Right…so the other half will not entertain anything other than a VW so looks like my research for alternatives to avoid Scene Tax was pointless

So, next question. How old is OK before I can start to expect to be ‘that guy’ blocking the a303 on BH weekend?

My wife wants max 4 years old but sadly I don’t have a spare £45k

So, if I get something between 10 and 15 years old with under 100k on the clock are we likely to be OK? New cam belt fitted and service history etc…

well we have an 08 T5, with 150k on it. We had it from about 50k around 10 years ago. It’s the 2.5 5cyl beast and in that time it’s had a new bottom end, new turbo, new(refurb) gearbox and 2x driveshafts. oh and a dmf and clutch, new wiper motor and random central locking issues which are common.

But it looks so cool!

On the plus side body work is pretty good, only minor rust that is easily sorted

How much do you reckon you spent on all those fixes?

without getting the papers out, the dmf (inc clutch) was about 900, refurb gearbox about 850 – I think, driveshafts nothing dreadful so probably 2-300.

Bottom end and turbo were under warranty from the dealer thank the lord

A lot of the glitches we just live with to be honest. It’s a works van so downtime is costly and you can waste a lot of time playing parts darts.

All local vw indy

incidentally the 2.5l is a filthy beast of an engine, very poor on emissions compared to modern engines. It will pull a lot of weight though, which is it’s saving grace for us, but you wont be getting into many LEZ’s

2011 caravelle with 280,000 on the clock here. Bought it 7 years ago at 160k and in that time other than routine servicing it’s had a DPF (the old one snapped its neck off due to a missing bolt rather than it getting blocked) and that’s it.
Owing to them being desirable and the current market, I suspect total depreciation is practically zero

So based on recommending what you’ve got, buy a young high miler and enjoy the lowest cost motoring available

Get a divorce and and old tranny. They all do the same job.

5 year old 2.0 t5 bought at 1 year with 10k on the clock now got 35k. Clutch spewed it’s guts last year (I think through lack of lock down use) £1600 later running sweet but the fan sounds noisy!

Entirely up to you what you buy but I’d not be listening to your wife’s input given the alternatives are as good and in a lot of cases better…

Saying that you can buy a lemon from any marquee as well as brilliant examples.

I have an 07 2.5. Obviously barely run in on 150k miles and it’s had driveshafts, turbo, egr sensors, exhaust manifold gasket, alternator, turbo gasket, suspension arms, droplinks, washer motor, wiring loom, central locking. Bit of rust too. Also leaks, but I have a bag of new blanking bolts with washers to fit to the roof channels.
Had it for 9 years now and plan on keeping it going until an affordable electric van at some point – the current PSA group one looks ok. Give it a few years though.

Yeah, no LEZs either.

which is it’s saving grace

Its saving grace

Clutch spewed it’s guts last year

Its guts

it’s had a DPF (the old one snapped its neck off due to a missing bolt rather than it getting blocked)

My 2011 has also had a new DPF because of the flange between it and the turbo being missing thank to a previous owner’s bodge. Genuine VW part new is £2k. I was lucky to find a used part for £250 but still nearly a grand when including a clean and fitting.

Just sold a 2006 vw t5 campervan. I probably got more for it than it cost me to buy and convert.

Bought it when it was 3 years old at 60000 miles. I did 70000 miles in it over 13 years. Biggest problem for me was rust. Fixing rust was more expensive than any engine problem. Between £300 and £500 to treat and re spray a panel. as above, buy a new van with high mileage and put £3000 aside for engine/clutch problems.

My major expenses were

1) seized brake calipers. Must have replaced about 6 over the years. Probably my fault from cycling to work.

2) head gasket at 100000 miles.

3) radiator, it rusted away

4) driveshaft (preventative based on advice from vw mechanic after he took it apart to do another job)

5) various central locking issues.

It was still on its original clutch though!

I costed up everything I’d spent for 13 years of motoring and the fact it never broke down or failed to start and I bought a slightly newer t5.1.

My brother in law just bought a new Toyota proace versa, new, 5 year warranty or 100000 miles. If buying new I’d buy one of these over a much more expensive vw t6.1

What sort of van are you after and what sort of budget have you got? I buy and sell a few transporters so might be able to help or at least point you in some helpful directions.

Get a divorce and and old tranny. They all do the same job.

Good advice.  I’d also consider getting a Ford Transit for a van

Had three all bought nearly new and the first two kept 2-3 years. 06 and 09 T5 were both fine. The 2014 180DSG had 7 visits to dealers in the first year, leaky windows, gearbox, injectors, drive shafts and other stuff. It was never right and I’ve never gone back to VW since. I’d hate to risk that van now it’s 8 years old. An elgrand replaced the 2014 one at a cost of £5k, the T5.1 was sold for £25k. Elgrand is still here 7 years later with nothing more than normal servicing. Had that 2014 one been ok I’d have carried on changing every 2-3 years at a cost of £10k+. As it is my elgrand is still worth £5k.

In answer to the question it’s a lottery, an expensive lottery and one I wouldn’t play when there’s better options. It’s not like the VW drives better than other vans, the only thing it does better is impress other middle aged men in animal t-shirts 🤣

Dont buy a Transit. I drive one at work they are rubbish.

My VW is almost 6 years old only thing I’ve replaced is brake discs\pads and tyres. Cam belt replaced under VW warranty/ recall. No doubt I will have bills to come. Depreciation is very low guessing about £1k a year from new. If I had a six year old Transit I’d guess it wouldn’t be worth much in comparison.

I’ve got a 15 year old t5 at 130000 miles. Bought it for £5k last year from a mate. Replaced turbo hose, brake pads and callipers, and a few other bits so far. Driver side window motor has just gone and hard to find.

Overall it still works though, happy enough with it.

No experience of T5s but I’ve had a 2002 T4 Kombi as my daily driver for the last 7 years. Was on 130k miles when I got it and it’s now on 182k.
Mechanically it’s been very reliable, it’s only let me down once when some plastic bits on the gear selector wore out.
Bodywork is suffering from rust now though, needs new wings and rear arches.

2011 caravelle with 280,000 on the clock here. Bought it 7 years ago at 160k and in that time other than routine servicing it’s had a DPF (the old one snapped its neck off due to a missing bolt rather than it getting blocked) and that’s it.
Owing to them being desirable and the current market, I suspect total depreciation is practically zero

So based on recommending what you’ve got, buy a young high miler and enjoy the lowest cost motoring available

Posted 2 hours ago

Actually I tell a lie – I had a sticky calliper after lockdown so I guess that’s a failure – the part was cheap tho. Also mine has an appetite for taking stones to the windscreen like no other car I’ve owned so there’s been a fair few £75 excesses there

So what is your max budget ?

I’ve got a 2005 t5 2.5 130. It’s a money pit, I should probably sell it, I don’t do that many miles a year but when it’s useful it’s really useful.
it’ll happily sit at 80 on the motorway but drinks fuel at that sort of speed. 65-70 and it’ll do 35ish to the gallon. 6 spd box helps.

Get a divorce and and old tranny.

Isn’t the OP straight?

Also mine has an appetite for taking stones to the windscreen like no other car I’ve owned

This! Glad I’m not the only one.

In the seven years I had the T5 it had five new windscreens….. Although technically it had six because the fitter cocked one up.

Mine had ~90k miles when bought and 170k when sold. 2.5l.

Other than numerous windscreens it needed new drive shafts, turbo (annoyingly had it done shortly before selling), shocks on the rear as well as standard consumables.

Other niggles were…. Rusty sliding door. Intermittent sliding door mechanism. Leaking sliding window (standard feature, it would seem). Water getting in on the tailgate. Crappy parking sensors. Annoying, rattling seat belt buckle on the passenger side. Hose for the windscreen washer jets splitting.

My mechanic said mine was a good example and that he saw more and more of the 2.0 versions, particularity the bi-turbo ones.

Had a 1.9 turbo one from ‘05. Bought at some point and sold three years ago after maybe 40k.

To be honest, apart from disposables during MoT and servicing, I can’t remember much going wrong with it. Economy was decent for a van that big (previous owner had re-mapped it) and it was actually quite pleasant to drive, apart from the noise and lack of A/C. It _might_ have had a couple of dents and maybe a little rust, but nothing really terrible.

I miss it. I really miss it. I only got rid of it to the great parts heap in the sky because I could not import it without spending more money than it was worth and paying a fortune in parking, tax and tolls.

With that said, I cannot afford to buy a new one. Fuel here is crazy and buying a second vehicle, even a camper, is just not going to happen. If I was, and it had to be new, I’d go for a Nissan/Renault Berlingo or one of the new Toyotas. Over here at least they are way cheaper.

Hmm where do I start?
Here’s our 2011 180bitdi velle having just eaten its head gasket and conjured up a £7k bill. Think it had 60k on the clock. Previously it had set itself on fire, TWICE, shat its rear diff oil all over the drive one night and developed an oil habit that vied with its fuel consumption.

And then here’s our 2019 199bhp velle having just eaten its own EGR cooler and all its coolant in Pitres, 1600miles from home. Took VW 7 weeks to get it back to us. During which time we had a Tourneo Custom which was a truly hideous pile of junk and made me appreciate the velle again.

Here it is again rolling powerless to the side of the A1 having just switched itself off with my wife at the wheel, all three kids and two grandparents onboard, in lane 3 of the A1, at rush hour, in the rain.

It died like this 5 times before vw admitted there was a problem and took it in for a fortnight.

Inletmanifoldfail

Right…so the other half will not entertain anything other than a VW

Really? That’s the saddest thing here. If I knew a lot more about something than my wife she would accept my recommendation and ideas and the same the other way round.
Buying something just because of the badge, thankfully my wife would never do that. Mind you she doesn’t insist on expensive jewellery or designer clothes either, maybe that’s why we are about to celebrate 20 years together! 😂😂

@hot_fiat if that was my experience it would take a LOT to a) make me keep the car and b) ever buy one again.

£7k repair on a 60k engine. That’s just unacceptable.

@b230ftw yeah I didn’t pay the £7k. I filled it up with leakstopbodge nursed it to the local WBAC like a c%#t and ran away having lost £1k.

I would never have bought the second one, but we were offered £17k off list for a factory order, bringing its eye-watering price down to that of a fully loaded anythingElse. We got a 5 year warranty thrown in with the deal. I thought the first one was just a hideous lemon. I’ve tried very hard to find a proper replacement, but so far have failed.

Budget around £20-25k

SteveH I’ll drop you a DM. Basically after a kombi ideally converted into a day van. Would ideally have Captain chairs and maybe even a pop top. But def no kitchen etc

I’ve tried very hard to find a proper replacement, but so far have failed.

Hyundai have got a new toy.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/hyundai-staria-camper-van-details-photos/

2004, 1.9 104bhp TDi, 155k-ish here, of which we’ve put on the best part of 100k since buying it in 2010.

Stuff donev other than servicing (prices approximate from memory) –

– Driveshaft went recently, £700
– Replace rear brake calipers, about £500 I think
– ABS ECU went, £500 to get a refurbished one fitted
– Gear selector spline went, meant a trip on a lorry but was a cheap part and fix
– Prior to that, gear selector came loose. Needed an RAC callout, but he fixed it on the spot
– Aircon hose and heat exchanger, £500

Oh, and I put £20 worth of petrol in, realised and brimmed it with diesel. Was a bit spluttery for a while, but has been done since, and that was nine years ago.

@damascus seized brakes seem to be more common then. I’ve never before taken a piston out of a brake and found it covered in actual rust.

My wife likes her Land Rovers and having horses it’s always useful to have something with plenty of towing ability.

She now drives a Kia after her second one disgraced itself by going pop at 80k, her previous one had gone at 120k but had also had 2 sets of injectors (80k and 100k). These were both expensive, fully loaded cars bought new – fully serviced with Land Rover.

I’ve also had cars go pop at high mileages, example would be a 535i I had that went onto limp mode with an auto-box fault at 130k and the quote was £1k just to take the bottom off the box. Plus I’ve put many company cars into the grave at circa 100k (after 2-3 years).

Life is too short to trust unreliable vehicles, I’m coming to the opinion that we won’t keep vehicles more than 80k or whenever the warranty ends…

particularity the bi-turbo ones.

Don’t buy a bi turbo! That was the advice from my indy vw mechanic.

@Hot_fiat I asked my mechanic if the calipers could be serviced? He laughed and said it wasn’t worth it. He did recycle some of them and he bought reconditioned ones but a few of mine were scrap metal due to rust.

I’ve tried very hard to find a proper replacement, but so far have failed.

With your user name you should try a fiat ducato, just not sure how hot you could make it look! That’s where the vw t5/t6 wins, imo they are the best looking vans around.

Get a divorce and an old tranny. They all do the same job.

I didn’t pick up on this yesterday but after I read it again today it made me laugh out loud. This would make a great t-shirt! 😂

I’d be interested to understand why the OPs wife is adamant that only a VW will do? My sister in law is the same.

Her view is based on the fact that she had an old 1.9 diesel Passat that she never got serviced and somehow refused to die. She therefore thinks that all cars should work without needing servicing and gets annoyed when they break because they’re not serviced and cost lots of money to fix 🙄.

Based on all the horror stories above I’d avoid a T5 like the plague.

Edd China has one on his YouTube channel ATM. Looking at the location of the oil filter the design is absolutely stupid.

Edit: Our 14 plate Octavia diesel is currently on 150,000 miles. Only major thing to break so far is the DMF which cost me about £1,000 to replace at the indy. Other than that, just regular servicing. So it seems that VAG can build some quality products.

Do wonder if the issue with the T5 is that is uses running gear designed for cars but in a much heavier body/chassis so they wear out much quicker.

Anything over 10 years old regardless of miles, is liable to eat itself. It boggles my mind how expensive used vehicles have become.

Not sure. I was shocked at the running costs per year of our t5. I was coming from an 02 civic though.
My indy garage reckoned the 2.2 euro 5 transits were doing ok, but only once they were running at higher outputs. The 125 had more problems. Can’t remember the reason he gave. If I didn’t need a full size panel van based vehicle, I would be tempted by an import/ JDM petrol thing.

I’ve got a 2006 t5 2.5 130. It’s a money pit, but we’re going to keep it for s while yet. I don’t do that many miles a year but it’s essential for camping weekend/weeks
it’ll happily sit at 80 on the motorway but drinks fuel at that sort of speed. 65-70 and i guess it’ll do 35ish to the gallon, but who wants to drive at 65….

Driveshaft and seized calipers obviously, but the thing that really pisses me off is the sliding windows, they’re shite, everyone knows they’re shite but VW get away with using them. The fridge died as it was rusted to **** from all the water pissing in the sliding window….
Mine are currently sealed shut with bathroom sealant.

I serviced all my callipers. Was relatively straight forward and inexpensive. Got them blasted and power coated at the same time.

The “designed to leak” sliding widows are comedy gold.

Anyone else’s with cali or velle suspension pull to the left?

A talento executive would have been perfect and I could have pretended I was driving around in a mafia henchman vehicle. Sadly they never imported them.

Not one of the 30 or so fiat or alfas we’ve owned have been as uselessly unreliable as the VWs.

Anyone else’s with cali or velle suspension pull to the left?

Interesting point, is this a known thing? Our T5 velle did it, and our T6 does it too. Got all tracking, toe in, pressures etc looked at but has made little difference.

We have a 2006 T5 caravelle bought it it 10 years ago at 50k it’s just turned 100k. It’s been a money pit usually costs around £1k a year to keep it going, worse year was about 5k when it needed new manifold, turbo and egf.

It’s actually running really well at the moment but even now has a emisión warning light on a it needs some new glowplugs heaters and the drivers inside door handle broke at the weekend god knows how much that will cost to fix.

Wouldn’t be without it and we plan to keep it at least till we retire and maybe even longer by which time there will be viable electric alternatives.