Day van on a budget ( as always )

[smallzoo]

My wife would like to have some more days out as we are semi retired. Normally we might go for a drive somewhere, go for a walk and then try and find a decent cafe ( which is no mean feat I can tell you ) and come home. We have two medium labradors and sometime a cockapoo

We would much prefer to drive to more remote places , brew up our own coffee and even maybe some food, take some and just sit and watch the world go by with our dogs ...hence the idea of a day van NB: we dont intend to go full on camper ie sleep..which may make some of you laugh

Anyway after weeks and weeks of research on FB groups and searching images its still not made it any clearer what would suit. As our first foray into thos we dont want to spend more than about £7k ideally partilally or fully converted... but before you laugh again dont forget we dont want a bed we just want some seats of sorts at the back or side of the van/car and an open space behind the fronts seats for the dogs to sit when driving ( secure of course ) and when we are chilling

I have attached a picture just to give you an idea of what we wanted

After chatting to 'owners' I thought I would have a short list but it ended up a long one

The obvious but maybe too big and overkill for what we want ?

Vivaro SWB
Renault Traffic
Transit
Mercedes vito

MPV's with Sliding doors :-
Mazda5
Toyota estima
Ford Transit Tourneo Connect
Nissan Serena
Chrysler Grand Voyager
VW Sharan / Seat Alhambra

Cars with normal doors:-
Citroen Grand Picasso
Ssangyong Turisimo
VW Touran
Ford Galaxy
Ford S-max


Anyone has any experience at all at using them as day vans as we want ?

Thanks

Edited by smallzoo on Friday 21st November 08:26

[ZX10R NIN]

Get yourself an i800 & remove the middle seats.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202511198...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202511167...

[andrewcliffe]

I'd also look at some of the Japanese MPVs such as the Elgrand and its rivals.

[smallzoo]

The i800 looks very big but it's £735 tax and I've heard some reliability issues

The elgrand is ok but again when I researched half of the people loved them the other half said getting parts and maintenance expensive and a nightmare

...hence the list has no imports...

Cheers though

[Youreterriblemuriel]

I would look at the Japanese imports too, something like this where the third row would fold away or removed allowing you to slide the more comfortable second row seats back

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202503270...

[andrewcliffe]

I've run a number of Japanese imports with no equivalent UK version and Toyota were able to get parts quickly.

It wouldn't put me off, especially if the car is a second vehicle.

[smallzoo]

Thanks.. so how does the estima compare with say the honda stepwagon ?

And what do you feel if the rest of my list 😁

[Otispunkmeyer]

Do you need a van van?

I reckon a Peugeot Partner Teepee/ Citroen Berlingo Multispace would make a good little day van. You can get whole kits that fit into the boot and provide seating/bed/kitchenette. (amdro boot jump, others are available).

Mitsi Delica? Thin on the ground mind you.

Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Thursday 20th November 19:31

[smallzoo]

Thanks for the comments so far. A lot of replies I've seen on here and other places talk about room in the boot for the dogs or a kitchen etc..its not quite what we want

As per the picture we want seats in the back (or the side if it was big enough !) and plenty of room in the middle for our dogs and mini kitchen etc..not bothered if after that the boot space is only small..we are not camping and could always out a roof box on !

Cheers

Ps.. you will say I have added yet more to the list 😂