How I Saved $$$ By Buying My Van at an Online Auction
My first picture with my van once it arrive at my house. The stoke level was high!
I had been dreaming of vanlife for years. Probably two full years before I pulled the trigger on my purchase of my Ram Promaster. It never seemed like the right time and I was riddled with doubts about my ability to take on a project of this size and complexity on my own. In my first blog post, I discussed the reasons I chose to try vanlife, and I’ll save the reasons for why I almost chose not to try vanlife for a lengthier blog post, but one of the biggest reasons it took me so long to take the plunge was price.
Building a van is expensive.
I’m trying to go about this project in a financially responsible way since I recognize the opportunity cost of my purchases. Truth is, my opportunity cost has been massive since I would have otherwise had all that money invested in Bitcoin and Ethereum, but I’m happy that I’m taking the time to do something that is meaningful to me. The biggest line item in most peoples van builds is the purchase of the van itself. So, it’s wise to research this step thoroughly in order to avoid buying the dreaded lemon.
I chose the Ram Promaster as my van. There are thousands of opinions on which van is the right one for you, but ultimately my reasoning came down to:
The Promaster was the cheapest option of the big three (Ram, Ford, Mercedes).
I could sleep sideways in the Promaster without needing to install bump outs in the back window section (like the Mercedes). I’m 6’1 and I really wanted to sleep sideways to save on interior space, while also having a fixed bed.
I didn’t need a 4x4 van like the Mercedes and Transit offer. I’ve never camped on a crazy off road site before, and I’m sure there will be instances where I want to camp on BLM land or off road, but I also want to be cognizant that this is my home on wheels and I’d prefer to not haul it over rocks and sketchy terrain.
Once I decided to buy from an auction, I opened my search to the Promaster and Transit. The Promaster was simply the first van to pop up.
For a detailed blog post about the differences between van makes and models, be sure to check out this post by Far Out Ride. They’ve been an invaluable source in my van build journey. So, once I chose the type of van, it was time to figure out where to buy it.
Buying the van at an online auction:
So I want to preface this with the acknowledgment that this won't work for everyone, but I'm sharing because I think it can work for those who want to take a risk and make some phone calls. I feel like I'm also going to get some backlash about this because you really shouldn't skimp on cost when it comes to buying your van since you are pouring so much money and time into the build. I took an educated risk, so far it's break even on if it was a profitable one or not.
My friends, brothers, friend runs a used car dealership. The brother has bought all of his cars through him - an Infiniti g35, Jeep Cherokee, and Acura TL, and my good friend bought a Ford Mustang through him. So i've seen the cars he's able to source and knew they were quality cars. See, a lot of times used car dealerships acquire their cars from auctions. They bid on cars, get them shipped to their lot, and sell them. They get these cars at dealership wholesale prices. So I was able to talk to the dealer and ask him if he can help source my van at auction. He said sure and that I would just pay a $500 finders fee. So I went for it. He set up a nation wide search and I actually had to wait about 3 weeks before one popped up that met my criteria. The van was located in Texas and there were only a few pictures I could see of the van. I never saw it in person and had to do the bidding online through the salesman and we communicated via text - the entire process was unconventional.
Dealerships:
I was searching during the Covid-19 pandemic, which posed some unique challenges. For a period, dealerships were not allowed to sell these vans for non-commercial use. This made it really tough because I had no idea when dealerships were going to open sales of vans back up to general public and when they did, what kind of supply they would have.
My experience was that there were waitlists for a lot of dealerships in my area for when they got new van supply in. I also live in Seattle, WA and the demand for vans is extremely high out here, so this may not be common across the US. One more thing to note is that while dealerships did have some supply, the extended version of the Promaster was not a common model to have in stock.
Craigslist:
I found the craigslist supply to be very limited and expensive. The prices for private party sales were high because of the lack of supply from dealerships. I also would have more challenges securing a loan for a vehicle from a private party sale. The challenge of finding the extended version was also present during my CL search. I ended up getting in serious talks with one seller of a Promaster 159 wheelbase with low miles, but they had installed the fan, windows, and floor. The van was selling for $35k and sold within the weekend it was posted. Way too fast for me to get confident enough to purchase from a private party and secure funding. If you want to buy from Craigslist, make sure to have your funding secured because the sellers will always go with the person who is ready to pay first.
So, am I happy with my decision?
Honestly this was a pretty intimidating experience since the one piece of car advise everyone tells you do is test drive your car before you buy it, but sometimes you have to risk it for the biscuit. Worst case scenario, the van isn't what it appears to be and I have to sell it at a loss of a few thousand dollars. Best case scenario, I get a 5-8k savings. I'll take that upside. Let’s review some of the numbers.
You can view my comprehensive van build cost and material spreadsheet by signing up for newsletter!
To be transparent, I made a few oversights! But I learned so much throughout this process and do not regret purchasing through this method. My mistakes:
I didn’t realize the van purchase price did not include have taxes. This was pretty unfortunate because I found out when I registered the van at the DMV and got hit with a $3,512 bill and since I had already locked in my loan, I couldn’t lump the taxes into the loan amount and had paid out of pocket.
I knew I had to ship the van and was given an estimate of $500 to ship it from Texas to Washington, but the pandemic threw a wrench in that plan. There was a drastic reduction in truck drivers available to ship the van and I had to pay a higher amount to incentivize a shipper. The shipping price ended up being $1,800.
I also ended up having two repairs the van basically right away, which moved my all in price to essentially break even to the price of buying it from auto trader or used somewhere. At least I tried - the van is running well though. The total price of the van came out to be $34,323.63.
My final thoughts:
Am I happy with the decision? Yes. Would I do it again? No. Do I regret purchasing this way? No.
For my next van, I think i'd pay more and get a newer van with less miles on it. The further into my van build that I get, the more attached I am to the van and want it to last as long as possible and reducing the miles it starts it would put me at more ease.
Thank you for reading! I plan on posting articles covering vanlife, how-to build breakdowns covering the build process, materials, and lessons learned, as well as posts to accompany podcast interviews I’ll be doing with other vanlifers. If you’d like to stay up to date with everything, subscribe to my email list, One Step Ahead, where I'll be sending monthly emails covering the detailed steps of the van build. You'll also get access to my master file of every item i've purchased to make the build possible, including links, costs, descriptions, and tags so you can filter by van project. This spreadsheet took months of research to combine as I meticulously chose every item and wanted to document it to expedite the process for others looking to build. I found a lot of guides online that include some pieces, but couldn't get my hands on an all encompassing list, so I made what I would have found invaluable when planning my build out. It’ll be continually updated as a I finish my build over the next few months. I hope it helps :) And as always - please reach out through IG, Twitter, email, or YouTube comments with any questions.
See you on the road,
Josh
