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Child Item

Crew cab van for family of 6

digitalsystem

We're a family of 6 and finally moving out of the big car seat age bracket. Still will need booster seats but now main consideration is space for bikes and things like that.

Someone suggested a crew cab van (Renault traffic or similar) with 6 seats and the van space being a good option for transporting bikes if we wanted to a greenway.

Anyone ever do anything similar? Or any knowledge of crew cab cabs? Which ones to avoid, any recommendations?

Probably not looking at new but a few years old model with not crazy milage.

Thanks in advance for any inputs.

I did try the search function but didn't return any hits

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User1998

What's your budget? Crewcab vans tend to be very expensive

digitalsystem

Probably max of 30k for 2nd hand I would be thinking. We have a current car that donedeal says we might be able to get 8k for via private sale so that might allow us to get to that number

User1998

There is not a lot of choice out there for crew cab vans. They are usually high mileage ex taxis. This is the cheapest Renault Traffic for sale but it's a 10 year old ex taxi with over 370,000 km:

https://www.donedeal.ie/view/40589814

Dirty Nails

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124096969#Comment_124096969

Just to avoid confusion - thats a mini bus,not a crew cab. 8 passenger seats instead of 6. Might be a better option with a 2 year nct instead of a yearly cvrt. Not getting dragged into the commercial tax & business use mess either.

Buddy Bubs

Kia PV5 if electric is an option and you can bend your budget (by quite a lot, I know)

goochy

No vat reclaim

rdhma

If the cargo space is just for bikes, you can get 4 on a hitch mount carrier and two on the roof, so a car could still be viable. A bike trailer is another option.

salmocab

bench seats in the front can be very tight.
it’s uncomfortable for driving any distance, person in the middle is too tight to the driver and not much leg room due to how the centre consoles are usually built, as the kids grow this might become a bigger issue.
can see the attraction though but 6 might be a bit of a squish.

User1998

Something like this would make a lot more sense

digitalsystem

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124097047#Comment_124097047

Does the pv5 have 6 seats? Looks very much like what would be looking for of 2nd hand ones were to be available in a year or so...

digitalsystem

Maybe so but I know we have found it tricky getting 4 bikes onto those carriers before. One of the bikes is an ebike so is a big unit. If 1 person is trying to load all those it can be a bit of work (from my experience)

digitalsystem

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124097124#Comment_124097124

Thanks but trailer probably not an option as wife would not be happy to try and drive with it

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124098308#Comment_124098308

5 and 7 seater available i believe

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124097047#Comment_124097047

Looks great.

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124100920#Comment_124100920

Nothing. Who told you it was wrong?

digitalsystem

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124100942#Comment_124100942

Not sure if this is legitimate comment, I'll looking at options for transporting family bikes to various locations so we can go cycling

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124100942#Comment_124100942

I can see nothing on the opening post that implies bikes are banned, disallowed or "wrong" as you imply. In fact the OP claims "the main consideration is space for bikes and things like that" so they're obviously cyclists.

Can you do all cyclists and cycle advocates like myself a favour and stop posting drunken posts on the motoring forum?

The guys just looking for advice for a family car.

Feets

Will it be your only car? Cos with that many people and bikes maybe you could bring your normal car and then buy something for the bikes/luggage ...like a small van plus u can fit another person. Could be cheaper...just a thought.

digitalsystem

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124100984#Comment_124100984

No, will not be the only car. Bringing a 2nd car is an option but especially during the summer very often only 1 driver is available so ideally if we had something that could bring the bikes + 4 kids & driver is what I'm looking for

brogiebears

Realistically you're probably looking at a 7 seater with some on the roof and some on the trailer. I carry 4 on the roof regularly, putting the kids bikes on the inside. Takes about 10 mins to load once your used to it. Then the remainder on the back. Even a crewcab would be tight with 6 bikes in the back I'd say…along with helmets etc

John_Rambo

We had the same issue. Ended up buying a cheap daily driver and a camper van for the excursions, we're not that car dependent. Kids walk, skate & cycle to school & sports. Are you very car dependent?

R.O.R

Crew Cab vans are like gold dust now. Classification changed a few years ago and they are now subject to VRT based on the same criteria as passenger vehicles. As that is Co2 based and emissions tend to be quite high on vans, the VRT is ludicrous.

Ford have released some PHEV Crew Vans in the past couple of years, which start from €55,000 ish and hopefully that lower price will start to have knock on effect on all pricing. It looks like the cheapest new Diesel Crew Van is the Renault Trafic 110hp which starts from €70,345!

As it's quiet in work today, it got through the first 15 pages of DoneDeal commercials and only found one half decent option.

https://www.donedeal.ie/commercials-for-sale/absolutely-immaculate-2012-crew-cab/41179017

For the mileage, condition and being a crew cab, that is great value for money. As it's the LWB version a bike might just about go straight in the load area - hard to tell how long it is from the picture.

I don't have a single Vivaro/Trafic/Primastar product guide saved, but do have one for a 2019 Transit Custom. Most of the different vans are very similar dimensions, and the usable load length in a LWB Transit Custom Crew Cab, at 1.2 m high, is 1,872mm. I'd say a 2012 Vivaro shoul have around 6ft as well, and if you can nose the bikes straight in, you've a chance of fitting them all in.

digitalsystem

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124101034#Comment_124101034

We probably are, we need the two cars for work and school + activities drop offs so whatever we get needs to do the day to day stuff as well as getting transport the bikes.

Thanks for all the suggestions/ advice here. It has been very useful including the pv5 which I didn't know existed

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124102122#Comment_124102122

Anything over 5 seats needs a 3rd row which will obviously eat into cargo space for the bikes. Nobody here has ever even seen a PV5 in person theyre not launching until next month so check it out then.

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124102122#Comment_124102122

Neither did I know about the PV5, these threads are great for stuff like this.

R.O.R

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124102484#Comment_124102484

They had a PV5 at the Nevo show last month. Looks like it's going to be a great option for a lot of people, but I don't think that boot is going to be big enough to take all the bikes, with 5 seats in place.

Dats_rite

We are in the same scenario. 6.kids and no boot space in the 7 seater when all 6 are in.

We borrowed a friend's crew cab during the Summer when travelling around Ireland and it was a complete game changer. Loads of space for bikes in the back and 2 x adult bikes on tow bar. I can really see the attraction so looking at getting one ourselves.

As they are so thin on the ground I'm thinking of getting a normal van and converting it (about €4k to convert)

Widdensushi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124307875#Comment_124307875

If you want to insure it looking at a big vrt cost,, there was change in 2018 but some of the people who had converted prior had not registered it as so ,, obviously you can insure but if the vehicle listing is incorrect it will be null and void,vrt change could be 10 to 20k depending on the year etc ,any conversion to be road legal will have a big tax.

digitalsystem

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124307875#Comment_124307875

Is that something you would do yourself or is there companies that do that? I've thought about doing it with a VW transporter or similar

Any places you could point to to explain the tax/vrt implications of doing it?

Dats_rite

I wouldn't dream of doing it myself! I googled it and got talking to vanconversions ni and he gave me a price to do the work