[Closed] Large car or small van?

Thats why i dont go from one side to the other 🙂

Agree with trail rat on the Caddy Maxi Life. I'm weighing up one of those against the cheaper Ford Tourneo Connect.

Best of both worlds I reckon. I've had a Vauxhall Combo with a bench seat in the past and whilst it was great I still used the wife's car for special occasions. I spent some time with a maxi life in Aviemore the other week and it had all the manners and comfort of a car with the load space of a van.

I own a van and a car based on a van (Fiat Qubo). As I'm self employed keeping the car is a bit of an extravagance but I simply couldn't bear the thought of long journeys and doing private mileage in a van. I know vans are viewed with reverence by many on this forum but I think they are crap and simply tools for a job, not a vehicle to aspire to. My Qubo may be based on a van but it is quiet, well equipped and fun to drive. My van is a noisy steel box on wheels.

OP, I'd recommend a decent sized car and a tarpaulin to keep the boot clean.

Agreed, vans are shit. Ignoring the noise and crap ride, it's slightly crap turning up to a wedding or funeral in one. I have access to two cars and a company van. The van costs me nothing except fuel but I'll take a car if I can. Unless you get off on transporting other people's bike for them, then a car is the way forward.

Easier to get a comfy car with all the luxuries.
If it's ease of bike loading over the luxuries though, van plus a load of sound deadening material to make it pleasant to commute in.

Had vans and tidy estate cars, now have a cheap old estate as a halfway between comfort and not caring on the state of stuff in the back. Even has mirrored rear windows as it used to be a paramedic car.

I recently swapped a Clio that kept breaking down and needed something bigger for kid stuff and ended up getting a Honda FRV. Cheap, but oldish, though should be reliable. Got the top-spec Sport 2.l one, so it's pretty nippy. I reckon it's a pretty decent compromise, maybe something like an S-Max would be better, but they're much longer and more expensive.

6 proper seats, the middle two slide back about a foot and the rear 3 fold completely. It's a mini-van when the seats are dropped and swallows bikes and kit easily. You do need to remove wheels, but I've always done that, so no big deal.

It's only really let down by not being able to slide the front middle seat when the one behind is folded flat; you need to slide for adult leg-room. For biking with 3 + 3 bikes, you've enough room to leave the middle seat at the back up, pile it with kit and fit the three bikes to one side though. 4 + 4 will go, but not with camping gear I'd think.

I've had 6 in comfortably, but an infant in the middle seat, plenty of room for a buggy, scooter and day gear in the boot.

berlingo vans rock. got a new one and it has so many money bumps. my old one is still going strong at 210000 miles

Estate car with boot liner I would reckon. Or even a large hatch.

It'll probably be a bit less thirsty than something tall like a berlingo, and you'll get the bikes in no bother (as long as you shop with load space in mind), plus you'll get blown about less on the motorway due to it not being so tall.

Also, someone on my commute has modded a berlingo or kangoo to look like an off roader. I don't know why, but I could now never own one even if it was the most logical purchase for my needs.

The modded off roaders you see is probably a kangoo trekka(dangle conversion was a factory option) which is a 4x4 and quite capible as stock in a t2 syncro way. Piss on x5s and q quatros,

I like em if only they did the diesels with em- they are nearly always 1.2s the french love em.

never own one even if it was the most logical purchase for my needs.

Thats ok - public ignorance keeps the prices down for me.

has so many money bumps.

So we seem to have consensus. In the "car or van" debate it's a resounding "yes" 🙂

I went from a golf to a caddy maxi and LOVE it, would not go back to a car, it's so much more convenient with bikes & dogs. The caddys drive very much like a car, (ok, not like a performance car, but that's not something I'm interested in personally) the hubby commutes over 100 miles a day comfortably in his.

New van time for me at work. Currently have an Astra van which other than a couple of bits has been fine for over 150k. Looking at a new shape Berlingo and as mrs skip is expecting, i'm looking at the 3 seat one. I know the middle seat is small for a real person but it has a 3 point seat belt so would take a child seat if needed. To the people that have them, what are they like?

jedi - Member
berlingo vans rock. got a new one and it has so many money bumps.

What do you mean Jedi?

Mrs skip has our car and i'll jump in the van to pop to the shops or pick stuff up for the house. Have my permit to go to the local tip so no problems putting rubbish in the van and keeping the car nice. Theres times when having a van is great but its nice to have both options.

Touch screen, Cruise control etc. Money bumps

if going down the small van route (and i speak as a small van owner) i dont see why you wouldnt just go for the multispace version with seats in the back.

I bought Mrs T-r one a couple years back and im now looking to replace my van with one.......

3 up in a berlingo -esp with a child seat in the middle will be fun for about 7 seconds.

I use a Caddy as an everyday vehicle and don't find it compromised in any way. Interior is basic but comfortable, yes, it's a bit noisier on the motorway but I plan to carpet-line the back to help this.

I can get 4 or 5 full bikes in the back, stood up, seats and wheels in situ, plus as much gear as I'll ever need.

It's big enough to get changed in if it's lashing down and I can sleep corner-to-corner if need be.

I got the High Line version, so it's got air-con, blue teeth, colour-coded parking sensing alloy wheeling loveliness... Wouldn't change it for anything else!

I can do anything I wan't in the Maxi Life I have other than a proper B-Road blast - but then thats defeating the object of it.
If I wasn't downsizing there would be nothing else that I could replace it with that would be better.
Cruise control on the M'way is awesome.
Aircon, electric windows, cracking sound system as standard, aux inputs, etc.
No issues at the tip as its a car.
7 seats for the pub/days out.
Big boot and parcel shelf.
Bench seat out - MASSIVE boot and 5 seats still.
will happily swallow the bikes whole without moving a thing.
Flip the single forward and its mine in there whole leaving 3 seats free.
Flip the double and its mine and OH's OR mine and both kids bikes (full size 26" for the record) and three people.
We took all of them out last month and buggered off to wales - both bikes, double mattress, weeks worth of clothes, bike kit, climbing kit, bouldering mat and still had space to bring bits back we picked up.
Take the front wheels off and its 5 bikes and 5 people PLUS kit easily with room.
Thats all without a towbar - so imagine the capacity if you fitted one!
7 people, 7 bikes and kit plus a roofbox on the factory fitted rails.
Like I said - after moving recently and needing to downsize the Maxi Life and the A3 are going and being replaced with a four seater and rack for the few times a year its needed.

Been driving my basic vw caddy for four years now and I love it.Drives like a golf and returns good mpg but best of all when my big full susser is caked in mud I can just wheel it into the back and throw a bungy over it to keep it in place on the drive home.Mine has done over 120,000 now and drives like its only got half that on the clock.
You know you want a caddy really so in the words of Mrs Doyle: "go on go on go on go on GO ON!!!"

70 miles a day round trip...car undoubtedly for me and a decent comfy mid to large size estate might be well up my list along with a tarpaulin.

I used to do that type and length of commute day in day out and even in a nice brand new diesel golf knocking out 50+mpg it used to be tiring and what seemed a lot of time filling up. One leg of That commute after a few short months felt more tedious than driving the 150 miles to visit my parents (difference between necessity and leisure).

Doing it day in day out for work is ime very very different to a 1000 mile road trip with your mates / partner.

Trailrat, I have a 1.9 td Kangoo Trekka, it's a fantastic vehicle. It's been lying in the garden for six months, I really should get it mot'd.

Car based van is the way to go.
I replaced the Trekka with a Yeti and as good as the Yeti is the Trekka is a far better bike wagon.

Our Doblo is
a van in all but name......

Difficult one but honestly if I could only have one vehicle then. . . mmm . . . I think of have to go for the. . . estate, yep I'd get an estate

Grey . You selling ? ... Age , milage , whats up with it , it a van or multispace ? where are you ........

Based on my experiance of a 70mile round trip it doesnt matter what car you have you resent driving in your free time and being absolutely shattered when you get home..... I did mine in all sorts of cars - right up to a new merc e350 - none of them improved the situation. I stopped being tired and resenting driving when i moved within riding distance of work 🙂

Got a Doblo at work, great little van, but it is a van, even the car ones. If you want a CAR doblo, buy a Punto. The car doblo is a... "van derived car derived van".

Ive got a T5 myself, its pretty comfy, more comfortable than my 206 was over any distance (just got back from south of France this morning), but i suspect this is purely down to having 6 gears and more go.

If i was commuting 70 mpd, i would want a car.
From my personal experience (hired one once) an astra van would be perfect. Drives like (Basically is) an estate car, but with a panel lined load bay rather than a second row of seats. Throw bike in, brush mud out.

Anything classed as a commercial vehicle is restricted to the lower speed limits. Even our little doblo.

"Anything classed as a commercial vehicle is restricted to the lower speed limits. Even our little doblo."

Your doblo is more than 2t gvw ? And as you alude it isnt a car derived van.....Taxation class has nothin to do with it

If you had a van and had a trip that really needed a car for, you could hire... Or train/taxi

If we occasionally needed a car, id take the time to shift all the work crap out of the boot in my work car.

Looks like it might be coming down to a battle between the berlingo multispace and the tourneo connect.

I'll mail you Trailrat .

From my personal experience (hired one once) an astra van would be perfect. Drives like (Basically is) an estate car, but with a panel lined load bay rather than a second row of seats. Throw bike in, brush mud out.