Not surprisingly, buying a caravan is not the same as buying a car. For instance, a caravan doesn’t have a mandatory registration document. This means that if you’re looking at a second-hand model, its date of manufacture is often hard to establish. Moreover, there is no official MoT test to confirm the integrity of a caravan. You must also be absolutely sure that a pre-owned van is being offered for sale by its rightful owner.
These issues don’t arise, of course, if you intend to purchase a brand new caravan from a dealer. However, choosing a dealer isn’t quite as simple a task as you might imagine. For example, an impressive discount from a caravan specialist whose headquarters are a long way from your home carries a problem that doesn’t arise when you’re buying a car. If a warranty repair is needed at a later date, you will usually have to take the caravan all the way back to its original supplier. It’s not the same with a car, where warranty work can be done at any franchise dealership. Also be aware that factory warranties differ from one manufacturer to another.
Matters like these are discussed in the Caravanning Handbook published by Haynes