Looking for a cheap van

canhefixit

Ok lads looking for a van max budget 2k, want something with a bit of poke as well will be using it quite a bit over next year, size of it Dosent matter really as long as it's a good reliable and reasonably good mpg
I've seen on the web berlingos, partners, transits, kangoos etc which is the pick of the lot can anyone advise me
I think I'd have to think hard about a French van tbh because of the rep their cars have maybe their vans or different?
Transits I know can be slow and hard on juice but very reliable but is there a model with more poke and reasonable mpg? Cheers

browniepoints

Hard to get good old vans for only 2K

Ford transits seems to win every time for reliability and toughness . However they rust a lot especially if they do UK runs where salt is king of the road in winter time .Poke the rust you see it often caves in large sections .Wheel arches with plastic padding are warning signs you need rust expert to look it

Fiat and French are bone shakers very quickly if they get loaded with any heavy gear or go on bad roads .
However even the smallest transit uses lot of fuel hard to get more than 25MPG even on motor ways .
Renault vans handle very well in corners so zippy things but doors start falling off very quickly if you use doors at all like Courir service will do .
Stay away for from ex courir vans for most French makes. However if the van was used for light work low mileage could be OK if it Peugeot or Renault .Citreons electronics can cost fortune to fix so real old ones would not be my choice .

Old Mercs pre 2000 are nice and do million plus miles on engines .
Newer Merc after 2005 the engines were not so good made reputed to become scrap metal in as little as 100,000 miles

If possible go Toyoto or Nizzan or Asian
The old Toyoto Hiace are hard to find the North Africans will buy or rob them and turn them into 22 seat buses in North Africa and run them for 2,000,000 plus miles before scraping them .Good luck to find one and if you do chain it down with big chains to lamposts and wheell clamps or it will go to North Africa like my mates 1998 version went when he woke up to find it gone

Jed

browniepoints

browniepoints wrote: »

.......
Newer Merc after 2005 the engines were not so good made reputed to become scrap metal in as little as 100,000 miles .........

As many of them are the decent v6 unit that's not at all accurate.

OP, the various Nissan, Opel and Renault version of the vivaro , primastar etc aren't too bad except for gearbox being weak, they are nippy and economical.

However it's difficult to get a van like that (Transit etc sizewise) that hasn't been used as a van and carried weight so for €2000 most of them are less than perfect.

I'd go for the likes of these, car ish to drive and should be able to find one that was only used for light work. The 1.9tdi are all nippyish, avoid the SDi....

http://www.donedeal.ie/commercials-for-sale/volkswagen-caddy-1-9-tdi-92-000-miles/9235637?offset=19

canhefixit

Augeo wrote: »

As many of them are the decent v6 unit that's not at all accurate.

OP, the various Nissan, Opel and Renault version of the vivaro , primastar etc aren't too bad except for gearbox being weak, they are nippy and economical.

However it's difficult to get a van like that (Transit etc sizewise) that hasn't been used as a van and carried weight so for €2000 most of them are less than perfect.

I'd go for the likes of these, car ish to drive and should be able to find one that was only used for light work. The 1.9tdi are all nippyish, avoid the SDi....

http://www.donedeal.ie/commercials-for-sale/volkswagen-caddy-1-9-tdi-92-000-miles/9235637?offset=19

I actually used to own a seat inca which is basically a rebadged caddy, it was very reliable I can't ever remember it letting me down once and was very easy on juice but it was the sdi and man it was completely gutless to say the least!
The tdi version would there be a very noticeable difference in power? I wouldn't mind one of these vans again if there was more poke in them

canhefixit

canhefixit wrote: »

I actually used to own a seat inca which is basically a rebadged caddy, it was very reliable I can't ever remember it letting me down once and was very easy on juice but it was the sdi and man it was completely gutless to say the least!
The tdi version would there be a very noticeable difference in power? I wouldn't mind one of these vans again if there was more poke in them

Tdi incomparable to the sdi, I'm not at all a VW man but tbf the tdi is decent, as you know the Inca, caddy aren't heavy

bazz26

There is a world of difference between the SDi and TDi engines. SDi was non turbo unit afaik. The Inca was only every sold here with the SDi, the Caddy was sold with both.

canhefixit

bazz26 wrote: »

There is a world of difference between the SDi and TDi engines. SDi was non turbo unit afaik. The Inca was only every sold here with the SDi, the Caddy was sold with both.

Yeah well my sdi defo had no turbo and took an age to build any speed but was solid and reliable van, I might just go for a caddy tdi version suppose a spin in one would be needed