Cheap Small SWB Van Suggestions

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

Soldato
Joined
20 Feb 2004
Posts
22,432
Location
Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
I’m looking for a cheapish van. Size wise it’s going to be a short wheel base type, something like a Ford Transit Connect or a Citroen Berlingo. It also needs to have a side loading door. Something which some do/don’t have in this range.

Price wise we’re looking around £2k so appreciate it’s going to be something around 10 years old but I figure that most vans can go for hundreds of miles so something with ~150k on the clock isn’t a huge worry.

My concern is that as it will mainly be used for relatively short journeys, is a diesel really the best option due to DPF failure etc, Do you get many petrol models in this category?

Does anyone have any experience of these type of vans and have any particular models to look at/avoid?
 
Marvt74 said:
is a diesel really the best option due to DPF failure etc, Do you get many petrol models in this category?
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I doubt many of the vans you'll be looking at have DPF given their age. Petrol models are very rare. My dad has a Transit Connect which is only ever used for short journeys. It has a few electrical gremlins which he's had trouble getting sorted but otherwise it's been fine. The ERG failed but can be bypassed so wasn't too expensive.

Have you looked into insurance? This can be surprisingly high on vans especially if you're adding extra drivers.

Oh and remember these vans are usually subject to lower speed limits.
 
Firestar_3x said:
Not it its a car derived van.
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Of which only a few actually are, car derived vans must be based on a car design:

•Ford Fiesta
•Vauxhall Astra
•Vauxhall Corsa
•Fiat Punto
•Peugeot 207
•Renault Clio.

Lots of common small vans such as the Citroen Berlingo, Peugeot Partner, Ford Transit Connect are not CDV.
 
Transit Connect and Berlingo/Partner are not car derived. Vauxhall Combo is about the biggest CDV, the rest are hatchbacks with the glass removed.

Not sure about the Nemo triplets. I'd assume not.
 
Advice we got from the fleet guys are work was that it doesn't matter what it shares parts with, it's the chassis. Berlingo is now sold as a passenger car with seats and windows, but that was introduced after the van.
 
MagicBoy said:
Advice we got from the fleet guys are work was that it doesn't matter what it shares parts with, it's the chassis. Berlingo is now sold as a passenger car with seats and windows, but that was introduced after the van.
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It also depends on how the manufacturers handle the paper work when they apply for type approval. There have been situations where different clones of the same van have been subject to different speed limits.

Also if you're buying an ex fleet van check to see if it has a speed limiter. It can take you by surprise when you pull onto a motorway and suddenly realise your maximum speed is 64mph, as happened to me when I was driving a hired Luton.
 
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