…now from Japan comes a selection of people-carriers that are reborn to live a life of leisure in the UK
Wellhouse Leisure, based near Barnsley, has imported over 1,500 Japanese vehicles into Britain. It all started in 2002, at the start of the Bongo boom, when the little Mazda became a fashionable and very affordable alternative to VW campers. Wellhouse imported and converted around 350 of those before moving onto the slightly larger Toyota Granvia and Regius and, since 2013, the Alphard.
Of course, Wellhouse also has a long association with the Transit Custom (it was the first UK company to turn Ford’s Transporter rival into a campervan) and is currently redeveloping its Misano conversion for the latest V710 model with the blue oval. But, as the cost of new campervans has risen so dramatically since Covid, 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 the Land of the Rising Sun, meeting buyers he’s known for 20-plus years and searching the auctions in Kobe for the most suitable vehicles to convert (which are at least a decade old to circumvent 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 (no diesels in this group) and is ULEZ compliant – as much a selling point as the cost for many city dwellers.
All of the imported vehicles 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 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 (four-wheel drive, choice of colour, etc,) 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 the 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 lift-up tailgate.
Here, it’s the classic side kitchen layout (the offside door is redundant), but the design of the
