Chinese LDV vans in uk

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Discussion

Toaster Pilot

14,615 posts

157 months

Friday 19th January 2018
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MRPULLHARD said:
Guys please remember while it looks like a Maxus , I think its been re- engineered . so any comparision to one is incorrect.
No, it hasn’t.

Willy Nilly

12,511 posts

166 months

Friday 19th January 2018
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Digga said:
TooMany2cvs said:
Digga said:
Hey! Revamped ste using the name of previous revamped ste, LDV originally being, basically, British Leyland Sherpas.
Nah, the Maxus wasn't/isn't another Sherpa life-support machine - it was LDV/Direwoo fresh ste, jointly-developed back in the late 90s. It just didn't get launched until 2004, years after it was designed, because of Direwoo going tits in 2000 leaving LDV to stumble along with it alone.
I realise, but the present LDV brand though, is one that itself was created to re-brand BL ste. We had an LDV 400 flat bed and, whilst it was inhumanly noisy, basic and slow, it was, to be fair, reliable and indestructible.
We had a dropside LDV400 too. Like you say, noisy, slow, basic, thirsty but did seem fairly robust to me. The new Transit that replaced it is obviously in a different league

Fast Bug

11,597 posts

160 months

Friday 19th January 2018
quotequote all
MRPULLHARD said:
Guys please remember while it looks like a Maxus , I think its been re- engineered . so any comparision to one is incorrect.
Well it's got the same engine it did at launch, the cabin looks nigh on identical as does the body. If they've used the same tooling LDV used then the panels will be crap as LDV couldn't afford to upgrade the panel stamps from the cheap soft metal ones used for prototype production.

I'm saying it's still an expensive outdated bag of ste with very little dealer network to back it up when it goes wrong.

CraigyMc

16,326 posts

235 months

Friday 19th January 2018
quotequote all
MRPULLHARD said:
Guys please remember while it looks like a Maxus , I think its been re- engineered . so any comparision to one is incorrect.
What's been changed?

Digga

40,207 posts

282 months

Friday 19th January 2018
quotequote all
Willy Nilly said:
Digga said:
TooMany2cvs said:
Digga said:
Hey! Revamped ste using the name of previous revamped ste, LDV originally being, basically, British Leyland Sherpas.
Nah, the Maxus wasn't/isn't another Sherpa life-support machine - it was LDV/Direwoo fresh ste, jointly-developed back in the late 90s. It just didn't get launched until 2004, years after it was designed, because of Direwoo going tits in 2000 leaving LDV to stumble along with it alone.
I realise, but the present LDV brand though, is one that itself was created to re-brand BL ste. We had an LDV 400 flat bed and, whilst it was inhumanly noisy, basic and slow, it was, to be fair, reliable and indestructible.
We had a dropside LDV400 too. Like you say, noisy, slow, basic, thirsty but did seem fairly robust to me. The new Transit that replaced it is obviously in a different league
The problem with newer goods vehicles is purely that, by necessity (emissions regs mostly) they've become more complex and less robust.

We replaced our LDV 400 with a MAN 7.5t dropside in 1999 and it's still going. Clocked a few miles mind you, but we're repeatedly advised to run it until it breaks because the Ad blue etc. on new trucks makes them such a PITA by comparison.

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 19th January 2018
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Agree, the old banana engined Trannies and LDV's could be fixed with a hammer, once the newer vans were equipped with ECU's, high pressure fuel pumps, injectors etc the cost to repair absolutely shot up.

I remember the injection pump went on an 02 LDV with the newer Transit engine, I could get a pump easily enough from a scrap yard, but they are coded and because LDV had gone pop we couldn't get the thing coded to the engine.

I also made the mistake of buying some cheap ex water board Mk4 Transits, absolute money pits.

That's when I made the decision to lease them and chuck them back every three years, much less hassle

hairyben

8,516 posts

182 months

Friday 19th January 2018
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Fast Bug said:
MRPULLHARD said:
Guys please remember while it looks like a Maxus , I think its been re- engineered . so any comparision to one is incorrect.
Well it's got the same engine it did at launch, the cabin looks nigh on identical as does the body. If they've used the same tooling LDV used then the panels will be crap as LDV couldn't afford to upgrade the panel stamps from the cheap soft metal ones used for prototype production.

I'm saying it's still an expensive outdated bag of ste with very little dealer network to back it up when it goes wrong.
TBF my merc is an expensive bag of ste with very little dealer network backup, unless you enjoy being royally F'd in the A.

The incoming G10 is the first van fully designed and built in china, and I never thought I'd consider buying anything LDV but the electric version doesn't look far off my needs - "claimed" 180 mile range, call it 100 or so once you've loaded it up and run the heaters but that'll do me fine

Not sure why they want to sully the operation using the LDV brand - most van buyers don't give a st for the label it wears, but there's a chasm in the market for a van with motivation that gets greeny prat approval, what with the marxist zealots that run london boroughs seeing diesel as an excuse to gouge hardworking tradesmen with punative road use and even parking charges, china could steal a march if they get a half decent, usable product to market first.

Cowboy_27

7 posts

79 months

Friday 19th January 2018
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Well I'm the probably mentally challanged individual who bought a new "maxus"

We've now had this on the fleet since the start of September 2017 and it has accumulated 17k miles in this time. The faults are as follows.......... 0. That's not to say it won't stay this way and burst into flames killing little kittens, and be monumentality unreliable.

In fact for the money we have been so pleased with it we have just received another.

In answer to many of the points raised, I buy my companies vehicles, the nature of our work, abuse etc mean that this is the model that works best for us. To compare the long wheel Base high roof vehicles we have bought to a T5 or Traffic etc are not comparing like for like. Those are small vans with a limited carrying capacity. I'm happy to be re-educated if these are 3.5 tonne vans that you can walk easily through the back in?

Comparative vehicles in my mind are the Renault Master, Mercedes Sprinter a proper sized Transit or Iveco. These all retail at over £22k each for a similar specifiction, well excluding the Transit which could be had for around the £19K mark depending on dealer offers.

Our elderly fleet of 03 plate transits have been amazing and are still running, I do not expect the new LDVS I've bought to be as cock roach like and last as long, but then again at their price point it's what I expect.

This is the most sensible reply I can muster in my currently inebriated state, hopefully it's addressed some of the mystery on these new Chinese monsters. Of course everyone else is right and my vans are burning and self destructing right now, but I've always been a gambling man!!!

As for sales numbers, Im actually starting to see a few around now, well at least here in South Yorkshire. Although the 5 I've seen are obviously dwarfed by the sheer number of sprenters and transits.


MRPULLHARD

Original Poster:

318 posts

130 months

Tuesday 9th July 2019
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anyone know how these are selling in uk ?
are there sales figures available in uk to view ?

daydotz

1,741 posts

160 months

Tuesday 9th July 2019
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I know Sainsbury's have a electronic one https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/news/latest-new...hehe


Digga

40,207 posts

282 months

Wednesday 10th July 2019
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daydotz said:
I know Sainsbury's have a electronic one https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/news/latest-new...hehe
Quite interested in these. We have several sites on an industrial estate and something like this would be perfect for the daily shuttling of stuff (read engineering components and materials, plus the essential tea bags, milk and sugar) between them.

Is it obligatory to christen them though?

Toaster Pilot

14,615 posts

157 months

Wednesday 10th July 2019
quotequote all
Cowboy_27 said:
Well I'm the probably mentally challanged individual who bought a new "maxus"

We've now had this on the fleet since the start of September 2017 and it has accumulated 17k miles in this time. The faults are as follows.......... 0. That's not to say it won't stay this way and burst into flames killing little kittens, and be monumentality unreliable.

In fact for the money we have been so pleased with it we have just received another.

In answer to many of the points raised, I buy my companies vehicles, the nature of our work, abuse etc mean that this is the model that works best for us. To compare the long wheel Base high roof vehicles we have bought to a T5 or Traffic etc are not comparing like for like. Those are small vans with a limited carrying capacity. I'm happy to be re-educated if these are 3.5 tonne vans that you can walk easily through the back in?

Comparative vehicles in my mind are the Renault Master, Mercedes Sprinter a proper sized Transit or Iveco. These all retail at over £22k each for a similar specifiction, well excluding the Transit which could be had for around the £19K mark depending on dealer offers.

Our elderly fleet of 03 plate transits have been amazing and are still running, I do not expect the new LDVS I've bought to be as cock roach like and last as long, but then again at their price point it's what I expect.

This is the most sensible reply I can muster in my currently inebriated state, hopefully it's addressed some of the mystery on these new Chinese monsters. Of course everyone else is right and my vans are burning and self destructing right now, but I've always been a gambling man!!!

As for sales numbers, Im actually starting to see a few around now, well at least here in South Yorkshire. Although the 5 I've seen are obviously dwarfed by the sheer number of sprenters and transits.
Missed this at the time, glad to hear it is/was going well and would be interested in an update.

daydotz

1,741 posts

160 months

Wednesday 10th July 2019
quotequote all
Digga said:
daydotz said:
I know Sainsbury's have a electronic one https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/news/latest-new...hehe
Quite interested in these. We have several sites on an industrial estate and something like this would be perfect for the daily shuttling of stuff (read engineering components and materials, plus the essential tea bags, milk and sugar) between them.

Is it obligatory to christen them though?
No idea Sainsbury's has dabbled in electric vans before & it hasn't panned out I'm not sure they have much faith in the LDV their other electric van is a PSA i can't tell which one however the product maybe fine but I can't see the durability & surport or how they would cope if Sainsbury's said that they wanted 100s there is a reason why Sainsbury's use nothing but sprinters id dare say if mercedes had a viable option then they would have bought them without thought (they jumped into huge numbers of the new sprinters without thought & they have had a fair amount of issues they not quite as robust as the previous one's

The electric iveco sound worthy of consideration or something duel fuel like ocado use

Edited by daydotz on Wednesday 10th July 20:34


Edited by daydotz on Wednesday 10th July 20:35

Fast Bug

11,597 posts

160 months

Wednesday 10th July 2019
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Electric Sprinter is due late this year/early next year

PurpleTurtle

6,941 posts

143 months

Wednesday 10th July 2019
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Just discovered this thread, my Dad spent 20yrs in press tool engineering for LDV at Washwood Heath before he retired in the 2000’s.

It was a company with a very dedicated workforce (many people worked there for decades) but it never really recovered from the 1993 receivership. My Dad had to make a lot of skilled engineers redundant on order of the Administrators, really difficult times.

What often gets lost in discussions about LDV is that although they had the two basic vans, there were a huge amount of bespoke configurations for the body styles, which none of their competitors could get anywhere near. That’s why they were popular of their time.

My favourite was the PH-ers obvious favourite, the big 210 fitted with a Rover V8 used by many police forces as a riot van back in the 80’s and 90’s. My Dad had one back at the factory from Essex Police, to strengthen the design of the rear step, because fully kitted up riot coppers were bending them in use. He taped up the livery and picked me up from school in it one day for a laugh, not many kids get picked up in a V8 riot van, me and my mates thought it was great!

Cowboy_27

7 posts

79 months

Friday 6th September 2019
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Chinese Ldv update!

Erm nothing to update.....

17 plate van now on 50k, zero mechanical faults

67 plate van now on 35 k, zero mechanical faults

In typical PH fashion I expect the doom mongers to call me a porky pier, but both Van's have genuinely been reliable, reasonably frugal and withstood a fair amount of builder related abuse. Wish I could say the same about the transit flat bed we bought at the same time.

There are caveats though..... both Van's appear to have been painted in tip ex, whilst if you concentrate hard enough you can make the panels dent through telepathy. Stone chips develop rust within hours.

Pedal rubbers and the gear knobs both show significant signs of wear, my 350k mile transit had less wear on these items in comparison on significantly more mileage.

However I can tolerate the above negatives based on purchase price, these were £13,500 Van's. Had I paid 19 grand for the equivalent transit I wouldn't tolerate the poor build quality. They have decent load capacity compared to the opposition and have a decent amount of kit as standard.

Rumour has it they will do 105 mph and Merc Spinters cry with shame, that's only a tall tail though.......

Other negatives include crap dealer network who don't want to service these vehicles. Whilst the driving experience compared to other manufacturers is poor, although I think all fwd Van's are cack to be fair.

Our conclusion is acceptable vehicles for the money. Would we buy the same again? Don't know, depends on offers available at the time of purchase.

In comparison our current Ford experience is that negative we wouldn't have another Transt. Make of that what you will




Toaster Pilot

14,615 posts

157 months

Friday 6th September 2019
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Do you get someone independent to maintain them in light of the ste dealer and just accept they have no warranty or do you persevere?

Sounds like it’s worked out rather well.

daydotz

1,741 posts

160 months

Friday 6th September 2019
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Thanks for the update they're still a rare sight the facelift seems to have added a few nice bits

Cowboy_27

7 posts

79 months

Friday 6th September 2019
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I've got a decent independent who maintains the Van's. I've not needed the warranty yet, although I'm not sure how successful we would be with any claims.

The dealer chain we used don't even have any prices for the services and wanted to avoid them at all costs.

That said it's a common engine found in.many other vehicles, jeeps I believe being one of them. Parts are readily available etc

The new van with DAB looks better, but at near 15 grand, think i would put my money into a Citreon for that price, although I'm.not sure the 3.5 tonne van is around that price.

Fast Bug

11,597 posts

160 months

Saturday 7th September 2019
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Is it still a 2.5 diesel engine? If so it's a VM engine and used in a fair few other vehicles