From Japan comes a selection of people-carriers that are reborn to live a life of leisure in the UK
Words & pictures ❚ Peter Vaughan
Wellhouse Leisure has imported over 1,500 Japanese vehicles into Britain, since the first Mazda Bongos arrived in 2002. Of course, Wellhouse, based near Barnsley, also has a long association with the Transit Custom (it was the first UK company to turn the Ford into a camper) and is currently redeveloping its Misano conversion for the latest V710 model from Ford. But, with the cost of new campervans having rocketed in the last four years, the company is at the same time reverting to its roots, seeing more potential for sales at lower prices.
Boss, David Elliott, has been back to Japan, meeting buyers he’s known for over 20 years and searching the auctions in Kobe for the most suitable vehicles to convert (which must be at least a decade old to avoid UK Type Approval regulations). Tested here are the four options he’s come up with – all of them costing comfortably less than £35k with a brand-new conversion. Each one has a petrol engine and is ULEZ compliant – as much a selling point as the cost for many city dwellers.
All of the vehicles brought over get a UK-spec foglamp, a speedo in mph and an English handbook, while the Japanese head units seen in some of our photos are swapped for UK ones once the vehicle is sold (a standard double-DIN radio is included, while a reversing camera, Apple CarPlay, etc can be added at extra cost). Every one of these vehicles is serviced and has any bodywork rectification done prior to conversion and the completed vehicles come with gas and electric installation certificates. Wellhouse can also source specific models to order, if the vehicles it has in stock aren’t what you’re looking for, while additional undersealing on the base vehicle is a popular extra-cost option.
NISSAN SERENA
The smallest and cheapest of our quartet – priced here at £24,500 – is the Nissan Serena, a rather boxy-looking car with a front-hinged pop-top, twin sliding doors and a tailgate. Here, it’s the classic side kitchen layout, but the design of the Drivelodge roof caters for an alternative floorplan with a rear galley and single beds using the original Nissan seats with some infill cushions.
Its compact size (only 1.73m wide) dictates that the Serena is best seen as a single person’s vehicle. There’s no getting away from the narrowness of this car, which results in a mattress width of just 83cm when you fold the rear seat down
