Changing vans

[Mike]

Didn’t think they made a 120 Trend?

ETA, they do, every day’s a school day. Normally the difference between Trend and Ltd is aircon, audio equip and seat material.

[highroof]

Didn’t think they made a 120 Trend?

ETA, they do, every day’s a school day. Normally the difference between Trend and Ltd is aircon, audio equip and seat material.

I hadn't even bothered looking at Trends because I didn't think I'd get everything I wanted, but this thing appears to have everything I hoped for except heated seats, and I'll live with that, or retrofit if I can't! Current, hopefully minor issue with the " fsh " part of the ad, possibly to be resolved with a call from the seller tomorrow. It's not on Fords system and the supplying dealer sold it to the first owner who lived in a different part of the country and they never saw it again.

None of the dealers in the area it went to have seen it either..........seems odd that the first owner would spec the van as highly as he has, then not have it serviced at a franchised dealer, but that's starting to look possible at the mo. Can't yet decide whether that's a deal breaker or not if that's what's happened.

[Mike]

seems odd that the first owner would spec the van as highly as he has, then not have it serviced at a franchised dealer, but that's starting to look possible at the mo. Can't yet decide whether that's a deal breaker or not if that's what's happened.

Mine didn't go back to the dealer until the day I sold it, Perrys Aylesbury service are a complete bunch of incompetent fraudulent monkeys, and I'd never let them near my van! Mine was serviced properly by a local garage that I've used for over 20 years.

[highroof]

seems odd that the first owner would spec the van as highly as he has, then not have it serviced at a franchised dealer, but that's starting to look possible at the mo. Can't yet decide whether that's a deal breaker or not if that's what's happened.

Mine didn't go back to the dealer until the day I sold it, Perrys Aylesbury service are a complete bunch of incompetent fraudulent monkeys, and I'd never let them near my van! Mine was serviced properly by a local garage that I've used for over 20 years.

Well, I read the reviews of the dealer local to the previous owner, and they were damning! Rang them anyway and they hadn't seen it. So I looked further afield and rang the next two nearest dealers, thinking he may have used them, but nothing. Running out of options now. I've texted the seller to find out what the service book says. The van has 1 month of Ford warranty left, I'd like the option of using it if necessary.

[highroof]

Ok, so I bought it.

I travelled from Newcastle to Dartford with a mate who coincidentally was viewing a Ferrari FF in Watford, 40 miles from where the van was located. He agreed a purchase on the Ferrari, which means a repeat trip on Thursday to collect it. I want to do this in the new van, which is now at home. I'll do a comparison with my 2009 110 Limited, as requested, in due course, but suffice to say, the new van got me home, albeit not uneventfully. Upon arrival, we started it, it was fine, my mate plugged a £7000 code reader into it and pronounced it to be fine, and it sat idling quietly for 20 mins while we poked and prodded at it. Very unusually, for a Euro 6 van, it doesn't have to have adblue, which delighted me.

I took it for a short but varying test drive, and again, all fine. Haggled a bit, and coughed up. Set off. Maybe 20 miles into the trip, I thought I could hear gearbox whine on the over run. Couldn't be sure, and I've never been in one of these before, so continued, but listening now, radio off. After maybe another 20 miles, we pulled in as I wanted a proper listen. In short, it's done either the alternator bearing or the belt tensioner. I'm going to assume the seller has jet washed the engine and not driven it afterwards, meaning the bearings haven't dried out.

I was still more than 200 miles from home at this point, so resisted the urge to get home asap, took it steady and it got me back. It'll be in to Ford on Monday for a chat about a warranty claim, as there's still a month left. I imagine this might ruin the experience for some, but unusually for me, I'm pretty chilled about it. It's not the box, which is the main thing. An alternator or tensioner isn't the end of the world, the van was sensible money ( no vat ), the spec list is massive, it's generally in great nick
( more on this later ), and it's spot on to drive.

[swishvan]

I've been running a new shape l1 trend 1.6 from new 2014 its covered over 100,000 mls now and has been great much better than the old one I had, i get 50mpg fully loaded and have had no problems with it
full dealer service and just placed an order for a new one last week, go for a new one you won't look back

[highroof]

Rang Ford today. Helpfully, they can't even look at it until March 15th. Decided I could do better than that and got the stethoscope out. Alternator all good. Belt tensioner sounded like two skeletons having sex in a metal dustbin. Got my mate to order one from his preferred factors, took it to his garage at 4.30 and it was fixed an hour later. No charge, as I'm taking him to Watford on Thursday to pick up the Ferrari he agreed to buy when we went down for the van at the weekend.

Interestingly, the stop/start chimed in today, something that didn't happen on the way back from Dartford on Saturday, possibly due to the van standing for an extended period of time before sale, and needing the battery to charge properly.

I'm delighted generally with the van. It was relatively cheap. It doesn't have adblue. It's in great condition. It's a lovely thing to drive, the ride is in a different league, it's quiet, it goes well, it seems like it'll be great on fuel. Huge amount of kit, carplay through my phone, nav, cruise, rear camera, load through bulkhead, 2400 gross weight limit. I started swapping my stuff out from the other van today, first thing being my homemade jet rack for storing my step ladder under the roof.

Incoming from various sources are replacement rear lights, inc. the upper rear reflectors from the Limited, rear window grille, heavy duty seat covers, and winter tyres to go onto the standard alloys. Still to source.....genuine rubber floor mats, and I'm probably going to fit 17" alloys for the summers, as it looks like it's on castors at the mo. I'm leaning towards the twin 5 spoke ones from various Focus models as the ET a etc is the same as standard. I might see if the wiring is there to retrofit a rear wiper, which it doesn't have ( tailgate model ), but it looks like the spindle for the wiper motor comes through the rear glass, so that may never happen.

[LostinTransit]

Overall the 2016 and above has been very reliable with issues occurring with the engine or transmission but not that extreme in our view, none the less we still opted for the 2021 TCXL van.

[highroof]

Overall the 2016 and above has been very reliable with issues occurring with the engine or transmission but not that extreme in our view, none the less we still opted for the 2021 TCXL van.

Good to know. I'm thinking that at less than £1 a day for an extra year, it's probably worth having the Ford extended warranty. Got the roof bars on finally, spacing might require fine tuning, but they'll do for now.

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[LostinTransit]

Hey Man looks good. Say does your area have the BGproducts?. These are additives that extend the life of your engine, trans etc and each treatment last 30k miles. Just wonder what if anything you've heard about these product over seas?

https://bgprod.co.uk/products

[highroof]

Thanks, they don't add any noise at motorway speeds, so that's a result.

I haven't personally heard of those products over here, doesn't mean they don't have them here though. I'll have a google and see if there are any UK outlets.

Yep, had a quick look, they are available here, nobody seems to be talking about them though. How long have they been around over there?

[LostinTransit]

The company was founded in 1971, but official hit the market in 1980's I've just started using these products and just wanted to know if anyone else has had issues or success with using them also.

[highroof]

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Now in the Transits for sale section. I was advised by a local trader to advertise this for £5995 based on condition, history and mileage. It's available on here for £5400. When it goes on ebay next week, I'll take his advice.

[highroof]

Faffed about a bit more with the new one over the weekend. Adapted the ladder roller from the old van to fit the new vans roof bars. Not ideal because of the tailgate, but better than nowt.

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And fitted Zunsport grilles. I've got the same company's grilles on my Boxster, they're necessary on that to stop the rads and condensers filling up with wet leaves and falling apart, but I like the look of them and knew they were available for the van.

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Can't decide whether or not to buy and fit the upper rear light reflectors from the Limited. Or whether to put the alloys back on. I'm surprisingly happy with the 2020 steelies.

I've had a few occasions driving this where I've thought I could hear what would sound like pinking on a petrol engine. Spoke to a few people about it now, seems like the general consensus is that what I'm hearing is injector noise under load , more so when cold which would make sense. So stopped worrying about that.

[Mike]

I’m not normally a fan of crappy after market grills, but those look the bollocks