21 January 2025 – Canterbury, UK
We bought our very first Mazda Bongo today!
It’s a 2002 model with 171,000 km on the clock. Unfortunately, it came with a significant history: the previous owner tried to drive it out of a height-restricted car park with the fibreglass pop-top open. As a result, the third-party roof was badly damaged — a 30×30 cm piece is completely missing from one corner, the metal scissor mechanism is bent, and there are structural cracks in at least seven different places, some of them spanning the full width of the roof.
Surprisingly, the awning survived intact. The mosquito nets, however, are torn in several places, though nothing too serious.
The engine struggles to maintain idle due to a faulty MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor, but overall, the van is in remarkably clean condition. There’s barely any rust on the engine or chassis, and only two visible patches of bubbling paint around the wheel arches.
The Rear Kitchen Layout – Not Quite Right for Us
After being imported into the UK, the van was converted with a rear kitchen layout and a pop-top roof. Inside, there are bench seats built over the rear wheel arches and a rear-facing passenger bench just behind the front seats. The setup feels more like a travelling café than a campervan. With two children, we quickly realised that it’s not suitable for our family. There’s barely any storage space left, and the kids have to travel backwards.
Reading forum posts confirmed our experience: large kitchens and fixed seating arrangements in such compact vehicles often turn out to be impractical during hot summer days. Many owners report never actually using their built-in hobs. Moving the hob outside and repurposing the interior kitchen space for storage seems to be a smarter choice — and that’s what we’re planning to do.
A Bargain Buy?
We paid just £2,000 for the van, with only 20 days remaining on its MOT. So while it needs a fair bit of work, it’s a solid base — and we’re excited to start making it our own.