advice on what van to buy

[Cymrudragon]

going to the auctions tonight to look for a lwb van eg transit 2002/2004 lwb non injested, td, cdt high top or similar ......not knowing anything about vans or there possable problems can any van owners or drivers give a buying advice on what to look for many thanks in advance........

[McNeillie]

going to the auctions tonight to look for a lwb van eg transit 2002/2004 lwb non injested, td, cdt high top or similar ......not knowing anything about vans or there possable problems can any van owners or drivers give a buying advice on what to look for many thanks in advance........
I drive quite a few vans and Transits can vary considerably in specification

For instance Some are Front Wheel Drive and Some Rear Wheel Drive.

The main thing I would point out that many fleets ordering High Tops have them fitted with speed limiters which can be a nuisance if you are doing Motorway Driving.

Best of Luck

Ian

[derekosb]

Depending on what you need the van for, watch out for low powered diesel engines on big vans. Tenant on my site has a Scudo. Says it is a great van but very underpowered as he picked the wrong engine.

Don't be fooled by the Mercedes badge either. Brother in law changed from a Transit to a Vito thinking the Mercedes would be as reliable. Miles miles worse than the transit.

As with a car, condition and service history are key.

Good luck,

Derek

[Cymrudragon]

I drive quite a few vans and Transits can vary considerably in specification

For instance Some are Front Wheel Drive and Some Rear Wheel Drive.

The main thing I would point out that many fleets ordering High Tops have them fitted with speed limiters which can be a nuisance if you are doing Motorway Driving.

Best of Luck

Ian


Speed limiter....i will look out for that.and fwd/rwd...many thanks Ian..


Depending on what you need the van for, watch out for low powered diesel engines on big vans. Tenant on my site has a Scudo. Says it is a great van but very underpowered as he picked the wrong engine.

Don't be fooled by the Mercedes badge either. Brother in law changed from a Transit to a Vito thinking the Mercedes would be as reliable. Miles miles worse than the transit.

As with a car, condition and service history are key.

Good luck,

Derek

cheers Derek was more inclined towards the transit as parts a plentyfull and cheper than any other make the only other was the ldv maxis lwb high top and as you said choose a powerfull enough engine but reviews are scetchy so to speak.........judging so far the ford transit is the best way forward....agree as for service history all vans at this auction have full history with 3 month warrenty all fleet eg water board,electicity board etc

thanks all....... andrew

[Greeners]

I'v run small and medium size vans when I had a flower shop, and a whole fleet of medium to large vans when I was a fleet manager.

First question is, what do you want to do with it ?

[Cymrudragon]

I'v run small and medium size vans when I had a flower shop, and a whole fleet of medium to large vans when I was a fleet manager.

First question is, what do you want to do with it ?


My mate is a plasterer so going with him as he knows less than me about vans

[wutang]

I manage a fleet of LWB vans for my company, couple of pointers for you,

If a van is a ex lease fleet vehicle it will have a full service history, this only tells half the story as the lease company sets the level of service that the garage can do on the vehicle, in the last 9 years I have never known of anything other than a bottom tier basic service getting done.

Look for evidence of building supplies (concerete, plaster dust ect.) as vans used in the building trade are the most regularly overloaded. this stresses all drive train and suspension components.

Which van you chose can also affect your load carrying capacity, we no longer use Merc Sprinters for 2 reasons, the first was that the last two generations of sprinter are so heavey empty that if you are carrying three adults in the front you will struggle to get 750kg in the back without going over the 3.5t GVW, fiat ducatos and citreon relays offer much better.

The second reason was Mercedes shocking reliability, I bought 2 brand new sprinters (07 plates.) at a cost with all the extras we speced of £24K each, one of them we swapped for a fiat after 11 months, it had had in that time, a new gearbox, clutch, steering rack, brakes all round (twice) inc calipers, drive shaft, the sliding door fell off and the final straw was when the rear axle detached its self from the vehicle ripping out the rear suspension.

Old transits are good, the current generation have serious problems with the duratorque engine/ gearbox setup, DMF anyone

As stated above I always go for atleast the 120 to 130 horse models the smaller outputs dont give any better MPG and struggle with a load on.

Condition, what it has spent its years doing and has it been looked after are the important things, if you can see the remains of a company logo call the company and ask to speak to the transport manager, if it was one of mine I would have no trouble being totaly honest about it.

Feel free to fire any questions my way, if I can answer I will.

Richard.

[martin k]

mercedes sprinter cdi................. cracking van a 313 as ive got does 100plus mph and 30mpg

[Cymrudragon]

I manage a fleet of LWB vans for my company, couple of pointers for you,

If a van is a ex lease fleet vehicle it will have a full service history, this only tells half the story as the lease company sets the level of service that the garage can do on the vehicle, in the last 9 years I have never known of anything other than a bottom tier basic service getting done.

Look for evidence of building supplies (concerete, plaster dust ect.) as vans used in the building trade are the most regularly overloaded. this stresses all drive train and suspension components.

Which van you chose can also affect your load carrying capacity, we no longer use Merc Sprinters for 2 reasons, the first was that the last two generations of sprinter are so heavey empty that if you are carrying three adults in the front you will struggle to get 750kg in the back without going over the 3.5t GVW, fiat ducatos and citreon relays offer much better.

The second reason was Mercedes shocking reliability, I bought 2 brand new sprinters (07 plates.) at a cost with all the extras we speced of £24K each, one of them we swapped for a fiat after 11 months, it had had in that time, a new gearbox, clutch, steering rack, brakes all round (twice) inc calipers, drive shaft, the sliding door fell off and the final straw was when the rear axle detached its self from the vehicle ripping out the rear suspension.

Old transits are good, the current generation have serious problems with the duratorque engine/ gearbox setup, DMF anyone

As stated above I always go for atleast the 120 to 130 horse models the smaller outputs dont give any better MPG and struggle with a load on.

Condition, what it has spent its years doing and has it been looked after are the important things, if you can see the remains of a company logo call the company and ask to speak to the transport manager, if it was one of mine I would have no trouble being totaly honest about it.

Feel free to fire any questions my way, if I can answer I will.

Richard.

Fantastic mate,. points have been taken onboard as with all the others ..as you are obviously in a better position than me to chooseing a van what would be your recomendation......and year ...looking a something up to £4000.....as from here

http://www.auctioneers.co.uk/auction-lists/#lights

[3disco]

Fantastic mate,. points have been taken onboard as with all the others ..as you are obviously in a better position than me to chooseing a van what would be your recomendation......and year ...looking a something up to £4000.....as from here

http://www.auctioneers.co.uk/auction-lists/#lights
I work on a fleet of 44 vans ,40 vauxhall movanos and 4 mercedes sprinters,our drivers destroy them all.Do not be tempted to buy an LDV maxus our company has run around 2500 of these dustbins some parts are impossible to get including body panels,you have been warned.:}

[wutang]

Ok looking at that list, I would go for one of the 04 to 06 transits, but condition is everything, If you are looking for LWB and High roof all the VW's are to small.

Looking at the sprinters most are 07 plates and weight issues aside they will probably be out of your price range as I am trading in an 07 plate sprinter this month and am getting £8k for it in average condition with 70,00 miles on.

with a transit I prefer front wheel drive, the floor in the RWD models is allot higher (6 to 8 inches) which is a pain when loading.

If you dont get what you want dont panic, there are lots out there, also Hire company's such as enterprise sell off there old hire vans, they keep them longer than they do there cars so it is also worth a call.

Dont discount the LDV Maxus, I have an 05 SWB on my fleet, it was bought secondhand in 07 for £6K (ex sixt rental van.) and it is basic but goes well and takes a fair pounding.
Defo built down to a price and I wouldn't want to drive to spain in it like my other vans but Horses for courses.

One thing, I would personally avoid a van with a tow bar as it may have only been pulling a compressor around but it might also have been pulling a full production trailer (like ours, not light.) it puts alot more strain on the drive train.

Richard

Edit, just took a closer look, all the LWB maxus are 95 PS, to weedy I humbly retract the advice not to discount these, I would!

[Cymrudragon]

First thing ..thanks all for you advice .....went to the sales and by god did they have a loade of ldv maxis 06-07 and were going for £5000/6000 now with the vat of %20 on vans etc it was very dear indead there were a few transits there but seam to comand a heavy price and some were utter junk and most were x water board with geny and compresers fitted .....with all the advice i or we now know what to look for and what not to buy ...speaking to a few traders as well and they were saying the vat rise is killing them but only on light commerchal vehicles and not cars...........spoted a few nice saabs to but were priced a bitt ott 06/07 mazda 6ts estate caught my eye but were going for silly money like 6/7grand:shrug: saab 93 1.9 lin tid o5 121000 mls £3400+ ok but milage was to high and you have to put the commision and other bits on top of the price took it to £4000...thought auctions were cheap.....oh well still looking chears all

wutang thanks for that too ....and to all

[russell brown]

I have just brought a fiat ducato mwb from an auction house in south wales, methyr tydfil check out auctioneers.co.uk or google search. i paid 1800 for a 54 plate. to be honest i have always prefered the fiat/citroen/peugeot range because of parts low costs reliability of well respected psa diesel unit, i also own an old 1999 boxer van with the 1.9 diesel found in peugeot 405s and 309s and thats my baby.
the auction house literally sells thousands of vans a week and turnover is really fast so bargains galore. sprinters are to dear, transits i find are thirsty and there seems to be a lot of spares and repairs on fleabay, ldv pilotsconvoys where always popular on building sites (im a builder) so wouldnt buy 2nd hand one, psa group my choice:D

[wutang]

Fiats and citreons are what I am now buying, just priced up a brand new XLWB 120bhp relay with bluetooth, aircon plylining full bulkhead sat nav ect £16k, bearing in mind I am getting £8K for my trade in merc a great deal.

prices have been low on these (the fiat ducato, citreon relay and peugot boxer all come off the same production line.) for a few years now so the second hand values are lower on these. saddly there where none on the OP's list but could be a good choice.

Richard