double cab - anyone?

dilated

dilated

dilated

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Im looking to replace my current stead, a rather leggy e60 530i with a tax friendly double cab and a more smile freindly weekend runabout.

I am doing a lot of work miles and so have the chance of a company vehicle and it appears that the double cab vehicles are the more tax freindly (eg cheapest) and the extra space would come in handly once or twice a month at least.

Im not too bothered about speeding away from the lights but looking for a motorway mile eater with an auto box and a leather aircon bluetooth seat. It does seem that along with white vans double cabs are one of the fastest vehicles on the roads thought :D


Does anyone own one of these and what are they like to drive? It seems that the Navara, L200 and HiLux are the better choices.
 
Can you clarify what a leather aircon bluetooth seat is??

I think you might have a nasty shock getting into any doublecab after a 530i, they are slow, noisey and unrefined. All the ones i ever had to drive had appalling manners and were painfully slow. For offroad the best of the bunch is a defender, which in its lastest form is acceptable, but not really a mile muncher. As for the new versions of the L200, hilux etc i couldnt comment as i only ever used older ones.
 
Not really, i dont think i have ever come across a leather seat with built in aircon and bluetooth.

You get cooled seats in high end cars, you get leather seats in most cars (at a premium), and most cars have aircon but ive not heard of it being built into seats???
 
JamesRJ said:
I would have thought that it was obvious what he was referring to ?
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Sorry if it was unclear, bascially looking for a car with some luxuries - in other words i dont wish to go back to the sort of spec level i once enjoyed in a 1980s metro. :D

The 530i is a great car but no space for little people in the back, the suspension is sporty which isnt great considering the state of our roads following the winter.

my main reason for swapping is costs as i can have cash in my pocket (by selling the bmw) and then spend 100 per month in tax on a car (even a diesel 5xx would cost more than double this).
 
by double cab i take it you mean a pickup like the mitsubishi L200 or similar ?

they are work vehicles, hardly the most luxury of vehicles :/
 
dilated said:
The 530i is a great car but no space for little people in the back,
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Errr its a 4 door saloon, there is plenty of room in the back. The rear seats are far more spacious than in a double cab pickup, which is a utlity vehicle for builders so the rear legroom is compromised in favour for an increased load area.

Buying a builders truck for normal use to save a few quid on tax is totally silly. It's like taking a tent to Orlando to save on hotel costs. Yea its cheaper but come on..

Intruiged as to how you've managed to make an E60 feel 'leggy' - do you not look after it?
 
[TW]Fox;16430865 said:
Errr its a 4 door saloon, there is plenty of room in the back. The rear seats are far more spacious than in a double cab pickup, which is a utlity vehicle for builders so the rear legroom is compromised in favour for an increased load area.

Buying a builders truck for normal use to save a few quid on tax is totally silly. It's like taking a tent to Orlando to save on hotel costs. Yea its cheaper but come on..

Intruiged as to how you've managed to make an E60 feel 'leggy' - do you not look after it?
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As Fox said, really.

If you mean 'leggy' in that it's too fast, too expensive, don't be fooled by pickups, purely because their aerodynamics recall those of large terraced houses in Fulham. Even if they're diesel powered, I'd expect pretty rubbish economy as a comparison.

They won't be as sporty as the 530i, but will be nice and bouncy/wallowy.

The rear leg-room won't be much cop, either.

Unless you have a justifiable need for a massive flatbed loading area, I wouldn't bother.
 
Out of the three double cabs suggested I would pick a mitsi.

Its genuinely the nicer place to sit.

I have personally fitted out thousands of hilux's during my time at toyota, the HL2 has none of the features you want, but are avalible in double cab form.

The HL3/Invincible are almost identical apart from the invincible has different wheels, satnav leather steering wheel and gear/diff knobs, sidesteps(chrome bars) and stainless steel sill plates.

They both have aircon.

All other options, leather, sat nav, bluetooth etc can be specced for the HL3 model, a roll top can be fitted to either model, or just the roll bars on their own.

When I first started having to drive them about, from storage to the workshops, the size of them was a bit scary at first, especially driving through a busy building.

But eventually I was chucking them about as I got use to the size.

You might aswell get an auto version, they are so slow, a manual box wont speed things up.
 
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Since my dad won't be driving for around two yeas now, I have been driving his Navara more often...

2006 Aventura. Leather seats, dual climate control, cruise control, heated seats, sat nav, electric seats etc etc

Totally different ride to my Fiesta ST, but I like it. Plenty of power and fairly reasonable fuel economy, 40+ mpg is easily acheivable on a motorway run. PLENTY of room in the rear seats too. The older Hilux (2001) we have also has plenty of room in the back, but isn't as refined (maybe that is the 170k on the clock) and has fewer luxories.
 
MrLOL said:
by double cab i take it you mean a pickup like the mitsubishi L200 or similar ?

they are work vehicles, hardly the most luxury of vehicles :/
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Double cabs are still taxed as cars as far as I'm aware :confused:

The only way you get round car tax is less than 4 seats if I remember rightly.

He will still get raped, get a car instead.
 
You need an American pickup by the sounds of it, I still wouldn't call it sporty but they can go fairly quick in a straight-line, have loads of space and can often tow a glacier should you feel the need to.

Dodge Ram V8 will do nicely I think. I hear they are fairly cheap to run and very reliable too ...the only thing that isn't fairly cheap is the fuel consumption, the love to drink.

The newest Ford F series pickups come in various cab configurations and with the new line of diesel engines available ...these are probably your best bet if you are looking to buy new or nearly new.
 
[TW]Fox;16433526 said:
Errr what thread are you reading because I can't see V8 Dodge Rams on most peoples company car list.
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If so, I want a job where he works! :D lol


I had a look around today, first of all the local Toyota dealer has sold the only pickup in stock and has a 12+ week wait for more.

The L200 and the Navara both seem pretty nice in side, with decent spec.

The space inside is much more than my current car and even at 6'2" - I can easily find a seating position in the front seat where I have room in the back to sit behind myself and this is not possible in my 5 which sis much more compact. Widthwise, there appears to be more room for 3 car seats.

I have arranged requested an extended test drive of both cars as 10 minutes around the block is not sufficent to form an opinion so I will have to wait a few days and see how they drive. As Im expecting a chilled out cruiser I wont be disappointed, right?
 
if you even contemplate looking at a hilux, get a taiwanese made one, rather than a south african.

they are put together better, panels and trim(inside and out) are a lot harder to remove/just genuinely tighter.

the vin sticker on the right hand side of the engine bay will show where its from.

and you read that correctly, the metal vin plates where drilled out, alittle red oxide around the pop rivet holes, then a replacement fragile vin sticker is placed into location.
 
[TW]Fox;16433526 said:
Errr what thread are you reading because I can't see V8 Dodge Rams on most peoples company car list.
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He didn't say what was on it, or even that he was restricted to a particular list.
 
There is more space in the back of an l200 than an e60 so I'm not sure who kicked fox's kennel this morning. Maybe it was the fact that you're contemplating swapping a BMW for a rattly works van. Yep that's probably it.

Get a 4x4 if you want more passnger space and a good amount of luggage space. Get an estate if you want to keep the low down driving position but need space for dogs etc. But for gods sake don't get an l200 (which is the best of the bunch btw) because your kids are kicking the back of your seat and you fancy saving a few quid in tax. They are much nicer than they used to be but they're still unrefined and noisy. They are a far cry from a mondeo let alone a 530i.

Also bear in mind that because they are commercial vehicles they don't have to conform to the same levels of eu safety standards as the rest of the market.
 
I had a Navara double cab from 2004 until december - as my only car and no work use for it. It was great to us. Literally not a single cost beyond normal servicing. They are reliable and relatively comfortable but very no frills, even when highly specced.

I switched to an E61 and it is much easier to get kids in and out of it than the double cab. The E61 feels much more spacious in the cabin - clearly the boot is not as large but is much more usuable for 90% of the things you may want to do if you are not using it for a trade.

The truck was slow in acceleration, cruised OK, bit noisy. I will only ever get a truck again as a second car - i love em but they are not a nice place to be and don't kid yourself they are particularly fun to drive.
 
By the way we sold ours and bought the BMW precisely because it was not as a good a car for babies and dogs (and because I wanted something nice but that was secondary!)
 
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