Friend of a friend might be flogging a Vauxhall Combo van.It’s a 1.3 cdti and I was wondering what sort of performance I can expect from it.I end up doing a fair number of miles lugging bikes allover the place,often using motorways so need something that can sit at 70/80 comfortably.Also interested in your experiences with van ownership, pros and cons etc.Cheers.

Not a combo but a berlingo here, insurance companies will take the piss, but other than that I like vans, they suit me. Performance wise they cant be worse than the berlingo, you just get used to going a bit slower. To be honest, I can still exceed the speed limit with a bit of planning and a following wind, so anything else is just trouble. I struggle to see a real downside, but if you harbour any notions of style and cool you might not be suited to it,

I’ve driven a couple, first one was a courtesy van and flew along, nippy and a good turn of speed until it bounced off the employers 70mph rev limiter, still had plenty of go left in it. The other was a colleagues, quick enough but it didn’t feel quite as zippy as the first. Quite like the engine, unlike many vans it actually sounds like its making an effort, quiet but with a low growl under power 🙂 Nice handling as well, good fun on twisty B roads.

Try before you buy but I don’t think you could call it slow.

They’re excellent value, very spacious, cheap for parts, nippy and I used mine for the JOGLE this year; 5 people, 3 bikes and all our gear. Mine is the 5 seater though…

Ta for the responces,Petesgaff yours is what they call a crew van right? Is it a 1.3 or 1.7?Is the tax and insurance much more than a car?I’m running a 1.8 focus at the mo!Cheers Neal

I went from an Audi A6 to a Berlingo- Annual insurance saving 50p

We have one for biking duties – Not slow (1.3CDTI)

We get around 500 miles to a tank – £54

It will sit at 80 all day long and on private roads it will hit 100.

Great for biking duties and since our MK5 GTI got stolen a few weeks ago its been our main form of transport. Not too bad as an only vehicle TBH.

We have the 1.3’s at work and they are decent to drive and as above quite nippy, ours are run hard and TBH they dont seem to have any major problems…

I drive one every day and its ace. DRives like a wee go Kart. the grew cab one is a 1.7tdci. I have a 1.3.

The only ‘problems’ ours have are when they are given to drivers who only do short town journeys. The particulate filter needs a good run every now and then to burn off deposits other wise you get fault lights. Nothing a quick 3rd gear thrash down the dual carriageway won’t sort out 🙂

Spooky, the particulate filter only regenerates when the ECU decides it needs it, and not just because you happen to be thrashing it down the road.
Provided they’ve had the latest engine management update, the particulate filter issue isn’t a problem anymore (PF’s weren’t fitted to all vans anyway, and some were even removed as a service fix).
In the past 3 years since affected vehicles were updated, I’ve only had to do one forced regeneration, and that was down to a fault preventing the normal regeneration cycle from starting.

Yup, thats right – Combo Crew van 1.7 CDTi. Insurance through the NFU is around £375 p/a fully comp, as its a car-derived van. I’d go for the 1.3 if I were you; more modern engine design, better ECU, slightly better economy. And Combo’s with windows in the back are as rare as hen’s teeth, I found two in six months!

Biggest fleet operator in the UK also thinks its a car derived van, and advises its drivers off this. Still didn’t stop plod pulling someone over for doing 70mph on a dual carriageway. Let him off with a finger wagging, but we are all sure plod had it wrong. He argued that although its based on a Corsa floorplan/chassis, the fact it has a different roofline means its not car derived??!

Combos are classed as Light Commercial Vehicles. They’re only the same as a corsa upto the A-pillar/dashboard, but they are still under the 1800kg weight limit for speed limit issues.

Regards speed limit – this is one of those where everyone has a different opinion.

I’ve got a 1.7cdti Combo Crew (so has back seats) – I spoke to the DVLA who said that this type of vehicle is often down to interpretation, they don’t publish lists of which vehicle is/isn’t car derived. I was told, as mine has back seats and windows behind the driver, it’s car derived.

The van’s not exciting or fun, but has been a workhorse without being to far from a car day to day. Astra I had before was far more car like, unsurprisingly. Combo crew gets you the bigger load capability, so good for lugging building bits, stuff to the tip, or even bikes!

You still look like you’re running the pope around or delivering the post, depending on vehicle colour..

>I was told, as mine has back seats and windows behind the driver, it’s car derived.

I’m not sure it’s quite that clear-cut tho’

You can also look up a reg on:
http://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/EvlPortalApp/

As I understand it, car-derived should appear as M1 (camper conversions as M1 Special purpose), commercials (ie lower speed limit) as N1.

Tho’ curiously I’ve looked up a few vehicles and found no classification for them 😮