What Van?

I have a 2007 T5 Kombi 2.5 TDI and I have put 220K KM's on it. Driveshaft (handy fix) and a weird electrical issue caused by faulty ignition switch only major issues. terraclean seemed to sort a Dpf issue I had last year. Love the transporter but scene tax is killing it now, I'lll explore Transit option next time or go back to an estate car.

 

Yes its only a fail if they can see its been tampered with. I knock them out or cut along the welds then tig them up. The remap will make them run real clean and so far all the Transits have gone through the MOT with no emission problems and with nearly 450Nm of torque there so easy to drive without ringing there necks and darn quick !

 

Chiz don't discount iveco, can be bit agricultural but robust and can be reasonably priced to say the least, they are basically wagon vans which is good, I have read of fleets been run to 450,000, I have a Renault master 204,000 and I'm heading to Germany Prague slovenia Spain etc starting Friday so whilst people say don't go French I'm not sure why, my last master had 250,000 on it had no abnormal issues, my mate just bought a traffic dented back doors might be on register but 100,000 miles air con cruise etc £1500

 

By an ex postie van, tear off the yellow decals, it's already a red van, ducati red and bobs your aunty

 

ive just got rid of my transit that ive run for 5 years,they are prone to rust and the last 3 weeks were a nightmare with problem after problem.was looking for something else around your budget but its a pain looking at all these so called immaculate vans.in the end I spent a bit more and got a 3 year old vivaro

 

And the Renault engine in the Vivaro is also used by Merc now so can't be that bad - I get 50mpg from mine but I drive like Chiz rides a bike: safe and slow I think his certificate said

 

Your mate is right all vehicles have issues you could spend 4.7k on a van and it lets you down you could spend £1500 and it runs and runs, I would say spend £150 ish to get it inspected by aa rac whoever but honestly everything costs over £150 to fix so it's worth it, choose a van but get it inspected by a professional if the seller is honest and confident in his van be no issues, I recently replaced a shock it was £100 or so to buy one an inspection will highlight shit like that, injectors are a biggie too, compression test etc an inspection should do all this....you can't do anymore other than hpi check like £10 but don't skimp on that ffs a good one tells you a lot...you might know all the above if so I'll fuck off to pub and talk to some Guinness

 

The Trend spec has a few electrical extras like mirrors, heated seats, heated screen etc. That is a decent price if it's in good condition but I assume it will be plus vat.

 

Engines are alright, it's gearbox and transmission you have to watch. Don't pull too many heavy trailers with it..

 

idea for your egg and milk round

 

I use it as a car - always empty unless on the rare occasion I am taking a bike somewhere. Is the transmission issue on the Bi Turbo new vans?

 

Don't know about the new ones. All the problems I know of personally were on 2010 or older.

One thing I always like to do is check out on Autotrader what sort of mileages a van tends to sell at. You'll see plenty of Transporters and Sprinters and Ivecos fetching good money with 200,000+ miles on them but you rarely see a Traffic/Vivaro above 160,000 and stacks going at around 50-60,000 for comparatively little money for the year. I think that tells you something.

If you want unbustable vans buy an Iveco daily. They're a bit crude and lorry-like and they're heavy and a bit juicy because they have big engines and ladder frame chassis. Most also tend to be enormous but if you can find a decent MWB low roof example at good money they can rack up vast mileages.

Edit: @Martin D you beat me to it:
And when it comes to towing I'd never buy a used vehicle of any sort that had a towbar fitted because you don't know what the previous owner has been lugging around with it. Learnt that with 4X4s, women and horse boxes...
I'd rather fork out the £350 and fit my own towbar to a clean vehicle that hasn't had the guts pulled out of it already.

 

Cool, let’s hope the new ones are better

 

This van.

 

Didn't she have a relationship with Gary Glitter when she was 16/17?

 

Noobie, no idea about that. Wouldn’t be something I’d shout about though.

 

I first made the traffic / primastar / vivaro mistake. I lost several thousand. Wouldn't go there again as @Gimlet said earlier on this thread, they just have so many issues if you keep them too long.

Since then i've spenk 5k on a ex british gas VW Caddy Maxi. 2011 with 40k on the clock and full BG service history. 2 years and not a single problem and drives like a hatchback. Just for the lack of break downs I love it to bits.

It also fits one bike (only tried my 999 or monster, might struggle with taller bikes) with plenty of room for other bits to the side. Not much headroom tho.