Currently looking at T5s but keep seeing similar age, mileage and spec Vitos for 2-3 grand less (talking ca. 6 year old with sub 100K miles). Anyone had one or driven one care to voice an opinion? How do they compare to a Vivaro which are in a pretty similar price bracket.

love vitos don’t love the manual gearbox

Significantly less nice to drive than transporters, residuals are lower so you’ll lose more while you own it and it’ll rust badly.

I don’t feel there’s much of a gap between them and Transporters at all. We went from a 2012 Vito to a 2014 Transporter, some elements are better, some are worse, both are rolly, vague, vans.

Ours (113) had a DPF failure under warranty, would’ve be pricey if not covered but otherwise trouble free over 70k miles or so.

I had 2 Vito’s as work vans.

They are like fast sports cars with a large boot rather than a van IMO. Very fast but with rubbish brakes. I wrote 2 off.
They carry a Merc badge but are made in Spain.

My work van then changed to a Transit. A much better van.

I no longer have a work van but now drive a T5 as my only vehicle. I find it better still than the Transit.

What he said^, we have a 6spd manual, it’s a great van, great on the motorway but city driving in the manual is less great.
Good turning circle, rear wheel drive.

Agree, manual gearbox is clunky to say the least.

The first model was notorious for rust, I have yet to see any signs on my three year old one.

on the upside I got 163BHP, air con, bluetooth, sat nav and alloys for the same money as an 85bhp T5 with none of those things.

post 06 they fixed the rust. mine is a ’10 viano 3.0 auto and its lush. bit juicy though. i got the later nav fitted with bluetooth. 18″ wheels mean a choppy ride wish it had 17″

That’s the claim Jamie but the three year old vans i see at auctions with rust say different. Metallic/coloured vans have always been better for not rusting but even new ones are bad.

My 06 3.0l has just done 190,000 miles.
Still on first exhaust, turbo, suspension, everything really. Only had a few sensors go and had to put new brake discs/pads on last year.
Only bits of rust are where it has been damaged.
I’ve thought about T5/T6 but there are so many reports of unreliable ones out there, drive shaft problems etc.

Recently replaced a T5 and I test drove a few recently 2011-2015 ones, went okay but can see why they’re cheaper than Transporters in terms of the plasticky build quality and oddly I didn’t like there was nowhere to put your left foot because of the transmission tunnel protruding. Stuck with another Transporter, dearer as you say for the age but then it’ll always be worth more when I come to re-sell in a few years.

“To write one off due to its rubbish brakes is unfortunate. To write two off begins to look like carelessness”

Kind of confirms all my suspicions. Cheers for all the input guys. Will no doubt continue to search for my perfect T5, but nice to have opinions on the alternatives so to speak.