thinking of selling my 08 ford focus diesel for a van as my ford is getting wrecked and quite like the idea of just chucking the bikes in the back of the van 🙂 whats the pro’s and cons of a van …tax insurance etc ???

greater noise, check tax, less bother.

But it will always be your turn to do the driving, your van getting the miles on it…

Vans are meant to do high miles…you often see them selling for good money with 250,000 on the clock. (usually Sprinters and Ivecos, obviously Vivaro’s and the like don’t usually get that far)

Tax is fixed, I heard £210 for next year?

TAX

200 for me van on the renewal for the end o month

215 on my landy for end o month also 🙁

Insurance
van insurance is a cock – basically everyone expects you to use it for business and there are only a few will even quote for social and domestic ….. im down to 383 quid this year BUT the same motor with the windows (its a pug partner) is 150 quid for a year ! so safe to say van insurance is alot more – guess its due to grandads and familys driving the car version and the van being one of the most popular small vans around for fleet vehicles due to being peanuts to buy !

would i swap to a car – only the partner/berlingo varients of the car for sure – so handy being able to chuck in complete bikes and go no faffing , no damage to bikes or car – handy to jump in and get changed in the rain , sleep in it , move house with it , go places. Only time its a **** is when you want to go down the pub and can only take one mate.

I don’t think you’ll go back after a change. I don’t know anyone who has a van and has gone back. I went to a little dh race with a friend who’d just got his scudo and have had my own van since about 2 weeks after. I’d not want to be without now.

Tax is similar to car prices, insurance for me is also similar (have never had to pay substantially more than for my car ~10%), fuel economy will depend on what you get transporters/vivaros will do 40mpg, smaller things like combo,partner etc nearer 50.

My pug partner is ace. Would never go back to a car shape now.

Just went from a Focus to a Caddy 1 week ago – happy so far! Tax is £210/year and insurance can be annoying, I just got covered on a normal Churchill policy in the end.

The Caddy is fine to drive (its the 104 version) but still wouldn’t day it’s ‘car-like’. Justifies itself every time I load bikes in – 3 times in 7 days so far.

It is definitely noisey though, but I should be able to easily got hold of high density foam – hopefully that’ll make m-way journeys more pleasant….

Go for it…

Had a van a for biking now for 2 years and it is the best buy ever. In the winter being able to change out of wet clothes in the back and the dry, best feeling.

I have a combo crew van. five seats, five bikes, amazing bit of kit.

Insure through NFU – although my premium has increased fairly dramatically this year.

In my Batchelor days I ran a van. I thought it was ace. It really simplifies bike tranaport and I loved driving it.

But insurance is PITA.

Best thing i ever did. Was getting peed off with getting my car muddy and a mate had a nice t4 we used for mountain biking. I bought a base van and then slowly did it up to a camper.

Wouldn’t be without it now. I can’t ever see me going back to a car. Insurance is £350 for me with every mod declared and agreed value (see adrian flux they’ve always been good)

In Oz there’s no such thing as a van. They’re called passion wagons (if you see it rockin’, don’t come knockin’) 🙂

I wouldn’t own a car if it was entirely up to me.

You can get van type accommodation out of an Espace with the seats removed. Cheap insurance and comes with more goodies than a van.

Steve H

Had a van, but changed it for a car for better fuel consumption, cheaper tax + insurance (and Severn bridge costs), acceleration for overtaking on Welsh lanes.

Just wasn’t using it enough for biking/camping so was an expensive item. Large estate car does much the same but faster and cheaper.

Will have one again at some point though I think…

Imo anyone that thinks an estate/people carrier is as good as a van for hauling kit is kidding themselves. carpet, plastics, etc just do not take kindly to mtb gear when compared to ply and (in my case at least) a rubber floor. estates have the added problems of shifting seats, taking wheels off, no chance of getting changed inside, etc

after my le mans pilgrimage this june, i’m going to flog the porsche and buyer a t5 transporter camper/conversion… can’t see the point in driving fast nowadays and love the idea of being able to head up to the lakes and not have to worry about tents of hotels.

checked up on insurance and this was £230 with flux (although the porker is only £295)… so if anyone fancies a swap… do let me know!