What happens to old Royal Mail vans?

[LordHaveMurci]

All the old Royal Mail vans?

There are loads of ex British Gas vans around but I can’t recall seeing an ex RM van

[normalbloke]

A casual observation suggests there isn’t much left of them when they’re finished. They do like to get their money’s worth out of them it seems.

[Tye Green]

search 'Royal Nail Cosworth' (N not M!) on you tube

[BananaFama]

There used to be a local van dealer near me ,I looked at a cheap ex RM Escort MK4 van ,just the 1 seat and quite rough .
I didn't buy it .
Probably was early 1990s .

I did buy an ex BT MK5 Escort van in 1997 ,resprayed white over the grey ,it was slow and unreliable .

[16v stretch]

Tye Green said:

search 'Royal Nail Cosworth' (N not M!) on you tube

Is this still whole? I remember Wenny(?) putting that yb in a few different things, and I'm sure I recall him talking about putting it in a mint little 1300cc ghia escort.

This was maybe 10 years back mind,

[Glenn63]

There literally run into the ground. Tbf they get their use out of any vehicles. Buy new and run until they die. Some of our daf hgv’s are knocking on 2 million kilometres and on their last legs now. Being replaced with new gas trucks slowly but surly.

[BananaFama]

16v stretch said:

Tye Green said:

search 'Royal Nail Cosworth' (N not M!) on you tube

Is this still whole? I remember Wenny(?) putting that yb in a few different things, and I'm sure I recall him talking about putting it in a mint little 1300cc ghia escort.

This was maybe 10 years back mind,

It was Wenny ,I believe the Nail and the light blue hatch existed at the same time and didn't share an engine.
The hatch was a true sleeper with almost standard looks and about 6-700BHP .
Something broke on it and it stuffed the armco on the strip ,I don't know what happened to it after that .

[Little Pete]

I used to buy them from my local Manheim Auctions in the early 2000s. I don’t know if they still send them to auction.

[Caddyshack]

16v stretch said:

Tye Green said:

search 'Royal Nail Cosworth' (N not M!) on you tube

Is this still whole? I remember Wenny(?) putting that yb in a few different things, and I'm sure I recall him talking about putting it in a mint little 1300cc ghia escort.

This was maybe 10 years back mind,

Yeah, Wenny put it in the blue escort. He crashed it hard at Santa Pod when a front driveshaft snapped just after launch, he sold it all then. Iirc someone else ran the van as a road car?

[Catastrophic Poo]

They still beat a 2008 Combo (I think) around here.

No wonder they strike

[MattCharlton91]

My best mate is a RM mechanic, they have a few old shape combos on 300K, it’s not uncommon to see sprinters at 400k plus.

The hgv’s run pretty much round the clock and run up mega miles! So they run them right up to they’re properly end of life typically! He often tells me of issues they’ve had in the workshop, and them posties know how to break them in imaginative ways!

Due to the amount of combos they have on fleet, he’s got doing timing chains on them down to about 90mins, when Vauxhall book says 8hours!

[Snow and Rocks]

We have a pretty rough track leading up to our house. Even at idle in first, it's a bit uncomfortable in a Hilux but even so, I recently heard our postie changing up into third in his little Peugeot Partner Trek - it expect it'll be absolutely ruined by the time they replace it!

[Om]

Snow and Rocks said:

We have a pretty rough track leading up to our house. Even at idle in first, it's a bit uncomfortable in a Hilux but even so, I recently heard our postie changing up into third in his little Peugeot Partner Trek - it expect it'll be absolutely ruined by the time they replace it!

We have the same, though usually Ford or Vauxhall vans, postie aboard dreaming of the special stages...He says he skims over the holes that way. He doesn't have to fill in the holes afterwards...

Lovely chap though - he says he usually ends up changing a wheel most weeks as a lot of his round is up farm tracks! And he often delivers using a Europcar hire van... I don't think I would consider an ex-RM van!

[ZedLeg]

You can tell an ex RM van as it'll be sun bleached pink and there'll be a juggler living in it.

[Southerner]

Saw this absolute hero this afternoon, was quite impressed! Plenty of 11 platers still running down here but I don't remember seeing one of this vintage! Anyone found an older one?

[MDMA .]

Got a 2016 Sprinter in at the moment.



It had done 243k miles at its first MOT!

[MattyD803]

The posty round here uses a completed battered and faded red/pink Corsa C Combo van.....I've not noticed the registration plate before, but considering the "C" was discontinued as a van in 2011, I expect it must be at least 11/12 years old! I'll take a closer look next time he turns up...I can usually hear his drum n bass soundtrack before I see him, so I know when he's coming....

Assuming its on it's original engine and gearbox, it's a credit to Vauxhall to have last so long considering it has probably been hammered from new and used a 'start / stop' basis it's entire lift - I mean, our bloke barely moves it 200m at a time, typically wheel spinning between each location....

Edited by MattyD803 on Wednesday 25th January 09:11

[surveyor]

I remember a trader I knew buying a vauxhall of some sort from auctions in the later part of the 90's.

He made decent money on it, but his painter wanted to kill him. He filled 47 dents.

[Easternlight]

Southerner said:

Saw this absolute hero this afternoon, was quite impressed! Plenty of 11 platers still running down here but I don't remember seeing one of this vintage! Anyone found an older one?

Date tested
5 December 2022
PASS
Mileage
124,010 miles
Test location
View test location
MOT test number
3662 3442 3663
Expiry date
4 December 2023
Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories):

Steering column top bearing slightly worn (2.2.2 (b))
Nearside Rear Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement (5.3.4 (a) (i))
Offside Rear Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement (5.3.4 (a) (i))

[Cfnteabag]

We got told a while ago when ours were looking at it, that the RM use 'green recycling' where there vehicles that are no longer any use get pass to a third party who strip them and sell the secondhand parts back to the RM.

I can't remember which way the money works, if they sell the vehicles to the company and get the parts back or if the give the vehicles and buy the parts back