Not a camper and not interested in conversion

I’m after a van to replace our ‘second car’ Smax will be daily use car and van will be my occasional commuter / days out / trips / camping transport vehicle.

Spec is:

• Around £8K but ideally not been round the globe twice on mileage
• Seat 5 (but must have three rear seats)
• Windows for rear seat passengers
• Not commercial registration (so can drive at 70)
• Sensible MPG
• Relatively refined drive
• Rear bulkhead between cargo area and seats
• good sized cargo area
• Not going to cost a fortune in repairs / maintenance

Moon on a stick?

I know they do the Vitos in that sort of layout and I’ve seen transits in that layout too.

Not sure on prices etc but I would imagine a transit is more sensible as far as pricing and parts/maintenance.

“Not commercial registration (so can drive at 70)”

watch out what tax this ends up in….

sounds like you want a minibus.

Get a 5k caravan and new bike

I’ve ran a renault trafic ll29 crew bus for the last 4 years. Six seats, bulkhead, swallows bikes and kit, 30+ mpg and nice to drive.

issues – wiper stalk broke, and suspension strut bearings needed replacing after 40K

I’d really not worry about the 60mph thing. Not one other van driver on my commute to work does, and I can’t ever recall seeing one pulled over.

other than chriswilks – the renault crew van m1 n1 thread. ….

wouldnt bother me either – done a power of miles in all sorts of vans at speed….. but it is handy to know what your limit is for when to slow down when you see the cop shop.

Caddy Maxi Combi thing? (Not sure about the bulkhead requirement)

Thanks

I could probably get over the bulkhead requirement, it would just be safer when loading camping gear up high.

Volvo estate with pukka Volvo dog guard, will hold stacked luggage back no problem. They have solid mounting points and crash test them to over 300kg.

but a volvo estate is not a van. I have an smax with 285lts of luggage space and it is not enough, hence needing a van…

hence needing a van…

Or a trailer?

Mazda Bongo minus on of the rear benches?
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/mazda/bongo

Could always try a Citroen Dispatch

One newish available on Auto Trader

Not sure of the load capacity though

Or a trailer?

Of course that would be very sensible but I want a van for man points.

I’m running something similar to what you want with a Dispatch Combi swb. 6 seats (in 2 rows), bulkhead, 4 x full size bikes (front wheels out) on a shelf 2/3 depth of the boot, extra tie-downs etc. Huge tailgate is ace as a shelter.

Insurance happy bulkhead / bike carrier improved safety and wasn’t classed as modified as it bolts into existing mounting points. Not a bad van, 1.6 is slow and still fairly pricy to tax – I imagine 2.0 will be even more expensive on tax. I think you’ll find it very slow compared to S Max. Could probably be much improved with a remap – the power and torque curves are very flattened compared to other versions of the 1.6 HDI (I guess to protect the gearbox if towing fully laden).

Same vehicle available from Peugeot, Fiat and now Toyota. If haggling second hand, worth knowing that the new purchase price was almost certainly 20-25% below list.

The only off the shelf option I found was a Transit Connect (they do a clever sliding steel mesh bulkhead that goes behind the rear seats and pushes forward on tracks if you fold seat up). However Connect maybe not be enough space for you, and not sure what Crew van / Tourneo come registered as on the V5 (but I guess could be changed to dual purpose vehicle to get car speed limits).

Doublecabin is a very solid conversion but pricy (£2k). http://doublecabin.co.uk/

Trafic or vivaro fits the bill.

I got a really nice 07 with 80k miles for under 5k including vat.

Yr budget might even get AC and electric windows.

You probably want a really nice VW T5 Kombi. But at 8k you will have to over look one of your requirements, so probably going to have high miles.
So the next option is probably the Renault Trafic as said before.

That said im selling my T5 shuttle for 10k if you can stretch your budget.
5 seats opening side windows tail gate air con 72.000 miles 1.9 tdi

Probably a bit small compared to what you’re getting rid of but what about a Berlingo Multispace? Mine came with a net type affair that fixes to the boot and a couple of points on inside of the roof to act as a bulkhead. Not tried to fit anything more than one bike at the minute but it swallowed that with the wheels off. Oh yeah and you will see horror stories about the 1.6HDI engine but if looked after it’ll be fine. Mine was £6900 with 40k miles on it in the 3.5yrs before me.