[Closed] The mighty Doblo.....

You’re no one in the mountain biking world unless you drive a T5

Berlingo obvs. Like a Doblo but considerably prettier, and bigger I think.

Hmm, it's a possibility.

Just put £200 worth of Crossclimates on the malodorous piece of toss.

I am not a happy sausage.

And it's bastard chucking it down. 😶

Sounds like a downer of a situation.... what size are your Crossclimates? That may be the criteria for your replacement wagon search?

At £200 Im guessing that's an axle pair?

Yup. Two new fronts.
Less than 100 miles.

185/65/15's.

Like a Doblo but considerably prettier, and bigger I think

Galaxy.

Commiserations. My SMax shit itself to death with brand new tyres too. 80miles on them. Meh.

Bought another SMax.

I feel your pain; my 3 Series got written off with a full tank.

Berlingo

Kango

Zafira.

Zafira.
Berlingo/Partners should be killed to death. Nuked from space, it’s the only way to be certain.
The mere thought of getting into one and driving it gives me hives. Horrid things.

Get another doblo

And for balance of opinion

Beelingo trump's zafira . At least the seats are comfy and inline with the controls.

My 15 year old Doblo goes in for its mot tomorrow, I’ve had it 12 years and hoping for one more. I love it, The type of car no one wants and everyone needs. It’s actually bigger than the Berlin go etc in terms of load space and when I bought mine had a better reliability record than the alternatives. I’d get another but don’t want to go for a diesel again and every petrol one I’ve seen on autotrader has been modified for wheelchair use. Zamora might be my best option even though I expect it to be a bit crap and uncomfortable. Loads around though so easy to find

RIP your Doblo, OP. We loved ours, it was ace. The mk3 Galaxy we have now is also ace though.

I guess you've not got a huge budget with being back in education. Berlingo's come in a huge variety of age and price. VW Caddy's have also been round a good long time and don't attract the Transporter premium as much. I really like my Ford Connect but the current shape has only been out a few years, Autotrader has those starting at £8.5k.

Vauxhall Omega? (doesn't look like there are any Senator's left)

By the time I managed to pull in it sounded like a wife swapping party at Boris’s place.

best line on the internet today!

Open to the idea of Japanese imports?

They make loads of practical boxy MPV things for the domestic market but not here. All petrol engines as Japan realised diesel was bad news 20+ years ago.

We have a Honda Stepwagon for family bus / bike carrying / tip run duties. It's a 2007 one (so new enough to be ULEZ exempt), powered sliding doors, 8 seats, the rears flip up out of the way and the middle ones tumble forward - big flat floor underneath. About 20cm longer and a bit narrower than a Doblo, very similar height. Same 2.0 petrol engine as every Honda of that era used (Accord/CRV/etc), simple and reliable. Cost us about £6500 to import, although there's quite a few already over to choose from. Toyota Voxy and Noah are a similar formula, not too big or fancy - there's another class of bigger luxury MPVs above.

This mine (this was fresh off the boat and dirty):

[img] [/img]

With plenty of room in the back with seats out of the way:

[img] [/img]

Thanks for all the responses folks.

Well, it's definitely shuffled off this mortal coil. The turbo's gone and the rest of the engine isn't sounding too good either.

Just had a look round and it looks like we're going for something equally as good looking and exciting - a Honda Jazz!

Really impressed by the amount of interior space, bikes can go on a towbar rack. Surprisingly nice to drive, feels like a quality item, petrol and no turbo, yay. More economical than the Turkish delight and similar tax.

Found a nice one year old base model for about £8500 with 18,000 miles up. Dog's knob red, which is a shame, but needs must when the devil vomits in yer kettle.

And yes, the Doblo had a full tank, obviously. 😶

Now where did I put my slippers?

Have you checked the prescription of the windscreen ?

The SMax expired with £80 of fuel on board too. Managed to syphon out about £50 and ended up drinking about £5. The syphon was lost about 2/3 of the way through but at that stage I really couldn't face re-establishing it agan.

Now where did I put my slippers?

They're probably in the door pocket next to your Werthers Originals

Annoying isn't it?

Did you scrap it in the end? Get owt?

Our local friendly garage are going to get a few quotes for the shed and see how much we can claw back.

I'm quite looking forward to getting the Jazz, it feels like a nice place to be.
Much more pleasant than the Corsa we looked at.

Did look at a couple of Skoda Yetis too, various Kias and Toyotas but the Jazz just felt nicer and has a crazy amount of space for the size.

I've gone for the 'Tena for Men' limited edition with the absorbant seat pads.
And let's face it, after 9 years of Doblo ownership, I'm used to the gags....🙂

Sticking the SMax on Ebay in the next couple of days. I’ve been busy and it isn’t in the way as I dumped it on my MiL’s drive.

They’ve been selling for around the £750, so I’ll see what happens.

The new one is the absolute cat’s ass BTW. Lots of toys, some of which I’ve figured out how to work. We’ve had it on two holidays, so the interior is like a rubble skip. I’ve also managed to get a muddy tyre print on the roof liner and after this weekend’s Cub camp the rear seat wells are full of dead grass and toffee wrappers.

And yes, the Doblo had a full tank, obviously.

I had to scrap my old astra back in the day  after a 2-page MOT fail sheet. In preparation for the MOT if'd fitted a new fuel tank as the old one would piss fuel back out again if you put more than a fiver in. So not only was it a full tank it was the first time the tank had been full in nearly a year.

It was Christmas Eve - so I cycled home through festive sleet from the scrappy with the scrap money in my pocket and celebrated Christmas by 'drinking my car'.

Just reading this through again and the brand new starter motor that I had to have fitted last Tuesday is certainly going to scupper my Doblo for tomorrow's MOT isn't it!

Simon_g you're right about the practicality of Japanese cars they don't export. Every time I've been to Japan there are such vehicles everywhere you look. Those Stepwagons are a particularly good example.
One option I'm looking at is the Nissan NV200 but I'd really rather avoid a diesel this time, I don't do much in the way of mileage and it's often short journeys when I do.

It was Christmas Eve – so I cycled home through festive sleet from the scrappy with the scrap money in my pocket and celebrated Christmas by ‘drinking my car’.

...Three hours later, an angel called Clarence earned his wings by talking you out of throwing yourself off a bridge.

We’ve had it on two holidays, so the interior is like a rubble skip. I’ve also managed to get a muddy tyre print on the roof liner and after this weekend’s Cub camp the rear seat wells are full of dead grass and toffee wrappers.

It's not just me then.

Our new to us wagon a couple of weeks after purchase...

My Doblo will be having it's MOT right now! #prayforamiracle

Berlingo/Partners should be killed to death. Nuked from space, it’s the only way to be certain.
The mere thought of getting into one and driving it gives me hives. Horrid things.

He's got a Doblo. I don't think he's too worried about what he gets in looks like... 😉

He’s got a Doblo. I don’t think he’s too worried about what he gets in looks like…

Exactly, drive it anywhere leave the keys in engine running doors open and it'll still be there an hour later.

Update while typing, it's only failed on the exhaust back box, being done now the Doblo lives!
Question now is do I get the cam belt done as it's due or just accept the car is dead when it goes? The clutch doesn't have too much life left in it so the temptation is just to run it till it breaks.

Vauxhall Omega? (doesn’t look like there are any Senator’s left

Matt, a few years ago I'd have considered another Omega - I paid £300 for the last one and scrapped it at just over 280,000 miles.

But I'm in a position where I HAVE to be in work and now have grandkids, not sure I'd trust something with shagged suspension bushes and a tendency to dive for the kerb. 🙂 Bloody comfy though, loved mine.

Update while typing, it’s only failed on the exhaust back box, being done now the Doblo lives!

Hearty congrats! Had a call today from my neice after she read this thread - she's just scrapped her Doblo farm hack at 190 odd thousand miles, a 1.9, so I guess we were just unlucky.

I went to look at a petrol Doblo yesterday, lovely, newer shape but economy and reliability was the decider in the end.

Sooooo, picked up the Jaaaaazz today. 1.3S petrol from Motorpoint in Burnley. No turbo, no dpf.

Motorpoint were spot on to deal with. Cheapest we could find, they sorted a couple of paint chips, didn't try and sell us UFO cover, protective magic paintwork beans or a pointless warranty.

We managed to get a black one with 13,500 miles up, just over a year old for a couple of grand less than main dealer prices. Very decent people to deal with and zero faffage.

It's a lovely car and I'm looking forward to using it.

I'll miss the Doblo, but it had a hard life and wasn't that unreliable whilst it lasted.

Ours was on the original clutch and exhaust, second set of brakes, front arms and injectors.
The electrics were shot and the interior had disintegrated, but it had a lot of care work (short journeys) and off road farm track use.

If they were better screwed together, I'd have had another.

Cheers folks.

^my dad worked at Motor point Burnley doing back of house stuff, good place to work and all above board with no sharp practices, he bought 3 or 4 cars over the years.