AS Harmony

Hello

I'm new to the forum and after reading around I feel that the AS Harmony really does tick all my boxes - especially being on a SWB.

However, most of the Harmony's which I have seen for sale, when you check up on their MOT history there are similar stories of corrosion creeping in. I am a realist and even the most recently produced Harmony's are going to be closer to 20 years old and most will be older so there will be some corrosion isn't surprising. 

However, I am really keen to hear from any Harmony owners how they are doing - my expectation is the AS sleeper interior will be holding up fairly well and the weak spot will be the ageing chassis - but would love to hear first hand experience.

I realise that buying something of this age will be worth getting checked over properly before parting with my hard earned but with these ageing vans would anyone be willing to share what sort of maintenance costs they are incurring annually to keep them on the road? Though the SWB suits me best do I really need to let that go and look at a Symbol (or Duetto) - something a few years newer.

Any thoughts or comments would be much appreciated!

Hello and welcome to this most friendly and informative forum. No doubt you will soon receive advice as requested. 

Hello and thank you - it is really one of the really appealing factors for Autosleepers - a great, supportive community!

Hello Chazza and welcome  , I have limited parking and the Harmony was the only van with all the facilities we wanted that would fit on the parking space outside the house. I bought my Harmony last August and only managed a couple of days out and 2 x nights camping before lockdown. Mine is a petrol and I asked the dealer to fit a new timing belt before collection (£295) as there was no evidence of it being changed since 2007. While we were camping the Zig X-7 charger packed up and I replaced that with an upgraded Zig X-70 (£150 ish) and that's been it so far. Next service and MOT due in May and so far we are delighted with the van and all it's facilities which all worked well (until lockdown). Ours has done 53000 miles and I hope you find the right van for you. Point to note the MWB Symphony is only 5 inches (12.5cm) longer than the Harmony but too long to fit my space. You probably know Harmony has 4 forward facing seats Symphony 3 FF seats.
Happy hunting.
Rod     

I think I've posted this on other threads, but I kept a record of the costs on my last van. It wasn't an A/S, but most of the costs were in the base vehicle, which was a 2008 MWB Ford Transit, so a somewhat similar base to a Duetto. Bear in mind that at the time of purchase the van had only 46,000 miles and was 10 years old.

Wiper blades £28
Gas cylinder £30
Non-slip matting & hose clips £6
Replacement rear exhaust pipe £182 (refunded under warranty)
Train fare to return & collect van from dealership £41
At dealership had a new leisure battery, two new tyres and aircon regassed (all under warranty)
Fiamma std size awning winding handle, 2x table socket hole covers, fresh water food grade filling hose, SMEV rubber sink screw caps £74
Aircon condenser & front lower suspension arms replaced £873
Replaced waste tank hose and tap £10
Replaced brake discs & pads all round, freed and replaced seized handbrake cable, replaced corroded brake pipes £1,257

Fabric for new curtains £49
Replaced faulty downlighter £15
Annual service, MOT, replaced both rear springs and screen washer pump £774

Replaced high level brake light bulb £5
Paint repairs £350
Replace supplementary cranking battery £168


Total £3,680 over a two year period, not counting the warranty stuff.


Admittedly with what I had done the van was ready for the future, though having sold it last June, I checked the MOT history last week and it failed in November 2020 due to a broken front spring, so more cost for the new owner.


HTH

Chazza wrote:Hello and thank you - it is really one of the really appealing factors for Autosleepers - a great, supportive community!

Hi
Welcome to the forum from Bridington 
Boaby

Hello and thank you for the responses - it is really helpful to have some first hand experience. I guess maintenance costs for these older vehicles will not be steady so worth keeping a small pot by for these costs crop up - really good to just know the magnitude of these costs - thank you.

Based on my experience with my last van and previous vans I've run, some of which were brand new, I'd say that anything over 7 or 8 years you need to allow around £2,000 a year for servicing and repairs. A brand new van, providing you don't go mad buying stuff for it, will cost around £500 a year in servicing and repairs will be covered by the warranties.

However to benefit from this low servicing cost you have to lay out £50,000 or more to buy or finance the thing and over it's first three years the van is likely to depreciate by about £15,000, which added to the servicing costs make the first three years cost £16,500 or £5,500 in an average year.

The older van will mean maybe £20,000 laid out to buy it and may depreciate by about £5,000 over 3 years plus the £6,000 for servicing and repairs. So a total of £11,000, or £3,700 a year.

The £1,800 per year difference between a new and an old van seems relatively small, but there's the also the matter of having to raise £50,000 or so, or finance a similar amount to buy a new van.

Somewhere in the life of a van there is probably a sweet spot, where the capital cost is manageable, the depreciation is relatively low and repair cost are sensible. My suspicion is that it's about 6 to 8 years old.

Thanks Steamdrivenandy - really good to have that perspective, I'm sure you are right that there must be a sweetspot! The Harmony ticks so many boxes for me, its really apealling but with its age I know the ongoing costs are going to be higher, I just didn't really have a sense of how high. Thanks for taking the time to provide your response!

Hi Steamdrivenandy, can you give some idea of what servicing and repair items you've had to spend £2000 on? Many thanks

Mandg1968 wrote:Hi Steamdrivenandy, can you give some idea of what servicing and repair items you've had to spend £2000 on? Many thanks

It's posted upthread but I've cut and pasted below:

Wiper blades £28
Gas cylinder £30
Non-slip matting & hose clips £6
Replacement rear exhaust pipe £182 (refunded under warranty)
Train fare to return & collect van from dealership £41
At dealership had a new leisure battery, two new tyres and aircon regassed (all under warranty)
Fiamma std size awning winding handle, 2x table socket hole covers, fresh water food grade filling hose, SMEV rubber sink screw caps £74
Aircon condenser & front lower suspension arms replaced £873
Replaced waste tank hose and tap £10
Replaced brake discs & pads all round, freed and replaced seized handbrake cable, replaced corroded brake pipes £1,257

Fabric for new curtains £49
Replaced faulty downlighter £15
Annual service, MOT, replaced both rear springs and screen washer pump £774

Replaced high level brake light bulb £5
Paint repairs £350
Replace supplementary cranking battery £168


Total £3,680 over a two year period, not counting the warranty stuff.

Thanks. Hopefully most of that stuff will last more than a year or two! Or maybe I'm a bit optimistic!

I've had a 1995 AS Harmony since new, and it still fits all of our needs and expectations exactly with no desire to change.

Servicing is minimal - oil and filters - just like any other vehicle. It's been outside since day one and the body is holding-up well. Only in the last year has rust started to show at the top of the A-posts.

In 2011 I used a 2005 Ducato as the base for a Diesel conversion. The six year old donor van was worse from a corrosion standpoint than my 16 year old Harmony, accepting that it had been used in all weathers, all year round.

I'm based in the Midlands too if you need a second opinion on a van.

Bart