Mazda Bongo/Ford Freda: any owners?
Discussion
I have a Bongo, looked at loads before buying mine. £2k will get you a rusty non-converted diesel one, they all rust and I personally found that even at £5k finding a rust free one was tricky but I managed it eventually. You will pay £7k upwards at a dealer/importer for a fresh import in good nick.
They are old cars now, so be prepared to replace age related items. A must-have is a coolant alarm, there's a lot to the cooling system and they are often neglected and over-heat, cracking the cylinder head. A coolant alarm will alert you as soon as the level starts to drop, preventing it overheating. Keep an eye out for leaks as there are a lot of cooling related pipes and the system is sensitive to how it is bled.
I have a 4WD 2.5 Diesel and its by no means brisk but never feels underpowered. I average 24-25 MPG around town and 27-29 MPG on a run. We went for an converted one as its remains practical for family trips, tip runs, biking etc. with the moving and folding 2 rear benches of seats.
We absolutely love ours and would not be without it now. Did a 3 week camping trip in July around Cornwall and it was superb.
There is a wealth of information on Bongo Fury and the Bongo Owners Club Facebook page, I'd check those out before shopping for one.
They are old cars now, so be prepared to replace age related items. A must-have is a coolant alarm, there's a lot to the cooling system and they are often neglected and over-heat, cracking the cylinder head. A coolant alarm will alert you as soon as the level starts to drop, preventing it overheating. Keep an eye out for leaks as there are a lot of cooling related pipes and the system is sensitive to how it is bled.
I have a 4WD 2.5 Diesel and its by no means brisk but never feels underpowered. I average 24-25 MPG around town and 27-29 MPG on a run. We went for an converted one as its remains practical for family trips, tip runs, biking etc. with the moving and folding 2 rear benches of seats.
We absolutely love ours and would not be without it now. Did a 3 week camping trip in July around Cornwall and it was superb.
There is a wealth of information on Bongo Fury and the Bongo Owners Club Facebook page, I'd check those out before shopping for one.
My old man has been running a 2.5 diesel 4wd Bongo for the last 5 years. It's the second one he's had as he uses them for transporting motorbikes and attending the odd bike event where he'll sleep in it (seats are permanently out so it's more or less a van).
Echo everything said above. He's had numerous coolant leaks and had the head gasket go once already. The arches are all rusted to hell and I'm sure if we lifted the carpet we'd find holes in the floor as it's extremely noisey when driving as if there's a door/window open. It somehow managed to pass it's MOT recently and he's looking to replace it soon. According to him it's probably still worth about £2k and looking around he's probably right.
If his is an example of what £2k gets you I'd look for something else. His mate had a Nissan Elgrande that was nice and seemed to be better value than the Bongo which has a weird cult following leading to them being over priced in my view.
Echo everything said above. He's had numerous coolant leaks and had the head gasket go once already. The arches are all rusted to hell and I'm sure if we lifted the carpet we'd find holes in the floor as it's extremely noisey when driving as if there's a door/window open. It somehow managed to pass it's MOT recently and he's looking to replace it soon. According to him it's probably still worth about £2k and looking around he's probably right.
If his is an example of what £2k gets you I'd look for something else. His mate had a Nissan Elgrande that was nice and seemed to be better value than the Bongo which has a weird cult following leading to them being over priced in my view.
Re the high mileage, double check it’s not km as that’s what they come reading as standard.
We’ve had ours 13 years but going to sell up this year , it’s been really reliable but we no longer need something that big.
Rust has been our biggest problem , we’ve had the inner/outer wheel arches replaced twice and still the rust has come back .
We’ve had ours 13 years but going to sell up this year , it’s been really reliable but we no longer need something that big.
Rust has been our biggest problem , we’ve had the inner/outer wheel arches replaced twice and still the rust has come back .
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