STW Van of choice? cheaper end of scale

The Berlingo car/van seems to get universal recommendation, so what about something which is slightly bigger?

What’s your budget? If you want bigger than the berlingo then check expert/despatch/scudo and see if they’re big enough. They are in between the berlingo and transit sized vans. If you need bigger still then with limited money i’d probably go transit – so many around that parts are plentiful and anyone can fix them.

I don’t know much about vans… would 3k get something that won’t fall apart?

Conqueror – Member
I don’t know much about vans… would 3k get something that won’t fall apart?

If you’re lucky, yes.

what’s the min size van that you can sleep in and take a bike or two?

Berlingo looks like its probably enough for day trips, but not big enough to sleep in

What kind of mpg do you get from these beasts?

I brought my 2004 Caddy for £3100

Transit Connect for me, just got to find the right one

Caddys tiny , load beds too small.

Lwb connect will do what you ask , swb wont ,loadbeds same size as caddy just a bit wider,

M59 berlingo is just long enough to doss in for a night or 2 at 6 ft 3. And have a bike along side. But isnt much fun.

Steveh talks sense , also look at vivaros/traffics/primastars – slightly bigger but common and cheap, plenty of them about cheap, just be picky and pay attention to gearboxes/buy the right engine.

The old shape Dispatch / Scudo / Expert was a good bike van (we had one and now a new shape). All the turbo ones drive well (non turbos can be slow and noisy depending on engine and final drive ratio). Best of the bunch is usually reckoned to be the facelifted ones with the HDI / JTD turbo – the taxi crowd seem to rate that highly compared to the current shape.

I paid 3000 for my 2004 LWB vivaro and it’s done about 6k with no signs of falling apart yet, fingers crossed.

For the money and space I’d got Despatch Transit and maybe even a SWB Sprinter if its got a 310 or better engine and not a 308 gutless thang. Or got leftfield with a Toyota Hiace.

Peugoet Bipper – what are your thoughts on that?

Bipper – thats 2/3rds of a peugeot partner. …..

Its a 206 with a big boot.

Peugoet Bipper – what are your thoughts on that?

They are quite small. You can get a bike in but I doubt there will be any room to sleep in one unless you find one with the fold down passenger seat option.

I drive a Qubo, the Fiat people carrier version, and even with both of the seats out it isn’t the longest of load beds and thats without the bulkhead that the van variant would have in place.

(Quoted €2584 with options before realising that it’s not at cheaper end of scale at least as an initial purchase!)

I just sold my trafic to a mate for £2.5k
It had done 117k but had an easy life, with my dad and then me, it was pretty much used as a car with a big boot.
I did however do all of the jobs on it when it needed them, so in the last 10,000 miles it had a HP fuel pump, cambelt went, so it was a complete top end rebuild, and then I had the gearbox rebuilt and refitted with a new genuine clutch, new release bearing and slave cylinder while it was apart.
So I had spent £2.5k on it in the last 2 yrs/ 10k miles, and that was a nice one which had never carried heavy loads….
Expect the same issues at some point if they haven’t been sorted already.
But I would happily have another one, just none available new last week when I was looking and the new shape one is not arriving yet.
So I brought a new shape doublecab transit custom instead 8)

Transit mk6 bit agricultural but very dependable. Biggest issue is rust due to the wafer thin paintwork.

LDV Maxus. Cheap because they’re not a VW or a Transit.

Plenty of them around with money in your budget to spare for kitting it out.

LDV Maxus. Cheap because they’re not a VW or a Transit.

Plenty of them around with money in your budget to spare for kitting it out.

Leaves you plenty of money for these.

Well we did 133k and 9 years with a Fiat Scudo (1.9 TD XUD) and needed nothing like the stuff listed for that Traffic up there ^^. A rebuilt gearbox on a lightly used van at that mileage is pretty shocking.

Only “breakdown” item was a snapped clutch cable (£30 and no tools to fit). Planned to keep it until 200k but a wayward BMW decided to write it off 🙁

Mrs had a Citroen Nemo Multispace (aka Bipper/Qubo/Fiorino) for a bit – wasn’t very big and a bit crude (it is a Fiat design made in their Turkey factory).

Got a couple of neighbours that really rate old shape Doblos. Shame they never brought the LWB one to UK.

As mick says – as mich as that traffic sounds like he got a bargain – id have run a mile before i bought that.