Happy New Year and welcome to 2026. In this video I’m getting into that awkward question a lot of people don’t want to ask out loud: does spending £100,000 on a campervan actually buy you freedom, or does it turn into a set of handcuffs? I talk about what “van life” even means now—full-timers, weekenders (that’s usually me), stealth campers, serviced-site people—and why I’m fed up with the gatekeeping and the constant picking at other people’s choices. If you’ve got a van, you’re prioritising the experience over comfort, and that’s the point. I also explain what I call the “cotton wool” paradox. Put a £100k van down a single-track lane in Cornwall with a tractor coming the other way and suddenly you’re not feeling freedom—you’re feeling stress about scratches, Devon rash, and protecting the value. Put a battered £500 workhorse in the same spot and you’ll probably just reverse into the hedge, laugh, wave, and crack on. I saw that vibe in Spain around the Caminito del Rey—old vans, dents, character, and people there to hike and live outdoors, not pose. Then I get into the 2026 elephant in the room: the new VW Transporter T7 is basically a Ford, built in Turkey alongside the Transit Custom, yet people will still pay the VW badge tax because of heritage and the “scene”. Finally, I share my 2026 channel plans—more budget build content, pitfalls in buying, alternatives to VWs, new van tests, NEC for three days, and hopefully a Spain trip for the August eclipse—plus a plea to drop the negativity online.