Owning a bus as part of history is something that does feel great however the challenges that come from owning a bus is huge.
The biggest thing that you need to be aware of before even buying a bus is the cost not of parts but simply of storage, We have had our fair share of issues with storage and the struggle that we have had finding storage and now affording it as the prices rise. The best storage you can find is inside which is pretty obvious but isn’t always possible. So you have to do second best which is outside in a yard which long as your vehicle is water tight is fine you just have to keep on top of all the seals and any leaks that might appear as water being water once it starts to find its way in it will come in with a massive effect. We have had this when we own the Volvo B10 as it found a way in and we thought it was a little leak but that was forgot about when we open the electric cabinet and dumped about 5L of water on the floor and our head.
Do your research on storage and ensure you have it in place before purchase, We also had this issue when we very first bought the B10 and one day before the collection the storage place we had arranged said no after saying yes to us leaving us trying to hunt a place out very quickly.
The next thing you want to take into account is the cost of spares and the readiness of these spares this will depend a long on the age of the vehicle the other thing we would say to take into account although you won’t be using the vehicle as much as it was in service but how often you ae going to be checking the vehicle over and carrying out the routine service of the vehicle.
Lastly take into account of the cost of running the vehicle things like fuel and insurance plus Tax this is something that most will thing of but then overlook the rest. A lot of insurance companies now will not insure under 25’s on a policy as the main driver and some won’t do it full stop. so this is something you should think about. As stated the cost of fuel is a big thing these are not your little cars these big engines drink fuel like no tomorrow for this we have a fuel card giving us a little discount on fuel but most of you won’t be a company and have this as a option. Those wondering for us we calculate the fuel using a fuel calculator online with the MPG as 10 other the whole trip this gives us a good estimate of the amount of fuel required and the cost, We find that most the time we return from trips with more fuel then we left with meaning we have got higher than 10MPG but its good to have more than less.
The only other thing we would strongly suggest is try doing it as a group or team of people to help share the cost and find a way to have an income that helps with the costs which is why we do YouTube as it does help with the costs of running the bus.