what would you buy?

[Gavin]

some of you might know ive been looking for a new van for a while.....my white work van died and my tidy red one that is getting the 24v hasnt made much progress in the last few months, mainly due to the arrival of our baby daughter.

ive given up looking for a sub £1000 vans because they are all shockingly bad, and i cant find a petrol for sensible money, so ive been looking at sub £2K diesels, and im going to look at two tomorrow. one is a white p reg 80 swb diesel priced at 1500 quid, the other is a silver r reg 80 swb diesel at 1700 quid, but this one has the full electric accessory pack, PAS and airconditioning. both look about the same condition and milage etc, is it worth spending the extra £200 for the toys or not?

which ever one i get, i'll run it around as is then put the 66,000 mile pinto from the red one (thats making way for the cossie lump) into it, and get round the lez that way. or at least thats the plan.

[chipv8]

Gotta be worth it mate lotsa toys for not a lot of money, though you need to be sure its the correct weight rating for whatever you use it for!

[sc_BK]

Get a mk6

[MinorMatt]

My experience of mk5...

I have a LWb with power steering, and a SWB with.

Power steering is about 3 turns lock to lock, non is 5 1/4! Power steering is much much much better (but you can get the bits to convert for about £100 second hand). Personally if they are in similar nick I would go for the one with the toys, even if you dont use them it means the van would sell easier in the future and it will have the high spec loom so if you want to add anything else its easy

[Gavin]

im kinda liking the idea of the toys.....though my mates keep telling me to spend the money handing the red one over to someone to finish the bodywork, so i can use that.....but i need a van now and not in 2 -3 weeks or more....and i want a toy van and a work one

[AndyG]

Approx. 800Kg max. payload enough for you

Toys

[Gavin]

all my vans have been 80's so far, all i carry is tools and a few building materials, ply / plaster / plasterboard timber etc. never had an issue with weight.....but i know i have been over a few times with rubbish in the past but we generally have stuff delivered / collected so its very rare that im ever fully loaded these days.

[Gavin]

well i went and had a look. was a nice van, every electric accessory; windows & mirrors, heated mirrors AND screen, central locking, aircon, rear wash wipe on the tailgate, PAS etc.

but..... it had been patched up in a hurry, one rear wing skinned over the rotten one, the other one full of filler, floor above both rear spring hangers was rotten, could feel it through the eylet holes in the ply floor, my finger went right through the offside! on top of that the aircon didnt seem to work, neither did the rear wash wipe or the central locking the only bits that could be verified as working were the windows and the mirrors, dont know if the heat worked though.

was only one owner but had done 160,000 miles....got him down to 1550....but now im home ive decided against it. my red van is a better van, and the bits that need doing for the mot and the little bit of paint it needs would cost half that, done properly and not bodged up too!


i dont know....where have all the good vans gone? three years ago i paid £500 for my white petrol van with tax and mot....just last year i paid 600 for my red one with only 66k on the clock, and six months MOT......

[FredTransit]

i dont know....where have all the good vans gone? three years ago i paid £500 for my white petrol van with tax and mot....just last year i paid 600 for my red one with only 66k on the clock, and six months MOT......

It's the price of scrap. A lot of the cheap runabouts have been scrapped, so it puts up the price of what's left.

[Gavin]

but whats left is still only fit for scrap!! ive lost count of vans ive seen with rotten rear spring hanger outriggers, that supposedly have a years mot! at a grand + most of the time too:roll:

that said, i just missed one on gumtree, 96 PETROL with full electric pack long tax and mot for 500 notes. thats a realistic price, not like the £1000 rubbish on autotrader......i would have taken a chance on that, but the guy just swapped it for a golf gti!!

[MinorMatt]

Here you are Gavin

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... RK:MESE:IT

a 100 poverty spec, Im expecting it to go for £450-£550 ish (and yes it is my van) The outriggers etc have all been welded up so its not perfect! I reckon its got 3-4 years left tops... lets see what happens

[Gavin]

cheers....but i just bought one. w reg with 139k in silver, a few surface scabs but 100% solid in all the places that matter, new injectors exhaust and tires, genuine van not a tarted up one drives like a new van and the power steering is nice too.

guess there are some sensible vans out there you just have to look hard and be quick!