What van?

[Zarco]

I want to get a van so I can transport a motorbike to trackdays. Will use the van for daily 30 mile round trip to work. Have ruled out a car and trailer solution.

I don't know much about vans so would appreciate any advice people have to give. I'm drawn to either a Transit Custom or Renault Trafic. Transit looks the best to my eyes and it's supposed to be the best steer. I've read a few stories about dodgy engines though. Equivalent Trafic seems to have slightly better equipment for the same money.

My search criteria on Autotrader is 2016 onwards, up to 50000 miles, >120bhp, SWB. Age and mileage are just a guess at sensible parameters really. I want a bit of poke to dispatch dawdlers.

Budget is £15-18k ish (including VAT).

Must have AC and Bluetooth. No silly body kits/stripes. Any colour but white (and yellow for Transit to avoid looking like the AA).

I'm obviously a bit of a strange case to the typical van owner. It will spend most of the time unladen and generally have a fairly easy life.

I'm based in Reading if that makes any odds.

[gazza285]

Transits with the 2.2 engine are fine, but avoid the 2.0 ones.

Personally I’d look at the Vito.

[LF5335]

I used a Vito for exactly that. Could fit two bikes in if needed and all kit for a trackday with ease. Ran forever with no problems at all. Rust issues were a thing of the past on anything after 2008, so ignore the scaremongering. Side doors on each side are very handy too. I loved driving mine and just felt like a slightly higher seated car, rather than a van.

Couple of tips.

Go for a 113 or 116 so that the van has a little grunt, the 120 or higher spec are overkill and very thirsty. Simplistically speaking the last two digits with a zero added at the end equate to the bhp. So a 116 is 160bhp, whereas a 110 is only 100bhp. You really will notice the difference when driving it.

Make sure to get the LWB, not the Compact. The extra foot or so at the rear is a god send for ease of loading and unloading. XLWB aLao exists, but rare and the extra length is between from and rear wheels.

I preferred the flip up rear door over the usual barn doors, but they’re harder to find and often command a premium as a result.

[Zarco]

Thanks the Vito does look quite good actually.

Thanks for the tip RE Transit engine too. Will help narrow the search.

[gazza285]

LF5335 said:

I preferred the flip up rear door over the usual barn doors, but they’re harder to find and often command a premium as a result.

This is one thing that attracted me to a Vito as well. My T4 had one as well, but that was an overpriced unreliable nail, and put me off VWs completely.