an old vehicle.



You'd need to call a couple of brokers, and I doubt regular insurance would pay for engine repairs. :wink:
Jon75
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Re: renting out bongo

Post by Jon75 » Thu Mar 24, 2022 9:48 pm

Thanks for all the replies.

The bongos being scrapped sounds rather ominous !
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Re: renting out bongo

Post by Hazzobongo » Fri Mar 25, 2022 9:02 am

If you're buying one for your own use you'd not be very happy to have it returned with broken stuff you then have to fix and I'm only referring to the van interior, to have one come back with a blown head which you'd only find on your next drive out would make it disastrous imo and I've had the pleasure of doing a head replacement on a Toyota truck which had a lot better access to the head than these vans.
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Re: renting out bongo

Post by g8dhe » Fri Mar 25, 2022 9:27 am

It was discussed a while ago and one point that came up was that you need to be able to fix any problems very rapidly because your bookings may only allow a short turn round time and unless you have a fleet of vehicles then you end up disappointing the next customer at very short notice, bear in mind that the vast majority of bookings are going to be in the short summer period when your looking to get the most on road time as well!
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nth
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Re: renting out bongo

Post by nth » Sun Mar 27, 2022 11:34 am

I wouldnt dream of doing this, especially if it was also my own vehicle, Sadly many people dont have the same respect of other peoples things as they would their own. I have seen so many examples of this first hand working for a breakdown company. There are people that just dont care & there are people that just dont have a clue. You would have a coolant leak & overheating scenario that if your car started overheating you would pull over & stop immediately. On a rented vehicle it would be "the campsite is just another few miles up the road, should be able to make it". That £30 hose repair has now turned into a replacement engine job & also cancelling next week or twos bookings.

I actually had a taxi driver with a rented taxi with a snapped gearchange cable meaning the gearbox was stuck in 3rd, rather than just call for breakdown assistance he decided he wanted home at the end of his shift so decided to drive the car for about 30 miles in 3rd gear till it wouldnt go anymore due to the knackered gearbox, his attitude was not my car not my problem. That replacement gearchange cable has now turned into a replacement gearbox.
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