VW Transporters what do I need to know?

Not that many around though in diesel format, I am guessing petrol is popular in Japan. Will keep searching and see if there are any importers on the south coast.

if keeping only for a few months look at doing the conversion yourself. you will make money if you’re handy.

Ptr, would that be buying a kit and fitting or actually designing the conversion myself? The former I could probably manage the latter not so

I bought and fitted the Amdro conversion myself. Next time I’d probably get someone else to do the windows, but other than that it was pretty easy and enjoyable.

Been after a van for a while and the local garage just got in a vw transporter 800 special 2003 with 113k on the clock. It’s priced at £4k, has 7 seats but removable.

What’s the thoughts on this!? I think the price seems reasonable from what Iv looked at over the last year!
Thoughts

Mrs_oab came back from holiday announcing she had seen a ‘wonderful’ T5 at Sherwood pines, and is convinced our next car needs to be a crew van. 8)

So whoever has a red, new T5 at Sherwood last week, thank you!

Lucky you Matt. I am getting there but am yet to take the plunge and start viewing.

@rooney – T4 or T5? Seems a bit cheap to be honest, what’s the condition / service history like?

What does the collective think of Caravelle’s?

Expensive as far as I can see

What does the collective think of Caravelle’s

IME, the old T4’s were brilliant bits of kit. Separate heating / cooling in the rear, comfy enough, foldable seats / shelf arrangement in rear. I have wanted one for a long time.
NO idea what a T5 Caravelle would be like.

In the research stage and Mrs Spud likes them. Our car is up for replacement and a Vito is off the list due to issues we’ve had with Merc. They seem to tick the boxes for kit and space and the bench seat can be removed as far as I can glean for van practicality. I guess the only downside is the nicely finished interior isn’t as up to abuse as a Kombi. And there’s more of them available it seems than a Kombi on the used market.

T4 it’s a 1999 my mistake and 2 owners. Inside is a bit dampish need some work.just had a resprsy last year.

Finding out more this afternoon.

@Spud – you can take the T5 Caravelle bench seat out, but easier to take the captain’s seats out and slide the bench forward. You can then do five folks with five bikes in the back with front wheels off.

Does anyone know if the rear seats are removable from the Mercedes-Benz Viano?

johnj2000 – Yes they are, on a rail system. Used one belonging to ex’s employer a while back to move stuff out her flat. Not sure if someone had knackered the mechanism on a couple of them as they were a pig to get in and out.

Sorry missed this…

johnj2000 – Member
Ptr, would that be buying a kit and fitting or actually designing the conversion myself? The former I could probably manage the latter not so
POSTED 1 WEEK AGO # REPORT-POST

Its available to do both ways. I have a pal that does it for extra cash he probably turns over 5-6 vans a year but makes himself on average about another £12-15k a year.

I’ve been been watching this with interest having finally got permission to buy a van from Mrs Nosedive. Unfortunately she made the stipulation that it has to seat the whole family so I need a kombi. I also want something I can sleep in during race weekends so I either need a massive long wheel based something, or something I can easily take the seats out of.

Transporters seem very expensive.
Vitos seem to be rusty after about 2 years so I dont fancy one of those.
nv200 are too small (I annoyed a salesmen by moving all the seats and lying down in one at the weekend)

are there any other good kombi options with removable seats?

@nosedive – how many seats do you need?

Caravelle SWB does seven max, LWB nine max.

We have a SWB Caravelle. Take out two seats and slide the bench forward and you can get in five bodies and five bikes (front wheels off). Fold the bench seat flat, and add the extension board and a thin Ikea mattress or memory foam topper and you have a double bed in the back.

You can adapt a commercial tranny to your heart’s content, but the Caravelle is comfortable, roomy and versatile as standard.

nosedive – post 2008 vitos have a fully galvanised body instead of just painted.

doctor rad – spoken like someone justifying an obscene amount of vag tax. The only logical way i can see a caravelle making sense is to buy it splitting new from the factory as you don’t pay over inflated used prices for them – but you get the benefit of the over inflated used price when selling

seriously if your looking at the newer market i suggest you don’t discount the custom – its not a mk7 commercial transit – at least test drive one , i was surprised. the 155 is tall geared ill admit in 4 – 5 -6 but still pulls plenty on the a9.

but equally i still think they are a bit spendy – as ford are still controlling the used market and keeping the residuals high due to how new they are

I just need 4 seats total. I looked at caravelles, and also looked at new transit custom 9 seat kombi, and also an i800.

What puts me off is that the 3rd row of seats would practically never be in the van, most of its job would be getting me, kids and bikes to local tracks and I would need the 3rd row out to do that. I dont really have anywhere to store them so I would be faced with buying the vehicle and then selling or chucking the 3rd row of seats which would probably make it difficult to sell the van on again.

tempting to convert something but I’m a bit put off by the insurance implications. Also tempted by buying a 5 seat kombi something with fixed 2+1 seats and binning the single seat so I can sleep in the gap left. Also tempted by getting a monster LWB something that has 6 foot behind the seats and I wouldn’t have to worry about it. I think Mrs Nosedive envisages something vaguely nice looking though, not 6 metres of ex-police Vivaro blocking the street up.

im in the same boat , having done the small van thing i think im ready for the LWB Kombi what ever it is as its just more convienant. We rarely take the car to town anyway as its a nightmare.

i wanted to like the vito as i like mercedes auto boxes (parents had a c220 and an e330 both were lovely to drive) – was a sport dualiner we drove and even then it still felt like a van – boomy and noisy at speed

I will admit the newest vw drives very well and is less van like than the vito – but i would put the new custom on par through the test driving i have done.

I was curious to see what a Caravelle is, so had a quick look at the Volkswagon website. I was surprised to see how much they cost. The cheapest is £30k+VAT and the ‘Business’ model is £56k+VAT. It’s been few years since I bought a new vehicle, so I’m probably out of touch. Is this a typical price for this type of vehicle?

vito sport (mid range )dualliner lwb is between 26-29 + vat with apparently no leyway

custom limited(mid range) KOMBI LWB is also 28 + vat book – although they were offering them out at 23+ vat and can be had at the bulk resellers for 19+ vat.

vw Kombi is book price no leyway and a fair waitlist. starting price is 20k + vat how ever almost everything is an optional extra – highline is an extra 2500 + vat and only adds limited options , still a fair bit of box ticking to get close to the vito and transit in terms of equipment.

I just bought a long wheelbase Vauxhall Vivaro “Sportive”. The new ones are rock solid and well made (avoid vans pre-2010) – and are cheap. My new one cost 12,500 + VAT from Arnold Clark. That was about 8k cheaper than the equivalent VW. It has alloy wheels, A/C, 115bhp, 6-speed box and so on.

It’s about to get fitted out as a camper van by the same folks that did Hannah’s and Danny’s vans recently and then re-classified as a camper (so it can go 70mph on an A-road!!). They (Vanguard in Fort William) do a mountain bike conversion that has a “garage” area at the back.

forgot to say, I also looked at renault trafic – same van (mine has renault logos in the engine bay!) but was £1k+VAT more expensive because it had a 5 vs 3 yr warranty, reversing sensors and automatic windscreen/lights – all stuff I didn’t need.

@trail_rat – shrug

We need six-seven seats several times a year, an I like the option of having the bigger boot my sliding the bench seat forward. In any case, we didn’t buy new, though we may have over-paid a bit in order to secure what we wanted.

when you say Caravelle you mean Multivan?

here in Scehrmany the Multivan is the one with sliding seats, rails in the floor and lots of plastic/finishing. the Caravelle has fixed seats, basic panel co verings and maybe an extra A/C thing for the rear.

had a look at a few multivans and discounted them. not that much space in them. if you want to use the bench seat for sleeping you need the weird table thing in the rear which eats up space. putting the bench into bed mode requires lots of pushing and pulling and leaves you with very little room to do anything else.

had a look at a six seater LWB with closed rear panels. will go and have another look on thursday and will prob buy it.

as said above… enough space behind the 2nd row to lie down (and not have to stow the bed away), can seat six people.

also think many of the Multivans are overpriced for what they are and the mileage on them.

prefer to kit the motor out to my specifications.

What nosedive wants is a panel van converted to house 4 captains seats and a roof tent. Problem solved. Next.

Yes! Exactly what i need

One of the best conversions I ever used was a guy that had a ex-rac van, it had 4 captains seats and a table that all the seats could sit round via spinning bases, it also had a fully removable rear utility thing, sink, stove, grill, storage that used to come out and live in the garage most of the time And a roof tent. So useful.

I might just look for a post 2008 vito dualiner and worry about the rooftent and spinning seats later. Mrs nosedive is on the edge of accepting all this as it is

I’ve done some miles in some of the vans mentioned.

Vito- noisey, managed to feel bigger than it was and the side door fell off amusingly, can’t remember the engine but it was too low geared for my liking (2009)

Toyota hi ace – Did 100k in one over 2 and a bit years, reliable but a twenty year old design and felt it. Passenger seat is suitable for midgets only.

VW transporter-nice van but showing its age now.

Vauxhall vivaro- we had two 2012 vans nice to be in and drive but both vans broke down with alarming regularity, one needing a new gearbox at 30k. Utter crap.

Transit custom- nice modern van, lots of nice touches, like the bulkhead is insulated for example, we have 3 and their doing pretty well.

nosedive, a Vito Dualiner Extra LWB has around 6ft behind the 2nd row of seats so you can kip in the back withour removing any seats.
I got a 120CDi (3l v6) new in 2006 with loads of extras, comfort pack (nice linings etc) alloys, privacy glass, auto box was standard, cruise control, AC, tailgate.
It’s been fantastic, no rust, very reliable, very fast. Would definately get another.
I can get an MX bike in the back diagonally with taking a seat out, loads of MTBs, tip the rear seats forward and I can get 2 road motorbikes in.

And that’s a Caravelle bought! Hopefully get it Wednesday, very excited!!

I think a lwb will be too long for my drive. I see there is mid length vito though. 1600mm behind the rear seats. Looks ideal. Now just need to find one!

I think from when I was looking there is only SWB or LWB Vitos.

@Spud – what have you got? Linky click to advert?

No advert I’m afraid. It’s a now ex-demo that we got to before it went on general sale. 13 plate, silver with a whole host of extras. Less than I thought I’d get a 10 month old one for. Can’t wait to pick it up this week. Need tow bar and roof rack/ bars fitting. But can’t work out if it’s rails and use thule bars or VW bars that will look like a builders van!