Bestest cheapest banger van?

Diddums

Diddums

Diddums

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I'm after a cheapo van for moving motorcycles and other junk around. All I care about is reliability, and cost. If it does 1k miles a year it'll be a lot, so I'm not fussed about comfort or performance or anything, it just needs to start when I need it to, and get me from A to B reliably.

What are the best options to look for?

Cheers!
 
Nissan e-NV200's can be had cheap now, less than £4000 for the 40kwh version if you look around, nearly 3k if you don't mind over 100k on the clock. If you've got somewhere to charge it up at home it makes for very cheap motoring and they're very well built.

Real world 120mile range in the summer and about 100 in the winter, a mate of mine has one and does lots of bike track days.
 
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sovietspybob said:
Nissan e-NV200's can be had cheap now, less than £4000 for the 40kwh version if you look around, nearly 3k if you don't mind over 100k on the clock. If you've got somewhere to charge it up at home it makes for very cheap motoring and they're very well built.

Real world 120mile range in the summer and about 100 in the winter, a mate of mine has one and does lots of bike track days.
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Hadn't even considered one of these tbh, could also be a decent worry-free route in to EV ownership so I can test out all the local charging facilities. Will have a look, cheers!
 
Diddums x said:
Hadn't even considered one of these tbh, could also be a decent worry-free route in to EV ownership so I can test out all the local charging facilities. Will have a look, cheers!
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Only mark against them is they use the defunct CHAdeMO charging plug which while still fine at the moment will become more of an issue as the years roll on. Otherwise they're cracking little things.

My mates has over 120k on the clock and still feels really good to drive.
 
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I had a renault trafic Mk2 and put 140k on it, so when I eventually sold it, it was just shy of 200k on the same engine and gearbox. Regular oil changes were everything and surprisingly, being french the electrics were fine. Newer renault trafic I have now suffers with the AdBlue system failing.

If you go for an older Trafic, make sure it has the 1.9 engine, its made by Mitsubishi and is awesome. Expect around 35mpg loaded.

Avoid anything ford. The old transits had fantastic banana engines but rusted faster than you could apply gaffa tape and the new ones suffer with wet belt failure.
 
Older Sprinters were ok, some of our work fleet had done well over 400k before they were retired. Not sure what mileage our current ones are on, but know they have spent a lot more time off the road than the older models
 
radderfire said:
Ford Transit if you want cheap.
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For a reason in my opinion - depends a bit on the model but we had quite a few issues with them at work - they (4th gen) have the appearance of being narrower than they are due to the style combined with big sticking out wing mirrors - resulting in them getting hit constantly, especially the wing mirrors being clipped but also the van itself, compared to the Crafters and Sprinters which rarely had the same happening.

Also a common failure with a coolant hose rubbing and splitting, turbo issues, fuel pump failures, a subset of them had issue with regularly chewing up the aux belt - not an issue with all of them but some of them do it and there doesn't seem to be an easy fix for it.

sovietspybob said:
Nissan e-NV200's can be had cheap now
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If you don't need a van for doing much mileage they are a good option - haven't been abused like used vans used for multidrop, etc. have reasonable set of features and comfort and drive OK.

Diddums x said:
I'm after a cheapo van
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Just remember that with many vans different speed limits will apply with a 50 limit on single lane NSL, 60 on dual-carriageways - other limits the same as cars. You may also find some places ban "commercial vehicles" from parking i.e. some tourist attractions and recycling centres often require you to apply for a permit before using (usually free).
 
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Well I've just spent £lol on accommodation and holidays so the van is on the back burner for now.

Bloody women, always ruining my fun with 5 star holidays and epic road trips :mad:
 
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