What medium sized panel van £6-7k?

What medium sized panel van £6-7k?

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tacopowell

Original Poster:

4 posts

88 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
quotequote all
Okay so budget is up to £7500.
Need a small to medium sized van,
Carpenter/handyman business of which 99% of work is short urban driving,
A decent MPG would be handy but low maintenance costs and reliable to run are more important,
3 seats would be extremely handy as firstborn is due in 5 weeks!

Last van was Vivaro, very first model, cambelt went, taking engine with it and within the year that I owned it it cost be near £2k in various repairs.
I'm out of Vivaros and many reviews back my worries up but is there a particular model that claims better reliability? They're all French built and I'm really not convinced by French vehicles
Which leads me to dismiss the Expert/Dispatch/Scudo/Proace vans,
Everywhere I read those vans are useless.

Toyota Hiace is world renowned as being the most reliable of vans,
I drive a Yaris which has just done 100k with ease,
The Hiace is ugly as you can get in a van but I'm really not fussed,
My only issue with them is the MPG is pretty lame, particularly for urban driving,
Plus a decent one with twin rear doors is super hard to find!

The Mercedes Vito?
Are they expensive to maintain?
Are they reliable?

A normal Transit is slightly to big for my needs,
A Transit Connect LWB is okay but lacking a third seat,

The Nissan NV200 would be a bigger choice than a connect LWB plus better fuel economy,

Have I missed anything else?


bristolracer

5,546 posts

150 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
quotequote all

Third seat limits your choices.
If you rule out he French then you are left with going bigger
Transit
Vito
T5 (big scene tax but better residuals )

I have a caddy but only 2 seats but otherwise reasonable economy and when I've whipped it to an inch of its life some dubber fan will still buy it, a French van will be getting weighed in.