We just did this – a few months of faffing, brought to a head by immanent demise of the Touran.
We to have 3 boys, 5 bikes and three canoes…and struggle for space.
We looked at vans, and could not justify the cost in our present (skint) situation.
The vans make sense new if you are happy to have a new van, £25k sat in metal on the drive, and running costs would be low. We did not.
The vans make sense if you run a company and can shove it through the books. We do not.
The vans make sense if you have a few hundred quid a month to throw at a car. We did not.

One step slightly down is a Galaxy – which we have bought, second hand it was half the age/miles for the same cost as a T5, or half the cost for the same miles/age. This leaves us enough money for a towball mounted bike carrier, and a trailer to be converted to carry three boats and maybe 6 bikes (at once).

I would like a van. But the Galaxy is the (boring) sensible choice.

.. buy a modern Beetle as well to knock about in for little more than shed money.

Please never offer anyone other than children a lift in it, there is sooo little room in the back!

Leku – are you on the Wirral? Just seen an identical van to yours at the emergency training centre.

Not enjoying this thread, toying with the idea of a van for years 🙂

No – Bristol. It’s a standard T5 colour – just not very common.

We’re only really getting a Beetle to ferry the kids to nursery/school etc. Anywhere other than that we’ll take then van*

* this is all theory. We may look at this lovely leather lined bus tomorrow night and think that the ability to pull up in a remote layby, pop the roof, put the kettle on and go for a quick ride/surf before the sun sets is a stupid idea.

Another vote for the T5 here. We have a Kombi (2 plus 1 seats in the back) and it’s great. It had parking sensors already fitted when we bought it and they are pretty handy, even if they do make you lazy! It’s great for transporting people and stuff. I just drove the two of us, three parents, two bikes and two dogs down to the Alps and it was great for comfort, speed and economy.

We also have a Fiat 500 and I’m looking to sell that as the van does everything we need.

Oh, and I’m female and the only driver in the gozarch house – does that help? 😀

Before I bought my ex-plumber’s van, I’d looked at Vivaros and seriously considered one, having been in my mate’s earlier model. However, the T5 is just a little better on economy and does not rust as badly.

The Vivaro/Traffic route is a lot cheaper, with new kombi/crew vans going for the same as a second hand T5, but they are a lot less refined to my judgement and, having driven an earlier version for six months that killed two turbos, I personally would steer clear. However… I think they are bigger inside the load area, so may be worth a look if you want pure load area. I could be wrong though.

I love my van. Even if it is dented and old.

My wife and I had an argument this morning on this very subject.

we had a renault megane scenic which was too small for all of our needs and bought a T5 kombi four and a bit years ago.

it’s my partners daily drive so does the supermarket, local shops, nursery runs, ballet, coffee at friends, visiting family and she loves it.

it’s my weekend toy so it does boys weekends to wales, scotland, cannock, it does moving house(s), it does picking up 38 sheets of insulation or that bargain xyz you just found on gumtree, it does shifting all that garden waste because you forgot to put out the bin again (thereby saving you from a fortnight of nagging), it also looks great and is a bit of a hobby in itself and I love it.

it’s the kids main mode of transport and they sit high up, have plenty of space and have the cool factor of mum driving a van and they love it.

it fits all the bikes in, camping gear (or tows a caravan like a breeze), is great for a changing room when the kids come off the beach soaking wet through.

it hasn’t got parking sensors and we park it wasy enough, we’ve never had an issue with a multistorey, you can eye ball 4×4 users, people don’t argue when you want to filter lanes.

it started making a noise about 6 months ago and i seriously looked at alternatives just because we’d had it a while and my missus got really upset! the noise turned out to be a missing grommet making the engine sound louder!

We bought quite well, looked after it, maintained it at our (very good) main dealer and after four years i don’t think i could have bought something the whole family could have enjoyed as much for the amount of money it has cost in depreciation (i.e the majority of the cost of running a car).

it’s bloody great.

ps. ballet mums four years ago completely ignored it in the X1’s and Evoques now she gets comments about how smart and “trendy” the van is! how times change!

You guys are brill!

Going to test drive a V-Klasse merc on Friday am, and T5 on Friday pm. Merc is coming out bloody cheaper, even though the 7 seater is equipped like a tarts palace, and bizarrely we get a 10% discount through my employer.

But, fact remains that is a family decision so I will now pass this on to my good missus…

Wife’s response – not looking good people, we need to bring out some heavy artillery here! Baby robins? Childs faces? Come on!

oooh orange is pretty!

sadly we live in Swissland and parking spaces are TINY! So i’m liking the sideways/2 spaces route. Would probably get a fine for that mind you. We’re not allowed to ferry the kids to school so 0 points for coolness. So its a massive expensive wagon for popping to the (tiny carpark space) shops.

but orange is fab!

Help!

T5 kombi
2seats in front
2+1 in the back

Rubber floor

Carries me, mrs, 3 kids, big dog – kids don’t want to travel by merc estate when given a choice – lots of room in the van in comparison.
Rubber floor means that I don’t freak out when the kids make a mess / wet dog climbs in to the car.

Twin sliders (must have)
Tailgate to hide under when it rains
Low sill – easy to load, makes a great seat.

The only challenge really is putting the shopping in – tends to slide around, so everything goes into crates.

Mrs loves driving it. Pretty good to park.

Don’t get big wheels – noisy and a harsher ride, go for 16″ if you can…

We may look at this lovely leather lined bus tomorrow night and think that the ability to pull up in a remote layby, pop the roof, put the kettle on and go for a quick ride/surf before the sun sets is a stupid idea.

OK, so that didn’t happen 😀

Thread resurrection! For good reasons: we got one! T5 Multivan, 7 seats, 2012 model 15K miles, White! (bit bling)

It is fully awesome. This is all the family bikes in the back, with still acres of space for 3 kids, dog, 2 adults and piles more shit if needed.

Its fab!

Good on you! They are a nice thing for kids and kit.

Has it been remapped yet? Getting that done makes a huge difference to the economy of the van and is good for extra pulling power as well.

good for extra pulling power as well

he’s got a wife, 3 kids and a dog – pulling’s probably not high on his list of priorities when driving a motor vehicle 😉

*boom tish*

With a fine vehicle like that, he would not have any problems.

Mattbee on here has one – his opinion? If he had the cash again – he’d buy the maxi Life that I have.

http://truckyeah.jalopnik.com/the-volkswagen-tristar-is-a-luxurious-double-cab-off-ro-1638019570/+travis

Just to put a spanner in things 😉

Yup, I love my T5 Swb but I’d go for the Maxilife if I changed it. Only thing I’d miss would be the full width R&R bed but I reckon I could do something similar in the Caddy.

Not sure about a remap, its a 180ps engine 4motion – can I get more out of that 2l lump?

Pulling power you say? Hmmmm, yet to experience any benefits there but it can’t be any more asexual than a touran! 😀

Niggles – 1) thought was economical, getting about 750km from first tank, then went to fill up for the fist time last night (DIESEL – remember DIESEL (first time derv driver)), and realised the tank is “quite” a bit bigger than the touran. Oof! Might need to calm down the right foot a bit!

2) Why the ******* nora do you have to fold the bench seat before you can slide it forward or back? With small kid 5 point harness seats that take a fair bit of faffing to fit, that is a ******* pain in the ass!

Apart from that: T5 FTW! teh awsumz!

The only driver I’ve been jealous of is a friend and the owner of a high spec T5. It’s their only vehicle, dark grey, black leather, all the toys etc etc. They have 3 kids and a dog and the van takes surfboards, bikes two weeks of kit and extras with loads of room to spare. His wife loves it and often uses it during the week for the odd shopping run etc.
So now I’m jealous of quite a few of you.

I’ll leave this here:

I love my cars and my last three have been pretty quick estates and big hatchbacks with loads of toys so I was reluctant going from something like that to a 2.0 diesel van. Within 10 seconds of owning it I’d got my head around that fact as I sat in a comfy leather seat with the arm rests down thinking “this is bloody brilliant”. Then I look in the mirror and realise I’ve also got the ability to sleep 4 people, cook a meal etc behind me! Still hanker after a silly quick estate (B7 RS4 is still on the to-do list at some point) but overall, theres little else on the roads I’d rather have to be honest. Toying with a late night jaunt over to CyB at the weekend, pull up somewhere late Saturday night, get some kip, breakfast at the visitor centre (after a brew in the van of course), ride and be back home mid afternoon…

Davyboy- if you are looking for a lovely “wild” campervan campsite, have a look at llyn geirionydd (lake just north west of betwys y coed) lovely car park and loos ! went there a while back and empty after 9pm – feels like you are in the middle of nowhere
Lovely nights kip and then bacon sardines but the edge of the lake

Cheers Andy, I’ll take a look at that.

Had bays & splits for the last 18 yrs. Now the proud owner of a fully pimped out T5.1 camper. Absolutely love it! My motto… “With a campervan, you’ve ALWAYS got a holiday!”

after reading this thread, I’m not convinced that this thread would convince my gf that a T5 is better for us than a Focus estate.

How did you prove to your missus that parking a T5 is easy???

My wife uses ours 3 days a week to drive to work. Parks in school car park no problem. Its only 30cm longer than our 3-series was and barely any wider. We got it with the intention of running it for a bit and then if needed, get a runabout like a Polo etc to use daily but the van is really easy to live with in ‘normal’ situations (nipping to supermarket etc).

This is the reverse of my current situation, where my wife wants one and I don’t!

Where is the best place to look for these second hand.

At the moment my wife thinks we’d be better with a van as our new vehicle than an estate.

Budget is max £11k, for which we are looking at medium sized estates (Focus, Octavia, Golf or Kia Ceed) c.3 years old with 30-40k miles on the clock. This will get us something with a nice modern efficient engine, £30 road tax, some of them still under warranty. Lukewarm performance but at the moment practicality of load lugging and low running costs is priority over excitment (sadly)

I think at £11k car will be cheaper to run and less hassle, on account of being newer.

Or is she right?

The only other vehicle I ever had, other than the T5, that my wife liked to drive was a Toyota HiLux pick up – not the poncy double cab thing, but a proper 2 seat, 4×4, tail-out when empty one.

The list of vehicles she hated to drive for various reasons included; Range Rover Vogue “too ostentatious”, two Discovery 3s “wallow like ships”, Audi A6 Avant 3.0tdi “stupid”, Land Rover Defender “too difficult and everything is in the wrong place”.

So, there you have it. Apparently, the T5 is better than any of these.

Kristoff has a cute missus.

Doug – she is right. Soz. 🙂

Doug – she is right. Soz.

I’m happy for her to be right, but I need to know where the hell I can find a decent van for £11k that isn’t going to cost the earth to run as at the moment they are either too expensive, or anything within price range is older and expensive to run.

*bookmarks thread aswell.

ive been looking on ebay, gumtree, autotrader last few months and i cant believe the prices of T4/T5’s!! high mileage and still asking for 10k, its mental, i guess in part it is an image thing causing this.

i do love them but cant quite afford one yet, in my eyes there really is no alternative, apart from the transit custom, im sure they will be fighting head to head with vw when the prices fall as they are so new.

Is the T5 front wheel drive? Would I be correct in saying the MB Vito is rear wheel drive? Does having a 4×4 van reduce the mpg drastically?

hora – Member
Kristoff has a cute missus.

Daughter? 4 children?

Tagged for reference.

Hora, old thread maybe, but if you are looking at the snap on page one, I suspect what you really mean is, Krisstof has a cute no.1 daughter 😕

If anyone wants a remap for a VW Van I can recommend http://www.ecdigi.com very highly, specialises in VW vans and knows them like the back of his hand. Well worth contacting.

i too like the thought of a van, kids are gone now, but me and wifes work patterns rarely align so i think itd be an expensive lump of metal stuck outside doing nothing most of the time.

tis a shame, but im bookmarking the thread for future reference in case anything changes. good thread.