Another "What Van?" thread?

[pixelmix]

I'm probably re-hashing old ground a bit, but always good to get recent insight from those in the know!

I need to buy a van for a company for deliveries. Key details:

- Budget around £10k. A bit of flexibility
- Needs to be smart looking
- Reliability is fairly important as the drivers won't be terribly mechanically minded
- Ideally takes a reasonable sized pallet (although much of the usage will not be palletised)
- Looking at diesel until electric van range increases a bit
- Air con would be good, as would parking sensors.
- Looking at something around SWB Transporter sized, or slightly smaller.

Probably looking at something with 4-5 years and around 40-50k mi, ideally with an easy life (not a builder as a previous owner)

I have a T6 Caravelle for personal use so know VW pretty well. I'm not sure that the 2.0 diesel in recent versions is all that bulletproof and I'm not sure I'll get a smart one in budget anyway.

Renault Trafics have been mentioned favourably by a colleague. Anything else worth considering? Transit Custom?

I'm looking to pick something up fairly quickly (not hang about for auctions etc.) so where is best to search? Any good places beyond the van section on auto trader? I'm leaning towards dealers so I get a new MoT and a bit of service chucked in at the outset.

[gazza285]

10k will not buy you a five year old van with 50K on it. I was looking for a van last December, ended up with a 2013 Vito with 93K on it, cost me nine grand. Everything else I looked at between £8K and £10K was generally a load of crap.

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

I'm not sure what is in range of your budget but I'd be looking towards a Transit or a Vito. Personally I'd steer clear of any of the Renault/Vauxhall/Nissan variants.

[Desiderata]

VW are overpriced, Transit and Vito both rust prematurely, Renault/Vauxhall/ Nissan are pretty good, but some randomly seem to have injector and other mechanical problems. Peugeot/Citroen have surprisingly been the best and most reliable for us, although strangely, supposedly identical Fiat clone of the same models have had lots of little gremlins.

Edited by Desiderata on Friday 14th October 21:03

[gazza285]

Desiderata said:

Transit and Vito both rust prematurely...

The Vito has been fully galvanised since 2007, as are Transits Customs. There's no rust on my Vito.

Edited by gazza285 on Saturday 15th October 21:52

[pixelmix]

Thanks for the advice folks. Based on what is on the market in price range, I'm seeing if we can make do with the LWB version of smaller vans (Caddy Maxi, Combo LWB etc.).

There are a couple of Transit Customs and a Vauxhall Vivaro in budget that I might look at, they are a bit more tired.

[gazza285]

I've had a few Berlingos, they will fit a euro pallet, and have been very reliable. Not foremost in creature comforts though, although I have done big mileages in them.

[martin mrt]

pixelmix said:

Thanks for the advice folks. Based on what is on the market in price range, I'm seeing if we can make do with the LWB version of smaller vans (Caddy Maxi, Combo LWB etc.).

There are a couple of Transit Customs and a Vauxhall Vivaro in budget that I might look at, they are a bit more tired.

I’d avoid a custom at all cost.

I visit my friends garage at least once a week, he does a huge amount of fleet and lease company work for some blue chip companies that run them and they are absolute junk.

Always at least one every week having major heart surgery. Most I think he had was 3 in a week needing engines. If it’s not that, failed and stuck injectors, turbos failing and brand new units supplied from Ford being faulty are among the most recent failures. It’s great for him but it’s not a vehicle I’d recommend after the horror stories I’ve seen first hand there.

[BillyWhizz888]

I had a 65 playe sprinter i used for karting and towing caravan. 160k miles and it never missed a beat in just iver 2 years owning it.

Swb sprinters go for silly money as there not as common

I puck up allot of vans with my job for customers and get a few maxi style small vans look the fiat doblo. Small van high roof

[blue_haddock]

pixelmix said:

Thanks for the advice folks. Based on what is on the market in price range, I'm seeing if we can make do with the LWB version of smaller vans (Caddy Maxi, Combo LWB etc.).

.

If your looking at caddys first of all dont touch the 1.6 diesel as they go through injectors for fun.

Secondly i run a VW vaddy maxi life (7 seat MPV) as my own personal car and in 2 and a half years and 42k it only needed a couple of services and a side light bulb but since early july the car has been in the dealers for 8 out of 11 weeks trying to sort an intermittent fault with the crank sensor.

The dealer are basically useless and havent got a clue!

[Ryyy]

+1 for the caddy but do watch for the 1.6, I've had 2 injectors go in 60k miles and 3 years of ownership but some people have no bother and heard its meant to be the older 1.6s but don't know how solid that info is. they are a great van though and id say the nivest looki g small van. Great to modify too

Edited by Ryyy on Monday 17th October 09:33

[Essarell]

I pt 186k on my 66 Renault Trafic, fault free and really comfortable on a long drive, be careful with second hand vans, you can imagine the hard life some of them get. I see fleet vehicles getting battered day in day out.