Forum menu
Hi all,
Need an 8 seat SWB van as our current 7 seat MPV is just too cramped for day to day, let alone trips away. Planning for 4 bikes on a towbar rack, plus 2 smaller kid bikes inside. Needs to be reliable and comfy for long trips including across Europe in both summer (for biking) and winter (for skiing). Don't really want a 9 seater as the passenger benches across the front are never that comfortable. Also want SWB for ease of day to day use/parking. Spending around £25k and would like cruise control, heated seats and ideally Apple Carplay/Android Auto.
Narrowed things down to:
- Peugeot Traveller. Pros - lots of toys (Allure model), leather, fuel efficient. Cons - internet reports adblue issues and electrical problems (ie all the toys can/could go wrong).
- Ford Tourneo Custom. Pros - Seemingly reliable and a good drive. Cons - more money than the Peugeot for less toys. At around 25k unlikely to get a facelift model.
Anyone have any experiences with the Traveller? In particular reliability? Feedback on the forum for the Tourneo Custom seems positive. Peugeot seems like better value, but worried about long term reliability.
Ta muchly.
Also look at the Citroen spacetourer and Toyota proace verso which are the same vehicle as the pug traveller but with a different bumper and grille and slightly different specs (Vauxhall vivaro life too, but this is newer so probably out of your budget). I've got the proace verso, it's really good, no issues with it in 18 months of ownership since new. Mines the family spec which is a bit less good than the traveller allure and the spacetourer flair, but sits above the active/feel specs (iirc). It doesn't have electric doors, leather and a few other nice to haves but that didn't bother me. Adblue and faulty electric doors seem to be the faults that crop up most regularly. They do an extra-SWB - avoid this, there's pretty much no boot with all the seats in. Mine's the medium length, just under 5m, it's fine to drive round town and park (I did get parking sensors fitted front and rear mind!) and has a useable boot even with all seats in place. It's not as fuel efficient as the figures make out - depending what you read it's meant to do up to 51mpg but I get 37/38/39. The Toyota for some reason doesn't come with carplay/android auto but it's hidden away in there, you just need someone to activate it - it cost me £60 for some guy off a Facebook group to do mine! Pug and Citroen have it I believe. The adaptive cruise on all of them is only really semi-adaptive - it doesn't brake which kind of defeats the object! It can be switched to normal cruise though so not a big issue.
Don't be put off with the LWB Tourneo Custom. We went with it so we could get four adults and four bikes with wheels on in it.
It's a daily driver and have no problems with parking. Also gives a bit more room with the seats out for our daughter to sleep in it.
It's also got all the toys you mention
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
Thanks for the feedback. I think i'm still a bit wary of an LWB - the parking around here is bad enough. Plus my wife is already worried about piloting a van as it is.
Posting this whilst sat in the back of my extra long Merc Viano waiting for my son and his mate to come out of one of those jumping places.
It's great, would recommend. Newer V Class is even nicer but I couldn't afford one of those.
On the parking thing, mine doesn't over hang much more than a big 4x4, it's wider than a normal car so I tend to look for decent spaces, but can get into normal supermarket spaces. Opposite me at the moment is a transit custom thats also in a normal parking space.
Get a big one!
Length might be an issue outside your house but when out and about it just requires a bit more planning ahead to park. You just need to adapt your parking when driving a van. We have a LWB Transit motorhome - 5.7m plus a rear step. It will fit in a standard supermarket car park space width-wise but it sticks out a fair bit due to length. We just try to park away from the shop entrance with the back overhanging grass etc. The 2.85m height is usually more of a limiting factor
The wheelbase is more of an issue in town - the shorter the better when parking or manoeuvring in built up areas.
Don’t really want a 9 seater as the passenger benches across the front are never that comfortable.
I dont really find the front of the current generation of the Relay / Expert family of vans very comfortable in the front - which is a shame as the cabin was the best thing about the first ones. Pretty pokey - the dash mounted gear leaver that should be a space saver is mounted on a massive bulge in the dash that intrudes into the driver's leg space (and pretty much renders the middle seat useless if you have one). They also have quite a low roofline for a van and the top of the windscreen is pretty low - if you're tall its like having the visor down all the time - you can't see traffic lights if you're at the front of the queue. If you put the visor down you can't see the road! So while you're considerations seem mostly about the folk and things in the back make sure you've sat in the front of one before doing much more research.
You just need to adapt your parking when driving a van. We have a LWB Transit motorhome – 5.7m plus a rear step.
At metered on-street parking.... its only your wheels that need to be in the marked bay - so it my 7m long sprinter the wheels will fit- doesnt matter if the arse end hangs over most of the space behind it 🙂