I want to spend around £5000 ish on one and just wondered what I could get for my money.

I dont want a car sized van like an escort or astra van, but a transit sized van, but doesnt really have to be a high roof or anything too big.

There seems too many to choose from and I havnt really got a clue what im looking at. Especially the Transits that seem to have loads of letters and numbers next to them that mean nothing to me!!!

So whats the best van to buy for £5k?????

 

Get an ex-BT 120 Transit. Plenty to choose from with a £5k budget.

 

or maybe a citroen dispatch hdi? maybe in budget?

 

And don't forget that van prices are usually +VAT

 

got a yard full of them so youre in luck,though not a sales post!! transit 120's ended in 99/00 and are worth at most 2k and in nasty grey if bt or the occasional white 1's, if you dont want anything too big then swb new shape transit,the 1st numbers (usually on drivers door indicate the engine power,80,100,125 and newer stuff 135,the second number indicates gross weight,300 for example is 3000kg gross,and so on, 125 t280 executive or similar spec with electric pack and air con etc if to be used as car/van although as previous the (same van) citreon despach,fiat scudo,and peugeot expert 2.0 hdi are i think the best driving vans around,and it does hurt me to say that over the transit,but 4 economy,drivability,comfort,etc it would have to be 1 of those three,out of the three then for some reason peugeot's are the most expensive,with fiat usually the cheaper,vw transporter excellent but pricey,also merc vito's,shit load of cash,and gearbox probs,5k should get you 03 04 and push for an 05??? mint hdi with fsh with the right miles,if youre not vat registered then shop around and you will find 1

 

Merc Sprinter


Jut wish i could get a 316 for the right money.

I have a p plate 312 on 242k and have owned it for the last 30k, and all i've had to do was a water pump, 2 tyres and an exhaust. Awesome van!

And it will still do a ton full of gear and my car on the back....at Brunters ofcourse

 

Sprinter or rear wheel drive Transit. I wouldn't touch anything else to be honest.

Sprinter model numbers, first one is either 2 = 2 tonner, 3 = 3.5 tonner or 4 = 4.6 tonner (tachograph). Chech the chassis plate though. Anything above 3.5 will need a tacho. The next 2 numbers are the power, 08 = 80 bhp, 10 = 100bhp etc etc all the way up to 16 which = 156bhp. There are som odd variations which are the 301 and 303. Not sure what they are to be honest. I have a feeling they have a disabled persons gearbox (auto).

Transit model numbers. The old vans I won't go into as they were just model numbers which won't mean anythin to you unles you have a list of what they should be. The new ones will have a T number. A T240 will br a 2.4 tonner. A T330 is a 3.3 tonner, a T350 is a 3.5 tonner and a T430 is a 4.3 tonner (tacho again). There is a few other models in between like a 260, 280, 300... The other number is the BHP number. This will usually be 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 100, 115, 125,or 135.

I have a 135 bhp T350 medium wheel base semi high top Transit with about a tonne of shite in the back. I had a bit of a play with a 313 Sprinter and pulled about 3 van lengths down a 1 mile stretch of bypass.

Both vans have their faults so it doesn't matter which you pick. I strongly advise against a FWD Transit as they need quite a bit of maintenance.

 

Sudo...my daily driver.Cant fault it!Depends if u want anything bigger Transits are always good!

 

toyota hiace/powervan better looking than most vans, better reliability than most and not bad on the power torque side either!

 

xr2.0zetecturbo. Good info mate, cheers. I assume you own a van sales? If so, could you PM me details of where please mate as im only round the corner and may be able to pop over and take a look at a few.

DazC Thanks for that mate, thats cleared a few things up.

Thanks all.

 

does this fit the bill

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

sleeper or what

 

xr2.0zetecturbo.

Just looked on autotrader, so i assume the fiat scudo, citroen despatch and pug expert are all exactly the same vans????

 

Thats awesome!!!!

 

mate i'm driving a T260 at the moment

plenty of room in the back for builders gear a bit tight in the cab if you have got a beer gut tho

good luck on your search - i love them myself !

 

only prob with rwd transits is the load height compared to the fwd, depends what your gonna use it for. Ive had 2 new shape fwd and the current rwd (125t350) is by far the best van i've ever had, wicked in the wet

 

Remember to keep an eye on your weight limits - there is a big clampdown at the moment and loads of my customers have been busted for going over their plated weight. With two up in the cab, there isn't a lot of payload left in a lot of vans nowadays.

 

316 mercedes,got 1 in this week,lets just say its the equivelent of the cosworth of vans,unbelievable power 4 such a big arse van,if it was taxed it would be my new shift bus,and it aint white either!!!

 

yep,all three pretty much the same really,although certain models do only come with a single passenger seat so just a thought incase there are a few of you working,or kids etc,oh,and the women can drive them if ever you needed them to,u got mail too

 

The VW Transporter has even more power than the Sprinter!! The top end VW has 170bhp (Sprinter has 156)!! Don't know what the LT has though.

 

top end vw dubs though are serious £££'s but the lad at our local signwriting place got 1,sexy bit of kit but at wrong side of 20k then it oughta be,amazing how vans have come on in the last few years,i need to get out my g/f reckons,expected me to be writing bout women or cars, maybe she's right

 

i work for delta self drive which is a big van rental company. we have every van that has been mentioned.

the best one to get would be the transit 280 imo. its very reliable and parts are cheapish if you do bust something.

transit 350 uses a duel mass flywheel thats is absolutly shit. the centre bearing colapes and the flywheel rubs against itself causing meatle filing to go everywhere which then fucks the starter and the cluch. its cheapish to fix and you can have the box on the floor in 10mins but its a bloody pain in the arse because they normaly do 50,000 mile to a flywheel. (the 280s have a solid flywheel)

merc sprinters are fast. thats it. they are also very unstable, break down constanly and cost a silly amount to put right again (the favior on them is the injectors fuck)

the peugeot is a nice van, they handle quite well actully, but to be honest its going to go back to the dealer more times that you can shake a stick at, because the engines gone into safe mode and is lacking power

vauxhall combos are possable the worst van made to date. if you get one of them it will break down and you will be doing the cluch on it every 40,000 miles. allso the second the van hits 100,000 miles the gearbox will fall on the floor and explode along with the pump ecu.

vauxhall vivaros are by far the most comftable vans to drive but then you need 9 degrees to tune the radio. as with the combo after 100k expect the gearbox to fall on the floor and die. they also seem to go though headlight bulds like to tomorrow and boost pressure sensors.

vw are a good van. i haven't had to deal with too many of them with is quite good but they have a fault when the heater fan has a constant live feed with means the fan will keep running with no key in the ignition. customer has the fan on low when driveing, get to where they are going, turn the engine off get out and go to bed. the fans been running all night and the battery is flat in the morning.


hope that helps

mike

 

transit all the way , expert/dispatct/scudo engines eat them selves at 100k, merc great van but over priced and handle a bit strange,iveaco cheap and feel cheap. vw can,t coment none on fleet but still loving the ford

 

Ive got a Vauxhall Vivaro, 2 Years Old, done 43k, Really comfy to drive had a few probs done on warranty - Major one was the gearbox got very noisy.....

 

xr2.0zetecturbo. PM sent.

red transit van man

Looks like you know your stuff mate. Thanks for all that.

 

its what you get for working with them all day every day.

wanna get a new job soon.

anything elce you need to know i'll do my best to help.

mike

 

LOL! I could have elaborated a lot on various vans myself (Fleet Technician/Auto Electrician) but I thought I would sum it up with 5 words!

The Sprinter also uses a dual mass flywheel as does the VW LT. They do collapse and lose their viscous damping effect but not that often.

I wouldn't entertain the French or Italian stuff to be honest! Unless you're paying someone else to fix them and are not bothered about cost.

I do remember the Renaults/Vauxhalls/Nissans going through a phase of chewing the gearboxes up actually (not worked on any for a while).

 

transit or iveco sprinters are crap fall apart as soon as there out of warranty same with lt's transits are great but as mentioned before rwd's tend to have a problem with the dmf failing and taking the starter etc but valeo have cured this now with the solid flywheel iveco's go like s**t 3.0 166hp leaves sprinters for dust great vans very big ! but tend have the doors dropping off after 5 years other thing to look for would be a 137 tranny very rare but and excellent van will beat any sprinter but the 137's did have injecter problems which should all be cured by now one more thing to consider and check if your getting an 04 tranny 2.4 rwd is

A recall was announced for late 04 on duratorqs with 115, 125 and 135Ps output.

It concerns the quality of the timing chain tensioner !! this should all have sorted by now though as it was early this year this happened

 

transit

 

I would say transit or sprinter. I worked for a company that had 10 fiat scudos,and another company that had 20 citroen dispatch. All suffered from engine and gearbox problems. The locks are shit,the side doors let in a hell of a lot of wind noise on the motorway,and the 1.9 diesel is a gutless piece of wank.The only good thing about these vans is that when they are running,the HDI/JTD's go like fuck!
For the money it would have to be fwd transit with 100ps engine for me.

 

Mmm i had 4 k to spend on a van as ive started my own company an was hoping for a astravan tbh with as low a miles as i could find

Not really much joy until a 02 plate vauxhall combo came up for sale , its got more room than the astra because its a bit higher , ohh and its quite nipy too , it had 58.000 miles and cost me £3400 and im over the moon with it tbh , cage and roof rack etc and security doors at back .

Would have went for a transit connect if i had more cash though , but i think your 5-6k for a decent one still

 

transit connect


i think you mean focus connect

 

No mate transit connect

 

Ivecos are pony- FACT

 

nothing transit like about them

1.8 fwd car like shares everything with the focus

not deserving of the transit badge on the back

 

transit or sprinter,i see them with 200 k + miles going strong

 

ye old ones are but the new ones are ace

 

Are the gear boxes still notchy as you like?

 

not enough belly room in an iveco

 

00 onwards has never really had a crap box imo yes before that when they had the square wheels they were less refined than tanks since then they are a good van engine and transmission wise they just seem to go on forever

 

try the mk7 mate loads of room and a 2ltr bottle holder hows the mk6 going???