Need a new vehicle for 70 mile a day commute which is mostly motorway. No kids in the family so pondering a small van vs a large car with a view to easy bike transport weekends and occasional evenings.

We have another car (company) so could carry people if ever we needed to but the boot is rammed with work stuff and it’s a ball ache to empty it and flatten the seats.

Seem to be lots of platforms that do both. Things like berlingo and caddy have car and van options. What do people find are the pros and cons of each?

No interested in an “exciting drive” more interested in reliability, comfort and economy.

I’ve been looking quite a bit at pros and cons, if you want small van say caddy size there’s some cracking deals on wheelchair converted caddy maxi life’s. High specced and low mileage normally take a look on eBay. Wheelchair access means you could wheel a bike in!

Van frequently have the issue of added VAT, they can also of had a sliughtly harder life but its debatble.

I’m also interested in this!
Not sure whether to get a van, estate or possibly just a roof rack (but not a fan of exposed bikes).

Edit: Just re-read the OP. I’m in exactly the same situation. 70 mile motorway commute and no kids.

do not do that !

i repeat DO NOT BUY A WHEELCHAIR CONVERTED CADDY OR BERLINGO OR KANGOO

awful awful things (i have a few taxi driver friends who hate their wheel chair conversions with a passion)

Many propriotory(expensive) parts – exhausts/fueltanks /brake lines all get modified/changed/moved.

They rattle ALL the time and you have no where to put the spare wheel. and you have to declare toinsurance who like to bump your premium up because of the mods.

I am largely a berlingo multispace fan. – ive had a multi space for 2 years now and a peugeot partner van for 7. both well over 100k now.

How ever the caddy life maxi looks like an awesome car- i was in one recently – the front end is like a basicish car with no thrills but 5 seats – and the rear is the same size as my van so perfect for eating whole bikes ! – and thats from a VW hater.

I’ve had a used both… Large car is a nicer place to be for 70 ish miles runs.
Van Suspention and tyres make a less comfortable ride and lack of sound proofing and carpet etc mate it noisey.
I’ve had a few berlingos etc but I find estates do the same job and easier to live with.

trail_rat – Member

do not do that !

i repeat DO NOT BUY A WHEELCHAIR CONVERTED CADDY OR BERLINGO OR KANGOO

awful awful things (i have a few taxi driver friends who hate their wheel chair conversions with a passion)

Many propriotory(expensive) parts – exhausts/fueltanks /brake lines all get modified/changed/moved.

Well on top of that surely it’s a lot of pointless extra weight to be carrying around on a daily basis.

OP, you might want to consider a midsized MPV such as a C-Max or Touran. A bit more comfortable and refined than a van, with a similar load carrying capacity with seats removed.

For 70 mile a day driving a van might be a bit of a chore. Perhaps it’s just my imagination but in the past I’ve felt that a lot of vans feel geared differently to cars and their mpv counter parts. Just not as nice to drive.

For economy and comfort and overall noise etc an estate car is hard to argue with for the commute.

For practicality a van, however you may not find the smaller vans as practical as you’d think so worth trying a few options.

I’ve had large vans, land rover vans, and many different estate cars. Now I leave my seats down in the estate and use it like a small van anyway, but have the fun/comfort/economy side of the car. I did consider another van, but enjoy the performance and economy of my current car.

It is was an estate, I’d like to be able to stand the bikes up with saddle down and front wheel out. So I’d like something with a low floor/high roof. Struggled to get evoc bike bags in the back of my focus for our holiday. They do fit in the cold corolla upright though!

Depends- if you’re on about an actual van, then don’t. They’re not nice places to be for a long time every day. I had a Vauxhall Combo and compared to the Corsa it was based on everything was rubber, it was noisier and you couldn’t move the seat far back enough, which gave me leg aches.

However one with windows will be much nicer. The Berlingo Multispace is a nice place to be. A bit of a greenhouse, and I’d always prefer an estate car (it’s as much faff getting a bike into the Berlingo as it is into a decent estate), but if you really want a van that’s the way to do it. An estate will be more comfortable, more refined and, if it bothers you, is more likely to have more toys.

Air con is about as far as we go with wanting toys.

“it’s as much faff getting a bike into the Berlingo as it is into a decent estate”

except your carpet doesnt get muddy wet and smelly .

it really is just a case of boot lid up bike in. no wheels out – no saddles off….

3 whole bikes and 3 people – 2 upfront and 1 in the single seat in the m56 multispace like that and the new ones bigger – longer and wider and less van like again – but still has the rubber mat rear end.

the VWs caddy maxi even bigger again.

I wouldnt go back to a regular car – even if just for the sliding rear doors being a godsend in carparks – no worrying about dinging doors :d

Do smaller vans have the same speed restrictions as bigger ones? Can never remember how the weird laws of the land work.

FWIW I had a similar debate. Went for a Skoda Octavia TDi estate and it’s been brilliant, if you take the base of the rear seats out (a 10second job) then the backrest folds down pretty flat and you can get a ton of bikes and kit in there. Split fold rear seat means 3 people + bikes + weekend kit is feasible. Also great for camping, skiing, taking junk to the tip, etc etc …

Don’t car derived vans have the same load and speed limits as cars?

Just to re-enforce the ‘recommend what you have’…

We have a Galaxy (new model).
It is massive in the back (and front).
It can fit bikes upright in the back – six at last try. Seatposts out, wheels on.
It is 7′ long and flat in the back to sleep on, should you wish.
It is comfy, quiet, not restricted in speed or expensive to insure.
Ours just did 2k miles to south of france with 5 people, two canoes, four bikes on back and one in the boot(!) and two weeks worth of holiday, cycling and paddling gear for us.

Has anyone got any experience of the Peugeot 5008 MPV ?

too many specifics onzadog.

if you buy a multispace – its a car and does car speed limits.

how ever if you buy the 900kg version of the Van (they do or did a 600 and a 900) then your over the 2000GVW limitation and are now limited to van speeds.

the 600 is under 2000GVW and is subject to car speed limits

– note this is for citroens/peugeots as they are built on car chassis – ie the footwells etc are still there under the load bed. the vw is probably different.

I would not buy the van version over a multispace/life version you do miss the seats on occasion – and i know in the new multispaces with XTR spec they are quick release removable.

Large car, definitely. Our Doblo is really cheap to run and insure (around £250 for a not very salubrious postcode, fully comp), and we can get three or four 26″ bikes in the back if we take the back seats out. It’s long enough in the back for us to sleep in too (we’re both 5’8″ ish). The Toyota Lucida we had before it was ‘better’ in that it was longer and we could chuck more crap in the back for nights away, but it was much more expensive to run. Next time I’d like to give a Galaxy/Alhambra a go. You can get a motorcycle in the back of a Doblo and I’ve seen two in the back of an Alhambra as well (seats removed, obviously!)

We ummed and ahhed about getting a van to replace the Lucida when it went pop but we decided that the hassle (finding a decent one locally) and expense (insurance and running costs) weren’t worth it.

If only van dealers would take a car in part x! I’d be buying one asap

Our Doblo is

a van in all but name……

Galaxy here too, van size with car function, with all the clip out seats removed its huge!

matt_outandabout
It is comfy, quiet, not restricted in speed or expensive to insure.

Just for balance, I have an older Galaxy and it’s more expensive to insure than my Legacy GT-B. This will obviously vary depending on circumstances but it’s not necessarily “cheap” to insure.

Massive load capacity with seats out, just like a van. But handles and feels like one too.

Van, I fannied about with an estate car, nothing beats wheeling bikes straight in and slinging in all your gear without having to think about it.

Wouldn’t be without my T5 now.

Galaxy as big as it is is nowhere near the size of a caddy maxi life. The Galaxy is only big once you have all the seats down the caddy is huge even in 5 seat form

Yet it gets decent mpg, fast in 2.0l form and passes as a car on the eurotunnel.

agree rick – ill eat my hat if you cant stand a bike up in the back of a caddy maxi with all 5 seats up.

Its certainly making me think about vw as a viable contender for my cash again. a much more usable day to day vehicle than the t5 imo.

For 70 miles a day I’d much rather be in a car than a van. Whichever way you look at it, a car will be more refined, quieter, may be cheaper to run and more likely be comfier.

Just done 600 miles in a Caddy, perfectly nice place to be, easy to drive just needed cruise and air con. Was the small one took 2 bikes upright and ready to ride and my oversized evoc suitcase. Still had room to kip in it. Much much better for bikes than an estate car. quick but of effort on the rear panels and the noise goes down.

But then again I’m not really into cars, just don’t get the point of getting all excited over them. Practicality wins.

Take a test drive and see or just hire one for a couple of days/weekend and test it out.

For 70 miles a day I’d much rather be in a car than a van. Whichever way you look at it, a car will be more refined, quieter, may be cheaper to run and more likely be comfier.

this.

and I own a T5.

a van in all but name……

But that’s the point, isn’t it? It’s not a van, it’s a van-derived car that can be used as a van as and when you need to with the seats removed but you can also cart people around in it if you absolutely have to with the seats in and they’re (usually) cheaper to buy and insure (not to mention cleaner and quieter!) than the van they’re derived from. Not sexy and not fashionable, but cheap (60-odd mpg on an old lady motorway trundle!), quiet, comfy, unattractive to thieves and loads of room in the back for all our crap. Stick a decent DAB in it and road trip, baby!

Given you would be spending far more time using the vehicle for non bike related duties (I assume), I would stick with a practical car that will cope with bikes when needed, but be a more pleasant, economical and nicer ‘thing’ to drive day in day out.

and they’re (usually) cheaper to buy and insure (not to mention cleaner and quieter!) than the van they’re derived from.

Personal experience is that vans have been a similar cost or cheaper to insure than a boring VAG estate.

Thanks for sharing.

quite all right, just seems lots of people can’t work out how to insure vans and complain they are more expensive. Doesn’t really seem to be true.

I was in a similar position to the OP. My missus and I have no kids and no plans to have any. She has a decent car and I was torn as to whether to go for a van or car. I don’t have a daily commute as such, but I do work away every other week, which involves a 250 mile round trip. Aswell as easy space for bikes, I also need room for a medium sized dog.
In the end, I stumped for a new Caddy. I have a large dog cage strapped into the back and there’s room along side it for my bike and room in front of it for a large kit bag and plenty of other stuff, for when I’m working away. The ease of just chucking stuff in there and not worrying about it and also knowing my dog is as safely secured as possible is definitely a massive plus.
As for a ‘refined, quieter’ drive in a car, yes, maybe, but I can’t say I find it an issue when I have to drive 125 miles to work away. I did test drive a few other vans and, from what I saw, some were a but more ‘plasticy’ than the Caddy so it may well be an issue in those, but my Caddy is comfortable, nice to drive and just practical for what I need.
I certainly don’t regret getting a van over a car. The only downside, I guess, would probably be the increased tax on a van, over a car and the fact that you probably get a nicer car than van, for the same money.

The vertical space in a van-based-car lets you put a bike in whole with one seat down.
2 in whole with 2 seats down. At a push you can get 3 bikes dismantled in the boot-only.

Our Partner Tepee (Berlingo clone) is pretty civilised on the motorway. The big square box at the back does create some road noise though.

We’ve done 38,000 miles in our 2011 model with no problems whatsoever.
We bought the Peugeot version because it was more common with the glass roof and stowage options.

this.

and I own a T5.

As do I and while it an absolute joy to own and live with, for 70 miles a day I’d rather be in a car.

Thing is, whatever you end up with OP, you can sling the bike in back and take it with you for a lunchtime or after work potter 😀

The other point is that I don’t think it will be you who has to drive it every day!!!! 😉

mikewsmith – Member
quite all right, just seems lots of people can’t work out how to insure vans and complain they are more expensive. Doesn’t really seem to be true.

I wasted a load of time with “van specialist” insurers reciting details when I was pointed to Aviva by a mate. Loads cheaper than my previous diesel estate was to insure. My van is no less hospitable than some cars I’ve had in the past. I think it’s easy to kid yourself that some comfort features are essential. I haven’t got electric windows any more and I hardly mourn their loss. Certainly not in the light of all the convenience and load space I’ve gained.