We Bought a Van at Auction | Van Conversion pt. 1

We bought a van at auction and this is pt. 1 of our van conversion journey!

This is something we've dreamt of doing for years now. Buying a van, that is... not necessarily buying a van at auction!

Buying a van in an auction was never actually part of the plan. We thought we would be buying second hand off of facebook market place, or from a small car lot... but when we stumbled across John Pye Vehicle Auctions after a friend had recommended their non vehicle auctions to us, and found a Nissan NV200 going for a couple hundred quid (a few hours before the bids closed) we threw our hands up in the air and decided to give it a shot!

We really did expect to be outbid, and thought we would have had to put a lot more effort into finding a van for this good of a price, so we were pretty shocked when we got the winning bid - even if it was for £45 more than our "highest bidding price" when we initially discussed buying it.

From the listing, we knew that the van had a shattered drivers side window, and no keys. We also knew that it was MOT'd until March of 2025, which meant less than 8 months ago it was deemed at least somewhat road worthy. We weren't made aware that the battery wasn't the correct brand, and was basically shot, but we had anticipated that would be something we would more than likely need to replace as it looked like the van had been sitting for quite some time. Even with all of these "hurtles" we were absolutely over the moon to win the van for a closing bid of £545 (£817.50 incl. VAT & auction fees).

Why do we want a tiny van?

The Nissan NV200 is one of, if not the smallest van with the longest cab, sitting at load lenght of 2.04 meters. This is really important to us, because Peter is 6'5!

We are intended to do a very basic remodel of this van, to fit a raised bed in the back - leaving enough room to store luggage, our instruments and small sound system for touring. We've dreamt of having something like this for years, because it will allow us to finally be able to take our doggos with us when we hit the road for musical tours and adventures!

Another reason having a smaller van was important to us? Not only is it so much better on fuel, making it much more affordable to run, but it also makes the van less intimidating for foreigners to drive. We're lucky enough to have lots of visitors from overseas, and it would be wonderful if they felt comfortable enough driving it to go off on mini adventures of their own.

We do hope to one day convert a larger van - if we enjoy converting this small one as much as we think we will :)

This is just the beginning - but we're full of energy and excitement to get this build started and hopefully have Vincent Van Gogh ready for his first adventure by early spring. An ambicious goal, but one we definitely won't reach if we're not brave enough to try... so try we will!

If you made it this far, thanks so much for spending some time with us today. Don't forget to hit that sub button so you catch pt. 2 of our van conversion once it's ready!

Chapters:
00:00:00 - 00:00:34 - Intro
00:00:34 - 00:00:50 - Distracting ourselves at the Dog Park
00:00:50 - 00:01:02 - Finding a used replacement window on Ebay
00:01:02 - 00:02:26 - Auction Bidding War!
00:02:26 - 00:03:53 - Arranging for a new key to be cut
00:03:53 - 00:04:13 - Driving to pick up the van and Teals Farm Shop
00:04:14 - 00:04:50 - What happens why you win a vehicle with John Pye Vehicle Auctions?
00:04:50 - 00:07:15 - Picking up the Van and our tips on what to bring with you!
00:07:15 - 00:09:06 - Full Cost Breakdown: How much we spent!
00:09:06 - 00:09:56 - So, this gross thing happened...