Which little van

[Dickster]

Ey up.

Need to get a small van to help build up our newish cheese shop.

Not too large, cheap to run and insure n must be reliable.

Got £3500 and thinking of VW Caddy or Ford Connect at the moment.

Any experience out there of these or am I missing any off the list? Would prefer the most car like if poss as its a big sacrifice for me!

Ta.

Dickster.

[dufctubs]

Caddy , had mine 4 years and loving it !!

[entwistlecymru]

New Kangoo (09 on). You'll get an early one for £3500. I'm doing 30k a year at 60mpg, and - apart from the usual service items every 12k - in 3 years its had one driveshaft and a pair of wishbones - £180 in 83000 miles. I know of two locally of the same age as mine with over 200,000 miles and no problems despite what everyone seems to say about Renault vans!

Edited by entwistlecymru on Friday 25th January 22:25

[wizzbilly]

just be carefull on which caddy am sure class for higher tax bracket

i would choose the caddy hold value well and look super cool in my opinion .

you could also consider vaux combo lot for your money

[Flipatron]

Bought a standard Connect 1.8 TDdi brand new in 2005.

115,000 later it's only fault has been a flat battery due to the alternator wire breaking (common fault).

Apart from normal service items I've gone through: -

A couple of suspension drop links.
Three sets of tyres
One set of front brake pads (which I didn't need looking at the old ones).
Two Windscreens
One Exhaust backbox

It's a great van, still going strong and no plans to replace it.

[king arthur]

Your choices in those will be limited at that budget. I'd say either Vauxhall Combo or Peugeot Partner/Citroen Berlingo, try and get as new as possible (3/4 years) with service history and one owner, and you won't go far wrong. Avoid Kangoos!

[martin mrt]

Caddy without a doubt.

I'd have a mk2 TDi Caddy over a Transit Connect

[truck71]

Run a caddy and a junior transit as part of the fleet, both fine. VW came with DSG which is great but did fail at circa 110000 miles. Ford does what it needs to but VW is a nicer place to sit. If you're buying 2nd hand I would place previous owner(s) and maintenance history ahead of choosing one over the other. Try and get one in silver and it'll look good for your business.

[Dickster]

Cheers guys.

I was keen on the Caddy Mk2 anyway and just been out in one from one of my suppliers and thought it was great! Very car like and even though it was a 54 plate with 170k miles on there were no rattles or owt.

I will defo go for good history and useage.

Caddy it is!

[martin mrt]

Mk2 caddy on a 54 plate? Must be the VERY last of them?

Or are you thinking the mk3 (current body style)

Mk1 caddy was the pickup based on the mk1 Golf, many seem to forget about these

[Dickster]

Ah must mean mk3 as it was current style!

[Johnnytheboy]

martin mrt said:

Caddy without a doubt.

I'd have a mk2 TDi Caddy over a Transit Connect

This, Connects we had were unreliable, my Caddy is a lovely van.

[Robin Hood]

Transit Connects are heavy and come with larger van speed limits being over 2 tonnes GVW, 50mph instead of 60mph on dual carriageways etc. if it's of any consequence.

[Humper]

Robin Hood said:

Transit Connects are heavy and come with larger van speed limits being over 2 tonnes GVW, 50mph instead of 60mph on dual carriageways etc. if it's of any consequence.

Really? Is it not single carraigeways youre thinking of.

[Robin Hood]

Humper said:

Really? Is it not single carraigeways youre thinking of.

Yes sorry,it was late!!

It's single carriageways 50 instead of 60, dual carriageways 60 instead of 70

[BBS-LM]

king arthur said:

Your choices in those will be limited at that budget. I'd say either Vauxhall Combo or Peugeot Partner/Citroen Berlingo, try and get as new as possible (3/4 years) with service history and one owner, and you won't go far wrong. Avoid Kangoos!

I can backup the Peugeot Partner, had my Mk2 for about 6 month and all it needed is a new battery because the old one was 6 years old, great little van, and it's done 100K. But I did get lucky in finding it, the van came with service history, and 1 owner from new.

Edited by BBS-LM on Tuesday 26th February 20:24

[powerstroke]

entwistlecymru said:

New Kangoo (09 on). You'll get an early one for £3500. I'm doing 30k a year at 60mpg, and - apart from the usual service items every 12k - in 3 years its had one driveshaft and a pair of wishbones - £180 in 83000 miles. I know of two locally of the same age as mine with over 200,000 miles and no problems despite what everyone seems to say about Renault vans!

Edited by entwistlecymru on Friday 25th January 22:25

Ditto Ive just swaped a transt for one, only done about 1000miles so far but most impressed esp the fuel consumption...

[RodMod]

I can't really comment about the others, my Caddy has been tip top for the last 3 years ok its a bit old now 2002 but it does everything I need and it has the removable crew seats (never used).
The little bit of extra height in the back is brilliant for my job (Lawn and turf care) as I can get mowers and machinery in without having to fold the handles on the machines as I used to with the berlingo.

Good luck in your venture.

Rod.

[B16JUS]

I will throw a Peugeot 207 van into the mix, I have mine for shooting and fishing and its fantastic

Drives like a car modern interior just like the car version loads of room in the back and does about 50 mpg

J

[powerstroke]

B16JUS said:

I will throw a Peugeot 207 van into the mix, I have mine for shooting and fishing and its fantastic

Drives like a car modern interior just like the car version loads of room in the back and does about 50 mpg

J

Except the car version is £20 road tax instead of £210 and when I was looking the cars were cheaper to buy than a van and better spec, I was going to take out the back seats and make one into a van but sadly not quite big enough for my service van...