Help needed to find a van

[capt jack]

OK, so Volvo don't do vans - otherwise I'd be looking no further, but I've been asked to help buy a van. Something along the lines of a Ford Transit Connect, with a side door, or possibly something a little bigger - perhaps Vauxhall Vivaro sized. Budget is up to £3,000 (inc VAT where chargeable).

There seem to be literally hundreds and hundreds of such vans for sale, and it's difficult to know where to begin.

Does anyone have any direct recent experience of buying / owning a van like this, and able to pass on any advice as to the ones to watch out for, and the ones to avoid?

There are dozens out there, shabby, smart, high miles, low miles, ply-lined, fitted out with racking, etc. etc. etc. So what's good, bad, worth a look, or to be avoided?

Ideally it would be any colour other than white, and an automatic, but given that most vans are white manuals there may need to be a pragmatic compromise on my part!

Opinions please!

Thanks in advance

Cheers

Jack

[Considered1]

York Van centre if they are still going for used. Looked after us well on an old Vx Combo. Then we leased a Citroen Belingo for c£200pm which worked out much better for a couple of years, had better tech than my BMW at the time c2012!

[ThomasG]

Bulkhead. MUST have bulkhead.

Imagine hitting anything, at any speed, no matter whose fault (these things happen) and all the tools or whatever you'll have back there flying in the back of your/passengers head.

Used to use (not own- company supplied) a Vx combo 1.2 diesel. 2008. Handled a bit like a turbocharged coach. Huge roll in bends and sharp turns, surprisingly speedy at takeoff and motorways (as for a van).

Pros:
Never broke on me (3years use)
Shelf over head
Small(ish) turn circle.

Bad stuff:
Fit extra locks to side and rear door. Disable original ones and make them openable only by separate key lock with coded key.

Depending on radio unit you may or (more likely) may not be able to fit a phone/Bluetooth hook up.

Passenger seat not really good for trips over 1.5 hours.

[AndyV7o]

Vivaro/traffic/primastar are great, but you ideally need one with a wad of receipts, then test drive to check all gears fir any whine, nice change, and afterwards look at top of gearbox for any gear oil presence (though the smell tends to give it away anyway). The 2.0 m9r engine is sweet, even the 90bhp is perky (though heavily laden on steep hills can make it sweat).
Transits probably more reliability potential, but have a keen eye for rust, they rot very well indeed, look out for cover-up jobs.
Just some things from when I was charged with buying a van for work that I researched/found. Transits smell of paint, vivaro(& family) smell of 75w80
We ended up with a vivaro 2.0 90bhp with a mild whine in 6th, changed gearbox oil to high quality stuff (Motul) ran it for 2 years without transmission failure before selling it as we no longer needed it. Handled lovely, colleague had 97mph out of it once!
Test drove a 1.9 110bhp which spurted gear oil out of the breather tube, walked away from that one!

[Tony427]

We are on our second Vivaro doing about 33k per annum and our present one flew through its first MOT this morning at 101k.

Having being used to the 2 litre turbo diesel version I was a bit worried when we bought this one in 2015 as its just a 1.6 bi turbo and the van is fully loaded with tools and spares all the time.

Then for fun we use it for towing a rather large and heavy trailer with up to 3 jetwashes on it at a time.

The thing is absolutely superb.

Serviced every 25,000 miles according to when the computer tells us to do it, it has never. and I mean never, had to have an oil top up, it returns 35 mpg no matter what we do to it, has been known to hit thee digits on the motorways in France and Belgium and is really nice to drive.

More like a car than a van.

We have now sold that van to a family member ( it even kept its value rather well) but have gone to the very latest 2 litre Ford Transit automatic purely because a certain left leg and foot was complaining about using a clutch as joints tend to sieze up as age increases.

According to the Ford people their new Transit will be cheaper to run, more economical, need servicing only every 36k and has lots of "interconnectivity" whatever that is.

I will miss the Vivaro.

Cheers,

Tony

[KerPLoD]

I own a Combo (2010) which has served me well the last year. Though I don't know much about the larger vans (other than the vivaro is a pain in the arse to work on) I do know a little about the vans in the Combo's size range...

Ford Transit Connect - arguably the better engine for reliability, almost definitely the worst for rustproofing if you're going for anything more than 5 or 6 years old. Plastic floor. Steers fairly well.

Vauxhall Combo - get a nice old one (pre 2012) that's based on a Corsa. The new shape is just a Fiat, and by extension everything is in the wrong place. At least on the pre-'12 Combo the Fiat engine is laid out somewhat simply. It's the most car-like with carpet floor, low-ish seating position and the same interior as a Corsa C. Averages 55mpg. Leans a lot in corners. Not very comfy for long journeys. But it would be my choice.

Peugeot Partner/Citroen Berlingo - the most efficient engines, the cheapest to run, but probably the most to go wrong with the engines. Having worked for Peugeot I wouldn't trust the 1.6HDi as far as I could throw it. Carpet floors made of velcro, impossible to vacuum clean. Noisy as can be.

Volkswagen Caddy - probably the best overall in terms of power, comfort, the way it drives etc. But, horrifically overpriced (because of the badge) and VW parts are stupidly expensive as well. Plastic floors, horrible quality plastics, but screwed together well. Don't get anything that isn't a 1.9TDi.

You could make an argument for a Fiat Doblo but it's got the same engine as the Vauxhall Combo but it's basically in backwards so if anything needs doing it's a bastard.


Personally, I'd go for a Vauxhall Combo, around a 10 plate. £3500 gets a good one. The Fiat 1.3CDTi engine seems to be more reliable than the Isuzu 1.7 engine, though mpg and tax are the same for both. The 1.7 is faster but the 1.3 is useable enough. Thanks to being a Vauxhall, parts are cheap. Try and find one that's done around 10k annual mileage. Look out for broken coil springs, white smoke and rough running on cold starts (sign of injectors partially seized) and random slight hesitations in acceleration, which could be the EGR. Servicing is simple as can be. The SE trim has air-con and much better seats with decent bolstering and support.

Combos can be found in a few different colours and with auto boxes (though auto is more common on disabled access versions). Hope this helps!

[AndyV7o]

WTF!??
The Isuzu 1.7 is a very good engine, one of the most reliable, and long-lived engines, can do 500k+ (many have) and a downsight better than the fiat 1.3...

[4x4]

Saw this on FB
Don’t know anything about the van or the seller but if you want more info I can send you a link to the page.

The W639 Mercedes van is a good vehicle, I’ve owned mine and my previous W638 for 20 years and they’ve been reliable, worth considering.

[jor]

£3k is not a big budget, especially if you are using it to make money. My experience over 10 yrs only consists of Fords and Renaults and is similar to Andy's above. Like so much in life 'fings ain't what they used to be' and this certainly applies to Renaults - our vans were not abused and their chief virtue was economy rather than longevity. None lasted beyond 8 years and were prone to depositing drivers and loads at the roadside due to a variety of faults, mechanical and electrical, memorable instances being in Northampton where just short of the M1 (thankfully), the ? immobilizer kicked in, causing the trafic engine to cut out and Croydon where the master's driveshaft started dripping ballbearings on the carriageway. The only absolute requirement, whatever you choose, will be full AA cover. The Fords were mechanically more sound, but at the cost of heavy fuel consumption, even in the smaller versions.
So I think the best you can do is find a private owner lightly used example and hope and praythat it stays sound during your period of ownership. If you cannot find one I would be tempted to up your budget to £5 k and buy from a garage dealership prepared to offer a year's warranty.

jor

[KerPLoD]

Originally Posted by AndyV7o

WTF!??
The Isuzu 1.7 is a very good engine, one of the most reliable, and long-lived engines, can do 500k+ (many have) and a downsight better than the fiat 1.3...

And yet locally, I haven't seen a single 1.7 without problem after problem (I know quite a few people with Combos). Especially newer ones. And the engine on my van hasn't missed a beat in the year and a half I've had it.