Van buying advice, anyone know the new/nearly new market?

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AbbieCadabra

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Joined
Aug 29, 2007
Messages
334
Location
in the Middle...
Car
E350CDI
we're giving ourselves headaches looking at what's available for our next company van, so just wondered if anyone has any pointers for the current market :)

needs to be a larger van, minimum internal length 3000mm/height 1850mm, panel van, FWD, gross vehicle weight 3500 max., as basic as it comes, we just need a reliable workhorse for a good few years.

locally we've found good deals on these
Vauxhall Movano L2H2 100ps - 125ps
Transit 350 LWB hi roof 115ps
Peugeot Boxer L2H2 333 130ps

budget of around £15k before vat

we did look at less than a year old/low mileage, but they seem to be higher prices than discounted new ones at the minute :dk:, something to do with stocks being ran down/the new euro 5 class coming in? who knows...

all help very gratefully received ;)
 
i dont see a sprinter on there. Forget the rest. For 15k if thats what you want it can only be a sprinter.
i bought mine with 80k on the clock and it now has 200k, apart from servicing not a single bill. Not 1 thing has gone wrong or gone on it.
Every courier company i use who do deliveries all day everyday nationwide only use sprinters.
There is nothing to them. No fancy electronics, but they use the latest relaible merc drivetrains and are detuned. I think my van revs to 5k.
I bought mine in 2008 for 3.5k and its still worth about 3k. You do the maths.
 
we'd love a Sprinter, but had ruled them out as it would have to be a few years old with probably 40k+ on the clock, which wasn't what OH wanted - are they really that rock solid ?

i'll just have a look on autotrader to see what's around...
 
What will you be using the van for exactly?

our joinery business.

van monster have got a few sprinters in, 09/10 plates with 34-40k+ miles on for around £14,500 net.

decisions, decisions...:crazy:
 
our joinery business.

van monster have got a few sprinters in, 09/10 plates with 34-40k+ miles on for around £14,500 net.

decisions, decisions...:crazy:

Look at the state of Sprinters as you drive about before you consider one, lots of rusty 08s, I even posted a picture on here of a 10 plate Sprinter with rusty rear doors.

Plan A of a new Renault Master is a better plan.
 
Hi Abbiecadabra, I have four vans all purchased new. A renault Master, renault Trafic, Renault Kangoo and a Transit. While the trafic is a year old and nice to drive the jury is still out though we''ve had no problems. The best van of the lot is without doubt the Master and apart from regular service items the clutch and steering drive belt have been replaced. It carries a tonne every day and has never let us down. We've had quite a few electrical problems with the transit which I believe is par for the course.
Hope that helps
 
our joinery business.

van monster have got a few sprinters in, 09/10 plates with 34-40k+ miles on for around £14,500 net.

decisions, decisions...:crazy:

So you'll not be carrying 'too much' weight then, I'll assume.

If you do a lot of miles and are concerned about mpg, then don't buy a Sprinter; they are shocking on diesel.

How long are you intending to keep it for and what sort of mileage will you be doing over that course of time?
 
Peugeot Boxer L2H2 333 130ps
We have a Fiat Ducato 2.8JTD which is the older variant of this ^^. Its the same van badged as Fiat/ Peugot and Citroen. Its LWB and high roof as we need the size/volume for our products.
From a work perspective it's carried upto 1.5 tonnes regularly with no problems. Its a full size side door so a 40x48 pallet will go in with room to spare. It will take three pallets (length) aswell.
Out of work it's been used to ferry two track bikes to race circuits with all associated carp and two enduro bikes for weekends trail riding and racing. It's been a very reliable van and is a very comfy and capable work horse.
We've run it for five years (bought it 18 months old) and its had a couple of warranty bits done plus clutch, wheel bearing (due to sticking brake caliper), sump (rotted from outside in - common Fiat problem) and some other low cost wear and tear items.
We don't do high mileage - just a few thousand 'hard miles' a year so have resisted the urge to change as the van cleans up well and is not costing a lot to run.
 
all i am saying is in the courier business, noone i have ever dealt with has ever used anything but a sprinter. The reasons i guess is that they dont want it to brake down and be stuck in bognor with 20 deliveries to do when they are coming from london. Also the mileages they can do are mega.
mpg i get 25 mpg but mine is a luton and full of furniture, to wack is 80mph went loaded. I guess the normal panel ones are much better mpg.
 
all i am saying is in the courier business, noone i have ever dealt with has ever used anything but a sprinter.

We get a variation in this area. We have a few different courier companies come in on daily/ weekly basis. They use Fiats (Business Post), Transits (TNT/NEP), Iveco (Interlink), Sprinters (NEP again). Used to be more Sprinters as you say - but thats changed over the last couple of years.
 
all those vans are small, and when you deal in furniture and large items they are not cost effective i suppose. So it prob what you need it for. Plumbers drive round in transits etc,
 
thanks for the replies :)

the Master only came on to my radar today, i think i'd just got Renault 'blindness' & hadn't realised their reliability had improved from what i remembered. i'm waiting to hear back on best price/availability, but they seem to be in-line with the Movano (not surprising really!).

it won't be used for vast mileage/load carrying, when we're busy it only does about 10-12k a year - when we're not busy (more out & about jobs as opposed to workshop based), it can go up to 20k. the plan is that this one will hopefully keep going until we finish the business in 6-8 years time, without too much needing to be spent on it. our current Movano has lasted nearly 11 years, but not too great a mileage tho' at 114k. it's costing too much in repairs now & reliability is poor, plus it only does about 25mpg :eek:

i've just had a nightmare with my insurance, apparently pre-registered vehicles make their computer go 'bang, pop, doesn't compute' & to get an idea of price can take anything up to a week! :doh:

however, i've just managed to get a price on 2 out of the 3 via a comparison site (it won't be 100% accurate i know, but better than they've offered me), so they obviously need to update their hamster-wheel of a system...

i haven't even looked at the Fiat, again, a bit of blindness based on past reputation i think.

the Sprinter - do you think it's a case of more recent ones suffering lower quality? the cars had a bit of an off patch for a few years, perhaps the vans were the same.

i'm still waiting to hear back from our bank business manager, i can't do a flipping thing 'til i get an answer from him! :rolleyes:

i really have had one of these :wallbash: today !
 
mine is A 2003 sprinter so the pinnacle of mercedes crapness, and it top notch, everything works. One thing to remember is resale value, i dont know about the other but sprinters hold value well. Why are you spending 15k on a van though is my thoughts. Id never dream of spending that much money.
 
Have driven most of the vans mentioned on this thread & for the type of work you want it to do you can't beat a new lwb transit for 15k,don't touch iveco(i had one from new in 2008 was falling to pieces after 3 years & had lots of electrical problems so got shot of it & went back to transits.
 
don't touch iveco(i had one from new in 2008 was falling to pieces after 3 years & had lots of electrical problems so got shot of it & went back to transits.
I personally wouldn't go for Iveco but a mate has an independant tool supply business. His vans do low mileage but work very very hard. Heavy payload and all stop start. He had an Iveco which ran fine for a coupe of years and then 'upgraded' to a Sprinter (2nd hand). Sprinter was more problematic. Also ran a VW LT alongside the Sprinter as his business expanded. Both were in and out of the workshop. Out of the three the Iveco was most reliable! (I know - it amazed me aswell) :crazy: ... Still wouldn't have one though!;).
 
Have driven most of the vans mentioned on this thread & for the type of work you want it to do you can't beat a new lwb transit for 15k,don't touch iveco(i had one from new in 2008 was falling to pieces after 3 years & had lots of electrical problems so got shot of it & went back to transits.

I thought Iveco Daily and Ford Transit were the same van. Iveco's are generally pretty tough, however a friend has a Renault Master which is used a lot for installation works, covers high mileages and never needs anything doing.
 
I thought Iveco Daily and Ford Transit were the same van. Iveco's are generally pretty tough, however a friend has a Renault Master which is used a lot for installation works, covers high mileages and never needs anything doing.

I had the iveco daily DM(most of the parts are Fiat),we actually bought a pair in 2008 because Ford had problems supplying transits due to a problem with the bulkheads & got a good deal from the supplier we use(they source both fords & ivecos).Within 2 years both the ivecos had electrical faults & both had issues with the side doors(a one the back doors),ironically the mechanic i dealt with said don't touch ivecos again there cr*p!
 

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