My old van is uneconomic to repair :-( so it is time for a new van. I'm planning to get a van which is two or three years old and either a Vauxhall Combo 2000 1.7CDti or a Peugeot Partner 800 LX HDi 75 both of which are little vans designed to take heavy weights
I am looking at an ex Anglia Water van and an ex British Gas van
Would anyone have an opinion on what sort of life they will have had? On the go all day long? Servicing?
Anna
Hi,
Also try a post on the 'talk' forum at the Screwfix site, a lot of tradespeople on there.
cheers, Pete.
Good idea. I have done that
Anna
Thanks
Thanks for the Seat/VW suggestion but there isnt a 'heavyweight' offering available. Yes I think I will steer clear of Ford!
Anna
Company is about to go bust?
More immediately, the Transit Connect is wider than the ones on my shortlist and wont fit through my gateway ... which was made for horse and cart ... OK I could widen the gateway and I will do, but not until next spring when lime will set outdoors
Anna
Added uk.rec.cars.maintenance as crosspost.
What about Seat Inca/VW Caddy in the same class, dont think anyone would recomend Fords recent offeriings.
Whats wrong with Ford??
If the Electricity Board I used to work for is any guide, the vehicles would have been well and regularly serviced, but disposed of because servicing costs were becoming excessive, which was about four years' old. Working three 8-hour shifts a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, they clocked up a lot of miles and could easily be on the second time around the clock.
Colin Bignell
I suspect the smaller vans are on the go more than bigger ones (my 2000 Transit has a bit under 70K on the clock and probably spent much of its time beside holes in the road). I've got my mechanic coming round tomorrow to do a cambelt and general service and heads up so I should be able to tell you more about quality of servicing then.
I got my 03 reg Kangoo van on lease from
I found the service & delivery very good. Overasll I'd reccommend them. I told them what I wanted & how much I wanted to spend per month & drove a hard deal.
In message , nightjar writes
Well, if BG service their vans like they service boilers ...
Or you could just get a horse and cart.
A good cart should outlive your children, and when the horse pops his clogs it's burgers a la francais!
Owain
You bastard - I'm going to go to bed with the "Steptoe and son" tune in my head now
...they'll scrap them all after two years claiming they can't get spare tyres any more.
Large orgs tend to service vehicles properly. Re use, the odometer will tell you how much, and the visual condition how its been treated.
NT
Don't overlook the Fiats. The Fiorino 1.7 diesel was the most trouble free vehicle I've ever owned. Clutch was perhaps a bit heavy for the ladies.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember snipped-for-privacy@care2.com saying something like:
Heh. They service them according to the makers' schedules, if that. Schedules that have ridiculously long oil change intervals for one. That said, I've had ex-Gas, ex-Telecom and ex-Council vans in the past and, despite the clog-footed, cloth-eared, ham-fisted previous drivers, they've been surprisingly decent for the money. As always, careful inspection yields the best results, for there are lots of real dogs in ex-company van land.
no car tax, no insurance, low fuel bills, no mot, it sounds better by the second. when you need to go far or fast just hire a car.
Well no sucking of teeth and "Oh dear"s from Mr Mechanic so thumbs up for Transco.
Funnily enough it's now 4 years since I last owned a car.
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