[Closed] Van dealers, good ones please.

Second hand van dealers make second hand car dealers look like a bunch of Angels.
Cowboys the lot of them. Certainly at the end of the market I was looking, sub-£3k vans

If you're after a t5 kombu it'll be a case of where has one - they're relatively rare and demand oustrips supply by a fair way!
I've heard good things about some dealers but they're mostly the ones that charge a fair premium for their name.

This van is going to do a few things from work to kids to camping. It's a fair spend but not 'new' spend. Trawling all the usual classifieds and forums, but would consider dealers.

"Cowboys the lot of them. Certainly at the end of the market I was looking, sub-£3k vans"

Cowboys OR was it not just the fact that sub 3k full size vans are generally one mot away from the scrap heap

Cowboys OR was it not just the fact that sub 3k full size vans are generally one mot away from the scrap heap

My sub (just) sub £3k dealer-bought van has managed 7 mots and and additional 100k on top of the 230k it came with. So I can give a big thumbs up to Hermiston Motors (he's a mountain bicyclist so of course can only be a good person) although I don't really have the motivation to be a repeat customer as the van is just seems happy to keep going. 🙂

No, I got a perfectly good 79k mile, 8yr old Transit for £2,300 in a private sale.
None of the dealers I visited, and there were a lot, filled me with confidence. Mostly just uninterested in helping a customer at all, generally rude and ignorant. The one which seemed the best had a 5yr old Scudo I was interested in, had MOT'd it himself, certificate dated two days previously. Took it out for a spin and the rear brakes were binding something cronic, had to abort the test drive after a few minutes. Left me doubting the rigorouness of his test so I walked away. Had a lot of wasted journies to see a lot of vans.

Not sure of your budget or locale but I bought my T5 Kombi from Cordwallis @ Heathrow a few years ago and they did me very good deal indeed price wise. Sometime dealers just seem to be more generous with incentives than others and it can be worth speaking to them in person.

When I was van shopping last year I was after a relatively rare model - a crew cab Vivaro or Trafic.

Van dealers all wanted a LOT more money for them than they appeared to fetch privately and I ended up finding one locally and buying direct instead. Even after VAT I think it was about £2k cheaper than most equivalents on Van Trader.

Thanks all. I've not had a great time so far with dealers, I'll be patient for something via a private sale if poss.

I looked at loads of vans before settling on my cheap van.

From 3 - 4 k, even then they were battered and I saw one that had had cement mixed up the rear and not cleaned up and a Transit that had been out on Community Payback that had drawings of really rude things scratched upto the underside of the roof.

I only spent a £1000 on my van and I should have known better as it was either MOTd by Stevie Wonder or David Blunkett.

Contrary to what Steve above says theres plenty around so be fussy. Currently looking for one myself and have seen plenty that hang around on forecourts for a good while.
This has led me to be quite cheeky when bidding and plenty of dealers have come back to me on what I considered to be "silly" offers.
Only reason I haven't bought yet is waiting for the exact spec to turn up. Might be the time of year but there are bargains to be had from polite negotiating.

A good idea to join the t5 forum as well.

Be aware that you might run into problems if this model is declared as a "van" for benefit in kind rules on your tax returns.