Alphard Club

14 hours ago, Mohammed imran said:

Hi can anyone help my alphard 3.0 has started blowing cold air from heaters I have just got a lpg conversion done few days ago yesterday I put heating on and it's only blowing cold air out Temp is going up on dash any body no  what it could be 

Sounds like you have air the the system and needs bleeding.

Been to another at the weekend.

Park Deane Resorts - Sanford Holiday Park in Dorset

Great touring pitch which was £52 for 2 nights which includes use of facilities such as Pool, kiddies entertainment etc. Bar , restaurant and more

Very nice place indeed.

https://www.parkdeanresorts.co.uk/location/dorset/sandford-v2/

You may find by checking on the japan site (see forum thread on this i made) you can check. More than likely the car has already been done as the MLIT test is reporting it needs doing.

Ok, due to availability at the event location we have managed to get Sunday 2nd of October.

A formal announcement coming soon.

16 minutes ago, Teekay said:

Suggested Item - if some vendor can supply pre-cut tints of various shades and types for our Alphards and Vellfires (probably only front window and windshield as rear ones come tinted?) that will be a niche and worth repeat business.

possibly but not many people know how to fit tint, also legality side of it could be tricky.

25 minutes ago, Oddcouple said:

Feels like I need to ‘pre float’ ideas and let someone else reinforce them😂 This could be my main purpose on the site, the official pre floater……

need a boat with an alphard engine in it

Thanks for your contribution to the club. Much appreciated and hope to see you around here again sometime in the future.

cheers

yes the 3.5 runs better on a run, at 60 I am doing 1500 revs in 6th gear, The eco light is also suggesting i am running at the most economic too. Floor it and she growls lol

watch this space.

@Ian24 whats the mileage mate?

Does anyone have any recommendations for camp sites?

Here are my 3.

1.  River Dart Country Park  -  https://riverdart.co.uk/

2.  Stowford Meadows (devon) - https://royaleresorts.co.uk/our-resorts/stowford-village/

3. Haven Seaview (Weymouth)  https://www.haven.com/parks/dorset/seaview

Mot of the places we go to will include swimming facilities for the kids.

Please add your top 3.

I agree with Roger. That seems super long and maybe a hook to get you to buy. Also long for a jap import.

However, like I said, if the report looks good and the car looks good then all should be fine.

First thing I do is change the oil. Dealers will change oil with the cheapest oil they can (I call it mazola) so I know  it's had decent grade oil

This is a tasty looking Camper. Very well priced. I paid this price for my 3.5 without a conversion.. i wish i saw this when i was in the market!!

Good luck with the sale!

Take a look at my response below, it's essential you find the right car that is 100% all there, all working and no bits missing. So taking your time will pay off.
 

By the way, the marks on the car diagram come with numbers and letters. Each one of these indicates how deep the scratch or dent is. I will try and find some diagrams to show these so you can work out how bad the condition of the car has been.

I always say it's the previous owners that you need to check. Not that easy as you may say.

A few factors to take in to consideration

1. The auction agent in japan, is he a dummy?
2. was it a very cheap auction purchase
3. what grades do the car come with on the auction sheet.

If you find a car that interests you then first thing i would do is do a CarVX report from japan. Takes about 1-2 working days to get the report. This will show you all the previous auctions the cars have been in (yes they do lot's of auctions) and these will show the condition of the car from the previous owners. For instance, On my report i can see the car had a Grade 4 exterior with all the marks shown on the auction sheet. Over time the interior became a grade 3.5 and then back to a grade 4 meaning the new owner had fixed or cleaned the interior. It's quite good report to spend time on.

You can see a couple of auctions below, showing all the images of the car through the years and also comes with condition report.

It's this research you need to do first, then mechanical research by yourself or the AA. Make sure everything works, If something is missing, get them to add it or knock them down an amount. However, walk away if you have that bad feeling. 

Ideally you need a grade 4.5 or at least 4 exterior grade. then a 4 grade on the interior. You will find this on the top right of the auction sheets.

Do not trust auction sheets given to you from the dealer. I found an original auction sheet in the glove box with tipex on it!!! they will copy it and the tipex hides the condition marks on the diagram. Rely on the CarVX first. All you need is the vehicle VIN number.  if the dealer refuses.. Walk away.

As the community is growing nicely more members are now chatting amongst each other, and so I feel it's time for a new "General Chat" section to talk about other things thats not really related to Alphards as such. You can still chat random Alphardness like " did you see that mint Alphard on the Telly last night" and so forth. 

General chat is not for asking questions about your Alphard, these should stay in the relevant sections.

You can also talk about anything else in life. It's a community that should be sociable and make loads of friends with other like minded owners. So please join in and let us all know what your interests are or whats even grinding your gears.

to be honest, if you go to any tow bar shop they should be able to fabricate one. They only need to bolt on a bar then attach the ball.

Nip round to a few and get some quotes. I have one done for a Lexus Gs300... couple of hours work. Towed big trailers with that.

Hi mate

Yes windscreens are not too much of an issue, these cars are getting more common now.

Alphard 20 series and elgrand both come with a similar size engine. But the brutal truth is around town you'll be lucky to do 20mpg in both cars. You'll get in the mid 30s on the motorway.

However, it's a cracking motor to drive if driven softly it soaks up the roads and feels very prestige. These also have plenty of grunt and sound great when you have to apply the grunt lever (Accelerator)

I cannot compare to the Elgrand as I am a huge Toyota fan and Nissan is not for me, but not saying it's a bad car. Probably similar to be fair. I beleive the E52 is much smaller than the E51. E51 looks dated compared to 20 Series Alphard or Vellfire.

If you can go for LPG. Your money worries will be over if you do. But first do your homework on filling stations in your area. Any BP stations should be ignored as they will soon discontinue LPG. 

I love my 20 series, gets plenty of stares and i can hear people comment about it positively. Very practical for family or large dog owners, Can do a lot of things you need, but a 1st class ride comes at a first class price. Only thing is I wish i did not get the L package with the electric seats as a family car. They are incredibly big seats. But if you have adults in the back then can be a good option, but with kids seats I could barely fit them. Very difficult to fit due to the fixed seat arms.

Parts are not that expensive and relatively easy to obtain after a bit of research. The key is to obtain oem part numbers and then do a search and cross reference 3rd party parts, very easy and plenty of stuff available. 

1 hour ago, Chrisb said:

Excudes dash cams ..how is that not car security?

unfortunately anything electronics they don't do a lot of discount as the margin is very little. 

here is a screenshot of the offer in case you have issues downloading the voucher document.

Halfords have sent us a discount voucher for Car security products. It expires at the end of June so need to be quick to get the offer.

Show this Voucher at the till. Please see T&C's on the offer.

15% off Car Security June 2022 (1).pdf

we have changed the restriction and have set up a group promotion for regular members. Once a member hits a certain number then group promotion changes your status and less restrictions applied.

Internal messaging is increased to 20 per day. The limits are to stop bots spamming all the member base. It's for your security. However, I will look at group upgrades for more regular members that will remove these limits and opens up community functionality.

As for a list, I could be here all day and would be a good bedtime reading if we listed everything. However, the software will inform you of any restrictions or limits and always listen to feedback.

Also the community is still in it's infancy and there are always going to be teething issues with any new community, so bear with us.

Cheers

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