I am looking for a newer van and in my job a lwb vivaro is the right size.
Are they all as bad as every says or is it a case of just the bad stuff being reported ?
I have a merc vito lwb at the moment and that has been pretty reliable but the bodywork is going and I don't want another.
Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

I have a traffic sport as my work van.
Its probably at its max weight limit and has been since new.
Not had many problems with it.
Abs rear wiring loom done under warrant
Gear selector cables done under warrant
Gear box diff was noisey replaced full gearbox 1000 miles ago van had 99k on it and Renault paid for everything except the clutch
Oh and this is my third one now and its great

 

Rob, at my last job i had an 05 1.9 6 speed. Had done 120k by the time it was sold (3yrs old) Only ever had service items and tyres. And a clutch but it used to spend a fair bit of time towing a 1700kg lift.
Cannot say the same as my current 24k mile transporter

 

Myself and 3 collegues (4 vans in total) all have 61 plate Vivaros, 2.0 6 speed. DCI

All 4 have now had clutch slave cylinder failures at less than 35,000 miles.

All have had new cylinders fitted under warranty, gearbox out job.

 

we run a fleet and they are utter shit compared to our transits that we used to have

the only thing thats better on the vivaro than the transit is that they will do around 2mpg more, but in every other aspect they are worse, even down to no padding on the steering wheel making your hands hurt, sliding door handles falling apart, nowhere to put your shit in the cab, seating position, the dash layout (no temp gauge) no clock if the ignition isn't on, no mileage if the ignition isn't on, the ventilation is poor

and to sum it up, the transit in front of me performed a nice simple 3 point turn, me, in the vivaro, had to do a 5 point turn as the steering lock it so bad

and the mirrors are designed to let water spray up onto the side windows when it rains, obscuring your view when you need it most, there is a terrible blind spot right next to the van in the mirrors too

and the last thing is security, you either lock all the doors, or you unlock all the doors, you can't just unlock the rear on it's own and leave the front locked, so when you get out in a dodgy area, you need to clear the front of anything valuable before you get out and go roun the back

just shit vans overall

and they give you back ache

 

I hate en but I know a few who have done 200k plus just from being serviced with exceptional oil
My father in law services quite a few and from new they come straight to him to be drained then filled
Never had a gearbox or engine failure
And they all end up over 300 k when they get sold off
So that's my advice
Trannys rot vivaros munch boxes

We are all transit now but we did have vivaros but they were all trouble and main dealer serviced

 

+1

OMFG dojj you should do a buyers guide on them

Got an 08 sportiff, gotta say 125000+ an climbing of utter abuse, in fairness it aint let me down, just falling to bits quicker than they can mend it, clutch's are chocolate, brakes wear out quicker than a tampax, no usb, radio only finds BBC, fek all else, the door handle point is bang on an all, utter shite.......................
ive a ratchet strap tied to rear inner so as to open it from side door
and interior trim just jumps from its mountings for no reason, esp mirror switch's in top of door cards.

POXY cheapo steering wheel, hands get dirtier using it than working
all day
Glovebox is just enough for a night out...just dont take anything with you.

Alarm/lockings a joke as dojj has said, seats are uncomfortable as feck,
stupid arm rest will drop to floor if you look at it.
the mirror/rain point omfg i thought i was imagining that one, what a total cnut trying to overtake at 100+ in a Sunami, it'll take you 100+ years to get to 100+ plus so when you do you need it, this problem keeps you at 55 constant

In fairness the stereo is pretty good, loves hard house, old skool garage, just dont go above 10 on the bass/trebble
Cup holders only do "girl size" travel mugs too, although will swallow a MC'ds Large coffee solidly, thats if you can find the illusionist that is the window switch

God awefull pig cunt vans, All in all buy a Transit

 

Had mine remapped never had any problems an do
500 miles a week on average full off racking an plumbing gear
Plus car trailer well also it's a07 had one before
This never had a problem

 

heard of loads of 6 speed box failures

 

No we've got 2008 crew cab on 112k now needed nothing but tyres ect might not be as good as transits ect but can't fault ours

 

I had a 2007 model for 2 years with 80k when I bought it and around 95k when I sold it. Full of kit all day every day. The only problem I had was a wire in the engine bay had a break in it which caused loss of power but that was an say fix. Other than that it was superb. I'd still rather the transit though, more space in the rear.

 

some people have had lucky breaks then, but my 13 plate is only 6500 miles old and it's already showing it's shodyness with the inside panels on the dash coming apart and the key fob almost wearing away so i can feel the button through the rubber, the wipers are shot and the wiper arm needs replacing as it bent when we changed the wipers and now won't go back flat again

and seeing as this is "my" allocated van and i'm the boss, i tend to make sure that every thing is sorted on it, but it's already starting to grind brake pads on the front and it's developed a rattle from the drivers side front suspension

 

I used to work at a large second hand van dealership and they sold all vans under 3 years old, more vivaros came back with gearbox, clutch, and engine problems than any other, hardly ever used to see transporters or transits come back to be honest,

 

Nobody come across the water ingress under the engine cover causing the injector wiring to rot? W had to do a load of Vivaro's with this issue and even some with bad injectors.

 

In my view transits are shit they are rot boxes man.
One little stone chip and the next you know it's full blown rot.
Our 08 plate 3.5t pick up is shit and its only done 35 k. It's horrible to drive noisey as fook
And you get problems with diesel pumps.
Think every ones got a bad story about every vehicle to be honest.
And Renault customer service for us has been great even when mine was out of warranty by almost 40k they still still fixed foc

 

Our vans do between 40-70k a year and we have something like 150 of them so any problems soon come to light

I'd forgotten about the seat backs collapsing as well

 

I have a 57 Plate Trafic...(Same Van).......ALways been good as gold to be honest, its well serviced and driven normally, never ragged ect as its my work tool....

Spot on, would buy anther no problem

 

Bloody awful to work on.I hate the seating position. I like the way trannys drive I think there so much better.

 

I had vivaros when I started the company .. all about 5 years old .. I now have 6 vitos and 2 t5 .. other than body work ie surface rust ( which we do from time to time ) the vitos have cost nothing mechanically (just oil and filters ) vivaro are poor stop with vito or t5

 

im driving a 58 plate vivaro i rag the crap out of it every where its done 68000 miles the only thing that has failed was the steering rack its fully kitted out with BOTT drawers vice sink & shelving & i love it ,its been a really good van so far the drivers seat is comfy but as a passenger they kill my back .

 

I drive a trafic sport and tbh have never had a problem with this on or the previous one, always well loaded up and never missed a beat

 

ive got a 2006 Renault traffic exact same van.
100 hp dci 6 speed ex aa van 46000 miles and its never missed a beat so far and had nothing at all except 1 air con regas 3 weeks ago, and ive had it 2 or 3 years now bought it with 32000 on the clock.

great vans and room for 3 up front

mine happily dragged my 1 3/4 ton Chrysler 120 miles home easy

 

so you've done perhaps 6,000 miles in it per year? or 4,000 at the other end? and it's "a great van because nothings gone wrong with it"?

i can do that mileage in a month

trust me, with our fleet covering 6-8 MILLION miles a year, they are utterly shite vans compared to the transits, and even the vito's we had back in 2004

people buy them because they are cheap and the service intervals are longer, and the new ones have smart servicing on them but all that happens if they come on is that the dealer turns the light off and doens't service them until it's done the required 25,000 miles between services, so no wonder they have issues

 

its loaded to the hilt though always over 2 ton due to tools.

they are very cheap that's why I bought mine, iirc it was Ł6k was 4 years old and done 32000 miles basically brand new, and had air con which I wouldn't of bought if it hadn't tbh.

my van may not of seen many miles compared to yours but I dare bet its been on much worse terrain its a fitters van that has to go on site regularly and always well laden.

 

My job is working on vans and if anyone asks what I'd reccomend it's Transit every time. They're certainly not free from their problems but the only probs I see with them are due to being way overloaded (clutch and dmf doesn't like) or being driven round town (egr faults from coked up). I did 100k in my last one and thrashed it about, never had any egr probs.

I did have a vivaro before my two transits, used to kill my back driving it. The brakes are so rubbish too. I only work on newish vans and on Vivaros I've done loads of clutch slave cylinders, gear cables and front shock top mounts.

What sort of age/mileage are you looking at? Thing I've found with the older ones they get past 80k and you start to have major probs like diesel pumps, turbos and gearbox failures.

 

I know what you mean mate, but a well looked after van that covers minuscule mileage will always be a better bet than one that's going to put moon mileage on

But it is also just one van vs many in our fleet so they may have let a good one slip out of the factory on the odd occasion

 

I collected a van from van ball yesterday that went in on April the 17th

You name it it was fucked, steering, suspension, brakes, handbrake, engine (jumped a tooth in the timing and trashed the engine) and all on a van that is only 3 years old and 132004 miles on the clock

The dash owed has fallen apart as well with big gals on the centre console and the top panel of the dash has fallen out

 

work part time in a breakers can allways tell how bad a vehicle is by how well they break; vivaros get raped every time we get one

 

Looks like it may be another vito or a transit then. Does anyone wether these have galvanised bodies nowadays.

 

Mercs still rot there are sprinters under 3 years old with big rust patches
Trannys do too but not a bad
If the sills are rear arch leading edges were covered they would last far better

 

Mine was terrible!

07 Plate 1.9 90ps engine, 6 speed box.

Killed the first clutch at 60k miles
Killed the 6 speed gearbox at 80k, main dealer replacement with clutch was Ł4k

Handbrake cable snapped and van rolled down hill into front of my own car.

Discs and pads had to be replaced all round every 20k miles

Central locking regularly didnt work on side doors

Buttons worn out on key fobs easily, again replaced by main dealer for megabucks

Starter motor failed

Steering wheel was falling apart making my hands dirty as mentioned

Good job it was a company van. Piece of shit!

 

The newer trannys still rust but they arnt as bad as the older ones.

 

We have several Transits at work for escorting and constantly got guys throwing all their
Kit in and slamming te doors etc weighed down with spares as well and nothing major wrong with them. One has a rough idle which no ones bothered with and one te door panel on the sliding door has fallen off.
None of them have started to rust yet and these are 5 years old.

Cracking vans and so much better than the Berlingo's we had

 

The paintwork on my 61 plate tranny is shocking,i look after my van better than most,my boss says i have OCD with it but the piece of ford shit is still rusting everywhere,have told stoneacre Ford 3 times to sort it and they still aint done it 2 years down the line....Always loved a transit being a ford van but i think mine is utter shite and only on 60k.........and dont get me started on mechanical stuff,its broken down on me twice then theres the rusty wheels,the side loading door that nearly fell off.....Saying that i would never have a Reno

 

the door sliders all rust but they've all been done under warranty as it's a little bearing inside that falls apart

 

Lol at rusty wheels.

I work for the royal mail fixing the vans and tbh we hardly do any work on the trannys.

Then therr is the vauxhall combo.Dont get me started on them lol.

 

Has anyone,had the newer 2.2 transits break the rockers ? We've had 2 10 plate ones break in the the last month ? Both done 140k of utter thrash but regular services? They belong to a fleet that always use transits but did get one Renault traffic in 2008 !!!! Let's just say they won't be wasting any money on another one afterbspending more time off the road than on and still prefer the transit with its faults

 

This is one of our trannys at work




Pics of the engine.

 

I dont think the engine looks to bad compared to the mileage.

 

thats a mk6 though ain't it glenn?