Spec me a decent fishing wagon

robfosters

robfosters

robfosters

Caporegime
Joined
1 Dec 2010
Posts
53,766
Location
Welling, London
Need a small second hand van for fishing.

It must be cheap to run as it's a weekend motor. Good on diesel, and as reliable as poss for the price. Style not important, but some of the drives are long so should be comfortable.

Could I do it for a grand or under?
 
robfosters said:
Need a small second hand van for fishing.

It must be cheap to run as it's a weekend motor. Good on diesel, and as reliable as poss for the price. Style not important, but some of the drives are long so should be comfortable.

Could I do it for a grand or under?
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I suspect finding a van that's reliable and comfortable for under £1000 would be almost impossible. Why not look at an estate car instead or even a people carrier - something like a Volvo 850 or Ford Galaxy.
 
You don't need a van or a diesel - both of which will be total trash for this money.

Buy a Mondeo Estate with the 2 litre petrol engine in. Fold the seats down. Fill it with stuff. It'll do 40mpg on a run. It'll probably never break. Nobody wants them so they are cheap, everyone wants a diesel.
 
Very Sorry, I forgot one very important detail.

I always go with mates and I need this van so we can fit all our gear in one van and then use one other car rather than everyone use their own car. So the amount of gear is very substantial. Talking like 12 rods, 4 bivvies, bedchairs and all manner of large tackle bags and sundries.
 
A Mondeo Estate has similar load space to a small Berlingo van or similar. A big van like a Transit diesel for £1k will be a rotten heap of trash.
 
Have to agree with an estate with the seats dropped being a better idea. More comfortable than a van, especially on long jaunts. My C-Max with the seats dropped would swallow all of that, so a Mondeo or something would have no trouble.
 
Why do you want a diesel? Mondeo diesels are far from reliable especially at the banger end of the market.

Mileage is irrelevent, you are buying end of life £1k buckets. Maximise your chances of zero hassle by picking the simpler, reliable engines and looking at cars that are £1k because they are unpopular (petrol) not £1k because they are ruined so even the 'want cheap diesel mate' crowd dont want them.
 
Have you thought about a trailer instead? If you store it securely you can leave it packed up with your kit too.

I'd of thought £1k would get a decent trailer and tow bar?

Depends on what you drive now?
 
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I fitted all my fishing gear easily in my E60 saloon as it had the ski hatch.

Or if you must have a van for a bag of sand buy a Combo van with the 1.7d Isuzu engine.
 
What fox say's is correct. I've been doing the same for work, a van would be nice but at £1k it will be scrap.. I've seen vans for £800 with blown head gaskets! Same goes for diesels, at that price point they are scrap and a mk3 mondeo diesel at the price is a time bomb!

I've actually picked up two petrol perimera's a 1.8 and a 2.0 for under £500. The 1.8 was great until someone rear ended me at some lights. Still petrol is the way to go in this price bracket.
 
A small van is ideal tbh. I'm quite lucky that one of my fishing buds has a works van we can use for fishing, but getting that amount of kit in and out of an estate even isn't ideal.

Still an estate is better than nothing and if you can t get a cheap van in the price range your looking at then you might have to just go with it. get some plastic mats down in the boot first.

Trailer isn't ideal if you have rods to take,
 
Could it all fit in an astra van? Pretty horrid things really but reliable enough and the back is fully protected so you can sling whatever you like in.

Plenty about too.

Otherwise petrol Mondeo/Passat/ovlov/Old accord aerodecj etc.

Without a turbo ideally
 
Yea but you don't realise how dank and skanky fishing gear can get when you leave and need to throw it in the van not worried it's going to dampen the rear carpets or the rear seats and get mud everywhere.
 
As above, its the panelling side of things that I imagine would help. Whilst you wouldn't care about a 1k estate, if its stinking every time you want to get in it that'll soon become grating
 
A people carrier has as much/more usable space than any compact van, i'd be looking at something like a Ford Galaxy petrol.

Remember insurance for vans is quite a bit more than a car because you're choice is limited and you have to try and convince them you're not actually using it for trade. My dad wanted a small van but ended up getting a Renault Kangoo (non van) as its the same size inside but cheaper to buy and half the price to insure..
 
The Running Man said:
Yea but you don't realise how dank and skanky fishing gear can get when you leave and need to throw it in the van not worried it's going to dampen the rear carpets or the rear seats and get mud everywhere.
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I do realise that, but it's over-ridden by the disproportionate level of demand for vans with diesel engines at this end of the market which keeps values up. Plus the fun and games of finding an insurer who will believe you when you say you don't use your van for commercial purposes.

In an ideal world great buy a van but this is a £1k budget?
 
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