10 years on. Where did they go?

[steamdrivenandy]

Well I'm back here again.

Here's a reminder link from days of yore viewtopic.php?f=15&t=12932#p116228

The time's flown by. After the Tranny we bought an Adria Coral Compact motorhome, mainly to get an onboard shower. Then, after moving house to North Staffs from North Yorks in 2009 I did something I swore I'd never do and moved over to tugging a caravan. Not just any caravan mind, an Eriba Touring Troll 540, indeed we ran two, firstly a 2001 and then a 2005. Lovely vans. Then on to a similar sized Lunar and finally to a Bailey Pegasus Rimini. A far cry from a 16ft Mk 6 Panel Van Conversion.

But maybe it's nostalgia but I've always harboured a desire to move back to another HU Innovation again. Of course HU are long gone and Roy Wood Transits have diversified into Autocampers, which are very nice, but won't do the job we need. Most of HU's rather small production was of their Cavarno model, a superb mini motorhome in a sub 16ft Tranny, but whilst the Innovation had no washroom (just a Thetford swivel toilet) and no oven, it did have that 2ft deep space between the rear wheelarches where our dog crate lived. As the Cavarno hogged the limelight there were very few Innovations made. Indeed I've only ever seen three, the one we owned, a Mk 7 we saw at Highbridge and the one that's currently for sale.

Ours was the last Mk 6 Innovation out of HU's premises, so the Mk 7 that's for sale must've been the next one down the line. It's in the same colour as our Mk, 6 but lacks alloys (which would improve it's looks) and a hot water boiler. It's also not got the roof with an alcove to flush fit a wind-out awning, so the aftermarket awning sits rather ungainly proud of the nearside. It's also had some bull bars fitted, which seem a bit silly plus an awning light that doesn't fit the style. The dealer advises that it's a 110PS, whereas our Mk 6 was 125PS. Also the Nike style stylised 'i' (for Innovation), along each flank is missing. Again the dealer says the original owner asked for them not to be fitted.

So I'd say it isn't specced up as well as ours and now has 75k miles on it and I can't quite reconcile myself to paying a dealer roughly the amount I got in PX for my Innovation when I swapped it for the Adria nine, yes nine, years ago.

I'm wondering what Transit experts think about buying, what is, an eleven year old van?

Innovation Nearside.jpg

Mk 7 External Rear.jpg

Mk 7 External Rear.jpg

[steamdrivenandy]

Does anyone know if the alloys on the van in the top pic above are still available from Ford?