We put in a request to purchase our van on March 27, 2021. After patiently waiting 7 months, it's finally here. We picked up Vanjie Meriwether (name is still a work in process) on Friday and we're ecstatic!
Buying a brand new custom Mercedes Sprinter is rather expensive, even if you take out a lot of the standard luxuries (like floors and passenger seats). Because neither of us had ever made a purchase this big (I think our Toyota RAV4 was the closest, and that was less than a third the cost of the Sprinter), Mercedes required we put down a large downpayment (~40%) and they still gave us a crummy interest rate (4.6%).
Despite the cost, we decided buying new made the most sense for us. For one, finding a used vehicle that can be easily converted or is already converted is pretty expensive. Just doing a quick search on Craigslist right now, I found an empty 2018 sprinter with 190,000 miles listed for $45,000, and a built out Winnebago (milage not given) for $101,000. We expect that the brand new van, plus the buildout costs, will be less than $100k.
Other benefits of a new vehicle are the reliability and warranties. We will be driving the van many many miles in its first two years, and it would really put a damper on our trip to sit stranded on the side of the road with a broken down vehicle. I will feel much more confident taking this ambitious trip with a brand new car.
The timing is also more controlled with a new vehicle (or so we initially thought). If we planned on buying used, we would be up to the whim of the market, and would have had to be very active on used vehicle marketplaces. Finding exactly what we want would have been a Goldilocks Project in its own right and it would have likely not come up in our ideal timeframe. Even though there was a delay with Vanjie, we were at least assured that there would be a van, and we could start planning around the specifications we know we are getting.
As I mentioned, this van was custom ordered. We got the specific camera and interface technology that we wanted, we were able to get extra comfort swivel seats pre-installed, we paid extra for four wheel drive, and there is nothing that we don't need (i.e. the floors and seats I had listed above). The interior buildout will be fully custom as well. While many people pay many thousands of dollars to have a company do their interiors, we are planning on doing it fully ourselves. We are consulting many Youtube videos for inspiration, but the layout and look will be bespoke. We also have much more agility to change plans if we come up with a new idea after seeing the space start to fill out, which we wouldn't have if the van was pre-designed.
It's true, doing our own buildout will mean a lot of learning and physical work. At times the entirety of the project seems rather overwhelming, but I feel quite confident in our abilities. Leading up to the pickup date, we had already ordered a heating system, insulation, a collapsable table, cell booster, internet hotspot, and a storage canopy. We've been stockpiling cardboard, which will be repurposed for a model buildout so we can test out the interior space allocation. Our garage is slowly turning into a well-stocked workshop.
Having the physical van makes the whole project much more real. Both the excitement and apprehension are more pronounced; with the van in hand, it will be much harder to back out. I've seen many of these vans in the wild, but actually standing inside of it (and trying to park it) make it seem like a behemoth. Surely, we will be quite appreciative for all of that interior space once we start filling it in, especially since a decent margin will be unusable as it will be filled with wiring and instillation, but driving it will take a little getting used to.
Now that we actually have it, it means it's time to get started on the real work. We've already begun to fill the nooks and crannies with wool insulation, and Cameron began putting that cardboard to use. (Expect a future post concerning the specific buildout steps.) Having a tangible representation of the space makes me realize exactly how confined we may be, but per Cameron "if you need to pace, you have the whole outdoors." Soon we will be able to order all of the pieces that we've been holding off on until we could get exact measurements (sink, stove, bed, toilet, etc.).
We've estimated a six-month buildout, which would get us on the road in April, 2022. That means we'll be working hard through the snowy Utah winter, but it also means many "test drives" up to the ski area; Cameron envisions waking up early and sitting in our cozy van eating a hot van-cooked breakfast from a primo parking space while we wait for the lifts to open. I must say, it seems we are living the dream!
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