Have been looking at purchasing a van for bike duties and as my personal transport at weekends as my landrover is in the process of being sold :(.

The VW’s seem to be very popular as do the newer merc vito’s. The problem is the price! VW t5’s seem to hold their value as much as defenders although that may be a good thing in the long run.

I quite like the renault trafic vans as they seem better value for money, however i have heard mixed reports. Most say that pre 2005 are prone to gearbox issues so it would be an 07/08 but are these also prone to failures?

Any thoughts?

Stay clear of Vivaro’s, T4 or T5 Only way to go, the reason they hold their value? They last a long time are reliable and kewell.

Vivaro/Traffic’s are utter piles of stinky sheet. Don’t buy one, gear box’s, injector problems, wiring problems. Just rubish. Cheap for a reason.

As Degsy say’s, VW T4 or T5. T4’s are getting on a little now so not so easy to find a nice clean one. 2.5tdi deffinately the one to go for.
I have a 1.9 tdi T5, plenty quick enough and looks cooool as **** on 22″ drug dealer wheels 😉

T5s reliable???? Waterpump, steering pump and now a gearbox…in under 65 K

SWB Transit. Ask yourself “Why is the Transit so popular?”

^ wot t-p 26 says – mates T5 and 3 others T4’s are not that reliable really – IMO, it is an image thing.

At work we run 15 transits, 5 SWB and 10LWB. At our site we have 4, and bar a few issues (Central locking went on one, a brake issue on another) they seem to run and run and run. A few years back (56 plates) we had some duff clutches that went in 3 years / 40kish. There is a reason that Transits are so popular.

t-p 26 – Member
T5s reliable???? Waterpump, steering pump and now a gearbox…in under 65 K

That was God punishing you for something uncool.. You probably wear lycra, ride a road bike or single speed, shop at Aldi, are bald or some other terrible style crime that denies you access to his chosen van for cool people.

TroutWrestler – Member
SWB Transit. Ask yourself “Why is the Transit so popular?”

Poor people who read the Sun and swear all the time drive it, they also have tattoos.

all newer vans are shit …its just some are shitter than others HTH 😉

Toyota Hi-ace. Avoid black ones. A winner, a friend borrowed one to move us from London to Manchester- a medium sized deceptive tardis.

165,000 miles on my T5 and no problems so far except service items.

Ask Transit owners about dual mass flywheel failure (mk 6 & 7). Timing chain tensioner failure which destroys the cylinder head (mk6 & 7). EGR valve faults (mk7). wheel bearing failures (mk6 & 7). Auxiliary drive belt noise (mk6 & 7). Front crank pulley failure (mk 6 & 7).

All makes have issues, just some more than others 😉

I have a Fiat Ducato and its been a good van in the last 7 years and 122000 miles but parts are expensive, next time mind and going on how good the Ford Focus has been (123000) im going with a Transit next time, had a Transported once, nice but overpriced and under speced

The thing I liked about the T4 and T5 that I’ve had was that they were that little bit narrower than a Transit/Trafic/Vivaro which makes parking/navigation up narrow streets/into car parks/etc not only easier but in some cases possible where wider vans simply don’t fit.
I imagine the Hi-Ace won’t have that problem though.

The good thing about a decent transporter ( pretty hard to find good t4s now ), is that although seemingly costly to buy, they will at least hold their value better than anything else. Paid just over £5k for mine six years ago at 48k miles, now at 130k. I’ve been offered more than that three times in the past 12 months. Needed nothing other than servicing and a clutch at 118k, which you’d expect from anything.

Our Trafic is awesome. It has done over 200,000 very tough kilometers. It goes up and down mountain roads, through deep snow in winter and on rough tracks in summer. It’s made it to all sorts of unlikely places (to the top of Les Arcs, fully-loaded and towing a trailer). We’ve had just one thing go wrong with it (hydraulic clutch pistons failed). Very impressed indeed.

Noticeably more space than a T5 too. Nicer to drive as well (I find VW’s feel pretty clunky by comparison, although I’m sure if I was used to them, then I’d think the Trafic felt sloppy).

We were in a Morzine transfer Traffic and it had similar mileage Steve and yet it was smooth/rattle free. Impressed.