The Family Van Question
Discussion
Feel like this should be a more common question but maybe I’m the outlier here….
I’ve decided we need a family van as:
1) holiday trips with the parents / in-laws are more common (so need to seat 4 adults plus 2 children),
2) as a four, we’re fans of a camping / cycling weekend (but have a tent so not looking for a camper)
3) frequently end up transporting various school children round after football matches, birthday parties etc.
Ideally what I’d like is a “proper” six seater V70 (current car) with similar luggage space so this seems to rule out the Galaxies / XC90 etc of this world (sceptical as to how much luggage space they offer once six up ?).
So what do you pick ? Ideally keep it below £25k.
Obvious choice seems a Toyota Alphard ? Bit oddball but seems to tick all the boxes ? Decent top spec for £15k ? I prefer these over the Nissan / other JDM equivalents.
The dream purchase would be a Caravelle but not sure what an extra £25k gets me over the Alphard (seems half decent ones start around £40k). The nature of short trips round town puts me off the diesels on offer. Resale value is a positive factor but concerned the scene tax will hold over the next 3-5 years of ownership in current economy.
R Class is probably too small ? Unless the LWB version can do the 6 plus luggage comfortably ? Maybe roof box and bike rack on the back ?
Other options like Peugeot Traveller spring to mind ? But seem like they fall between the Alphard and Caravelle options ? More expensive than one but not as nice a package as the other ?
MPG not really a consideration and I’m no badge snob (also thinking Dacha Jogger ?), more about the application for the money more than anything.
Cheers.
I’ve decided we need a family van as:
1) holiday trips with the parents / in-laws are more common (so need to seat 4 adults plus 2 children),
2) as a four, we’re fans of a camping / cycling weekend (but have a tent so not looking for a camper)
3) frequently end up transporting various school children round after football matches, birthday parties etc.
Ideally what I’d like is a “proper” six seater V70 (current car) with similar luggage space so this seems to rule out the Galaxies / XC90 etc of this world (sceptical as to how much luggage space they offer once six up ?).
So what do you pick ? Ideally keep it below £25k.
Obvious choice seems a Toyota Alphard ? Bit oddball but seems to tick all the boxes ? Decent top spec for £15k ? I prefer these over the Nissan / other JDM equivalents.
The dream purchase would be a Caravelle but not sure what an extra £25k gets me over the Alphard (seems half decent ones start around £40k). The nature of short trips round town puts me off the diesels on offer. Resale value is a positive factor but concerned the scene tax will hold over the next 3-5 years of ownership in current economy.
R Class is probably too small ? Unless the LWB version can do the 6 plus luggage comfortably ? Maybe roof box and bike rack on the back ?
Other options like Peugeot Traveller spring to mind ? But seem like they fall between the Alphard and Caravelle options ? More expensive than one but not as nice a package as the other ?
MPG not really a consideration and I’m no badge snob (also thinking Dacha Jogger ?), more about the application for the money more than anything.
Cheers.
OP here, just a quick response to say thanks for all of the suggestions. Spent a fair bit of time researching various oddball JDM family vans, had a detour into looking at Merc V classes and the occasional heart attack inducing moment when I expanded the budget to accommodate a VW of similar vintage / spec.
All fantastic insight and really gave me a lot of think about.
DJSmith’s response on the Camping & Caravanning forum was the most helpful and I think it’s firmly cemented my view that an Alphard is the most cost effective solution for my needs. Have spoken to a few dealers but not viewed anything yet but plan to do this in November (need to procure a Golf / focus / Korean-thing for my wife first as her lease ends in a couple of weeks).
Thanks again, will aim to update once I actually buy something (and if someone had a high spec 7 seater Alphard / Vellfire with the two cinema seats that they want to get rid of for a very fair price, please get in touch).
Chris
All fantastic insight and really gave me a lot of think about.
DJSmith’s response on the Camping & Caravanning forum was the most helpful and I think it’s firmly cemented my view that an Alphard is the most cost effective solution for my needs. Have spoken to a few dealers but not viewed anything yet but plan to do this in November (need to procure a Golf / focus / Korean-thing for my wife first as her lease ends in a couple of weeks).
Thanks again, will aim to update once I actually buy something (and if someone had a high spec 7 seater Alphard / Vellfire with the two cinema seats that they want to get rid of for a very fair price, please get in touch).
Chris
Bannock said:
The answer is...Ssangyong Turismo.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202208028...
There you go, that should sort out whether the OP is a badge snob or not...
(Only kidding, OP.)
Special reply for this response. I’m REALLY not a badge snob but, I mean, I’m not sure I could do that. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202208028...
There you go, that should sort out whether the OP is a badge snob or not...
(Only kidding, OP.)
Thanks Cakey, it’s a head vs heart decision. Everytime I go to the bike park and see the lines of VW vans I think “I want one of them” and will happily pay the £15k premium if that premium will still be there in three years time.
It’s just my head says a fair chunk of that premium might disappear in the short-term.
With the cheaper Toyota I’m far more prepared to roll the dice of depreciation, even if it’s unlikely to give me bragging rights in the forest.
It’s just my head says a fair chunk of that premium might disappear in the short-term.
With the cheaper Toyota I’m far more prepared to roll the dice of depreciation, even if it’s unlikely to give me bragging rights in the forest.
Bit of (semi) closure on this one - put a deposit down this week on a 3.5l V6 mk2 Alphard. In the process of being imported from Japan so should be on the road during April.
Contemplated Caravelle ownership, chatted with a few private sellers in Jan but I was struggling with the cost premium for what is a second car for us (maybe a sign of age but a lottery win would have me immediately buying a mega spec Caravelle !).
Into a mega-spec, 2010 Alphard for £16k so that works for me. Never saw myself going down the import route but struggled to find decent examples of what I wanted, was happy to pay a premium for a decent car but had a fairly specific idea of what I wanted and couldn’t find a clean example. Helped that I could afford to wait a little while for the right car and could get comfortable with the process.
Suspect the import process might be worthy of another thread, might write it up once it’s complete.
Thanks again for the all the input !
Contemplated Caravelle ownership, chatted with a few private sellers in Jan but I was struggling with the cost premium for what is a second car for us (maybe a sign of age but a lottery win would have me immediately buying a mega spec Caravelle !).
Into a mega-spec, 2010 Alphard for £16k so that works for me. Never saw myself going down the import route but struggled to find decent examples of what I wanted, was happy to pay a premium for a decent car but had a fairly specific idea of what I wanted and couldn’t find a clean example. Helped that I could afford to wait a little while for the right car and could get comfortable with the process.
Suspect the import process might be worthy of another thread, might write it up once it’s complete.
Thanks again for the all the input !
djsmith74 said:
Good stuff - you won't regret it. If you have a Facebook account, then get onto the two main Alphard Facebook groups, as there is a wealth of information out there and they're very helpful. The two groups are : 'Toyota Alphard and Vellfire Club' and 'Toyota Alphard owner club UK'. Please note, the case sensitivity of those two club names - there are a few more clubs out there named the same, but with different case sensitivity, and I think they have been hacked.
Do you have anyone here to carry out the necessary work to make the car UK compliant, i.e. fit a fog light? There are some poor garages who simply bolt on a nasty looking square fog light to the back, and run cables through the car to a nasty switch on the dash. The decent garages will integrate the fog light into the rear light cluster and do a proper job of the installation.
Your speedo will need chipping to convert it from KPH to MPH. Depending on your instrument layout, you may be able to get replacement dials to MPH form Lockwood.
And please underseal it the minute it arrives in the UK!. There are loads of places who do this, so it depends where you are in the country.
I would suggest you get onto the Facebook groups and ask questions, in the lead up to the car arriving on UK soil.
Cheers, in part it was your write-up on the Camping forum which convinced me.Do you have anyone here to carry out the necessary work to make the car UK compliant, i.e. fit a fog light? There are some poor garages who simply bolt on a nasty looking square fog light to the back, and run cables through the car to a nasty switch on the dash. The decent garages will integrate the fog light into the rear light cluster and do a proper job of the installation.
Your speedo will need chipping to convert it from KPH to MPH. Depending on your instrument layout, you may be able to get replacement dials to MPH form Lockwood.
And please underseal it the minute it arrives in the UK!. There are loads of places who do this, so it depends where you are in the country.
I would suggest you get onto the Facebook groups and ask questions, in the lead up to the car arriving on UK soil.
I probably didn’t mention that (until five years ago) my FiL owned an Alphard and was fairly involved with the clubs in real life (went to a few weekend camps) and virtually (Facebook and the owners club) so I was fairly well plugged into the names and faces of who can do what.
I’ve been referred to someone for the UK conversion - a quick search of Pistonheads reveals their name being recommended by a few others with imports so no concerns there.
Unfortunately they don’t do underseal (which I want) so need to think about how I make that work (I’m presuming driving it 200 miles or so won’t be entirely destructive ?).
Might drop you a DM if that’s ok, suspect you might be able to direct me on some of the more niggly questions I’m finding myself wondering.
I like a project, enjoying this so far !
Chicken Chaser said:
Nice and good to update the thread OP.
I have a Vito, 2017 with the 5 seats and it's a very versatile bus. It's not the best steer but it does what I need it to do.
What's parts supply with something like an imported Alphard/Stepwagon? I considered going down the JDM route myself but then did wonder about what happens when stuff goes wrong.
Cheers, had some good suggestions so felt I owed it to the people !I have a Vito, 2017 with the 5 seats and it's a very versatile bus. It's not the best steer but it does what I need it to do.
What's parts supply with something like an imported Alphard/Stepwagon? I considered going down the JDM route myself but then did wonder about what happens when stuff goes wrong.
As I understand it, they are essentially Lexus RX running gear underneath so fair bit of commonality. I expect there’s probably some bespoke interior bits which might need a bit of eBay trawling if I ever had to replace but there also seems to be a healthy industry in import part suppliers (apparently the other half of my container is going to include a semi-scrapped model rammed full of parts going to someone else).
I think the Alphard is now a fairly vanilla import - so really lovely, crazy JDM oddball stuff that you can get distracted with. I think it’s a braver (wo)man who imports one of those little Honda Kei cars for instance.
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