Van Prices.

[Dale.]

I've been looking at vans today, not because I have any real intention of buying one but if I found an old banger for sub £1k, I might consider it. I've only been mulling it over, as I like my car and I like it clean. Unfortunately for our dog, that means she doesn't get in it (car), she's 32kg and that's a lot of dog and a lot of mud. She just gets lead walks but she's young and needs more. I used to walk our other 3 dogs on the hills here but it involved a car journey and the cars didn't fair well interior wise when used that way.

Our dog is allowed in our other car and strangely, it's the newer car of the 2 cars but that one is worked hard as it commutes every day and has been used for dog purposes on the weekends. Wifey though, is partial to 'her car' and uses it weekdays.

I've had the van idea in my head for a while but I really don't intend buying one, unless certain things come together, like price, MOT etc.

I've been suprised though, vans that I'd looked at last year, over 10 years old seems to have shot up in price. A van that was say £1k just a year or so ago is now sitting at around £2.5k. There's the odd exception but generally, prices seem to have shot up beyond reason.

Time for me to borrow 'Wifey's car' a few weekdays a week.

 

[Sky]

Tell me about it . . .

I let my daughter have my 17 seater minibus (with wheelchair tail lift and tie down points) eighteen months ago for just £1,000.00 because she and her boyfriend wanted to build a camper. At the time it was worth about three times that amount, but stupid old dad succumbed.

Her and the boyfriend split up a while back and they gave it to a friend to finish - it was no good to me now because they'd removed the tail lift and most of the seats.

How much are they fetching now? Around £8,000.00.

 

[Ricardodaforce]

All those people converting them into campers is driving prices up.

 

[Mr Perceptive]

Just buy an old estate car instead, something capable of high miles and buy a leggy one. WBAC value my Volvo V50 at £800 thats before they have seen the body work , its 10 years old and just passed its MOT with a minor advisory - value probably has something to do with the fact that its got 237K on the clock So there must be something out there that will cost less than£1K, be reasonable reliable and cost buttons to run.

 

[Nod]

Renault Kangoo, Peugeot Partner (IIRC!) or similar would be my choice rather than a "proper" van.

 

[Dale.]

Cars are looking a more viable prospect, plenty out there for sub 1k.

 

[Nod]

The Kangoo has a low lip at the back to make it a bit easier on your dog when getting in. IIRC they have removeable rear seats to enlarge the load space too.

 

[Gav.]

I had a Berlingo, backseats came out, full size van with windows and allowed in the tidy tip, vans aren't

 

[jakeblu]

I had a Vauxhall Meriva a few years back as an in between car the whole back seats lay flat, we literally used it to move houses about 5 years ago.

 

[Jelster]

I just had a look on Autotrader and for £1200-1500 there's a lot of Freelanders, perfect for dogs.

 

[AgentOrange76]

I just had a look on Autotrader and for £1200-1500 there's a lot of Freelanders, perfect for dogs.

Not perfect, the load level is far too high for older dogs or dogs that dont jump up

 

[Cobra]

I had a Berlingo,

TBH I drove one for years for work, circa 1250 miles in a 5 day week
I actually found it quite comfortable.
That was all before the timing belt shed a tooth, as it was an "interference engine" pistons were going up as the valves were going down ... Oops

I had a peugoet partner for a few months after that one, and before I retired, it was OK but I didn't think it was as good.

 

[Gav.]

TBH I drove one for years for work, circa 1250 miles in a 5 day week
I actually found it quite comfortable.
That was all before the timing belt shed a tooth, as it was an "interference engine" pistons were going up as the valves were going down ... Oops

I had a peugoet partner for a few months after that one, and before I retired, it was OK but I didn't think it was as good.

Interference engines don't run for long

The amount of head skims I do is unreal, dents in bores and valves

We've had a few at work too, agreed very comfy, they had a huge payload for a small van, but they dragged their bumpers if you did load them, and we did.

Berlingo was great to cruise, but made Em sick as a dog on singletrack lanes in the sticks, it drove like jelly and the dampers couldn't keep up

 

[boogie man]

I just had a look on Autotrader and for £1200-1500 there's a lot of Freelanders, perfect for dogs.

Presumably that’s going to be Mk1 for that sort of price? They were quite poorly built and can suffer all sorts of common faults with electrics, power steering and engines. The transmission needs to be scrupulously serviced with new Haldex fluid and filter changes every 20k to avoid issues. How many owners actually bother with that? Faulty/blocked EGR valves and split intercooler pipes are also common.

A friend had one.. it was only a couple of years old at the time but it spent more time back at the dealer than on the road. Luckily the repair work was done under warranty but she never had any faith in it and eventually made them take it back.

The Mk 2 was better made but I doubt you’d get a decent one for £1500.

 

[sphexx]

I’d vote for an old estate. I used to have Vauxhall Astra for many years with a mesh behind the drivers and mesh gate at the back. I usually only had 2 dogs in it but on a few occasions it carried around 30 dogs so I think it would have been fine for one 32kg dog

 

[Cobra]

they had a huge payload for a small van, but they dragged their bumpers if you did load them,

I never had that issue I never carried more than 100kg in mine.
I rarely drove it off road either, so I guess that perhaps used in anger, they may not have been quite so good in that case.

 

[Jelster]

Presumably that’s going to be Mk1 for that sort of price? They were quite poorly built and can suffer all sorts of common faults with electrics, power steering and engines. The transmission needs to be scrupulously serviced with new Haldex fluid and filter changes every 20k to avoid issues. How many owners actually bother with that? Faulty/blocked EGR valves and split intercooler pipes are also common.

A friend had one.. it was only a couple of years old at the time but it spent more time back at the dealer than on the road. Luckily the repair work was done under warranty but she never had any faith in it and eventually made them take it back.

The Mk 2 was better made but I doubt you’d get a decent one for £1500.

My BiL had one from new and clocked up over 100k without any serious issues, that's why I was interested in one myself, although I would only use it locally.

 

[saltireblue]

My BiL had one from new and clocked up over 100k without any serious issues, that's why I was interested in one myself, although I would only use it locally.

I have had 3 Freelander 1's. The first was pre facelift and the others were facelift models with a BMW-made TD4 under the bonnet. Both gave trouble-free motoring for years on my daily 85km round-trip daily commute and various roadtrips around Norway.

 

[matt.c]

I have a kangoo van as i have 3 x full grown german shepherds .. perfect size for them (and returns over 50 to the gallon)..unfortunately prices have crept up on vans over the last couple of years..find something you like and go from there

 

[Dangermouse]

I bought a Renault Master camper 2 years ago for £18k because it needed a new interior, that was roughly the price for the van as a van but it is and always has been a motorhome on the V5 so after spending a further £6k on the interior over a year the insurance asked for photos for its second insurance under my ownership, I was expecting it to be worth around £20k but the insurance say its going to be £32k if it needed replacing for any reason, so its not the people converting them, its the insurance companies over insuring them, well that's my take on it