Yet another van thread (Transit Custom)

Hi all,

Yes I’m afraid this is another “what van please help??” thread.

So I have been slowly realising over the past year that it would be very beneficial to me to invest in a van for bike and travel duties. A Nissan leaf and a tow bar rack don’t really cut it for trips to the Alps or Scotland (or anywhere more than 100 miles away).

As much as I like the look of VW transporters, I don’t fancy paying the VW tax for them which brings me to other options.

One option that does stand out to me is a Ford Transit Custom. I’m looking for anyone here who has one already and can either recommend or not recommend getting one, with a view of doing a basic day van / bike transport conversion on it.

Any advice would be super helpful, I am very very new to buying second hand vehicles. The only cars I’ve ever owned have been one hand me down from family, and now a lease through my work. Ideally I’d like to get a van that is 2014 and newer, and hopefully £10k or less.

Does this seem like a realistic goal? What kind of price is actually sensible for a second hand transit custom? I see such a huge range in prices even for vans of similar ages and mileage between autotrader and marketplace that I don’t know what to trust.

Been looking for a while. Older 2.2 are chain driven, newer 2.0 are wet belt (don’t Google it, you’ll have nightmares). There are a few of the last 2.2’s that are Euro 6.  Cruise can easily be added with a steering wheel with the right buttons and forscan apparently.  Facebook’s full of scams, just check sellers other items. +Vat sucks.

I can’t decide if I want a slightly newer van with more miles or a slightly older one with less.

Dunno if this is an LHD thing or not, but the driving position and lack of a clutch foot rest is atrocious. I couldn’t wait to get out of the bastard thing.

@weeksy has a Transit Custom.

I drive one daly in short its shit, uncomfortable and made from plastic butter tubs .

And that’s the good bits out of the 16 in my pool all have had clutch issues, door locking on side doors.

The interior is at best uncomfortable, the sat nav is utter tosh dab radio iffy .

The air con is ok

We’ve run them as work vehicles for 10 years.

All have been reliable, we get rid after 3 years and about 150k.

1. The locks are shit.
2. The locks are shit.
3. There’s no brake wear sensor on ones I’ve had, there’s every kind of sensor and warning bong, except that one useful warning.
4. The barn doors can get stiff
5. The panel gaps can be of British leyland quality from the factory.
6. Slamming a rear barn door can bend it quite badly.
7. The early vans had issues where the doors would shift on the hinges and damage the bodywork when you open the door.
8 The bonnet release often seized on the earlier ones. Not sure about the current facelift.
9. I had a 2015 custom with no aircon for a year. It was horrific in the summer compared to any other van I’ve ever driven.

Mines got pad sensors.

More negativity now I’m thinking about it 3 have had power steering issues a few have had CV boots go on vans with only 45thou  ish on. The auto main beam is hit and very miss it’s OFF on mine. Rubber floor is soft and worn on all of ours.

Add blue warnings go from 150 miles to 50 then back up to 150 miles in  minutes.

Good bits

Aircon

USB and fag lighter ports are plentyful.

Oh and my key fell to bits

Wow, well I’m glad I asked! As a newbie to second hand vans it sounds like I should probably steer clear then if there can be that many problems. I’ll have to keep looking for other potential ones then I suppose!

Selling a 15 plate Vito mwb with 65k fsh if that floats your boat.

Wow, well I’m glad I asked! As a newbie to second hand vans it sounds like I should probably steer clear

I wouldn’t let my list put you off, easy to spot issues that don’t stop the vehicle working.

We’ve had far worse.

Renault traffic/Vauxhall vivaro

1. burned down
2. had complete electrical failure.
3. Gearbox failure

They got chopped in/written off too early for other issues to occur.

The big issues you’ll find is that due to the number of customs on the road, reported faults are more common.

In terms of fleet vehicles, they’re probably one of the better options.

Wet belt is fine provided it’s been serviced when it should have been, and with the correct oil. Every failure except one that I’ve seen has either not been serviced when it should have been, or has had the wrong oil used. The exception was an engine that had been run out of coolant twice, resulting in a cam lobe spinning due to overheating.
If the history is unknown, then I’d budget to get the wet belt changed, which isn’t that cheap a job. You can check the belt for early signs of failure through the oil filler, as the back starts degrading before the teeth fail.

Common failures do seem to vary between fleets/areas.
Our depot rarely had any clutch issues, but had a lot of exhaust pressure sensor failures, and corroded power steering pipes.
Other depots would have a lot of clutches, and others had never done a power steering pipe.
Couriers would have regular front door loom failures.

So the obvious question is what vans are good?

I’ve done 19,000 in my Transit Custom this year. It’s a 2016 and now has 62,000 on it, i think i paid £16800 for it. Faults, none. Issues, none. Comfort, excellent. Driving, great…

I don’t recognise anything on the list above. Mine has just worked and worked perfectly for the year.

There’s a whole non-van market out there waiting for salvation… https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/japan-puts-brakes-lucrative-used-car-trade-with-russia-2023-10-01/

I’ve had my T5.1 for 9 years and done 60k miles in it and in that time, apart from routine servicing the only things that have gone wrong with it are a drive shaft and the EGR cooler/valve.

Read into it though and people will tell you they’re massively unreliable too but you only need to be on the T5 forums/FB pages to see the absolute whoppers that drive/own them… “this engine management light came on 300 miles ago and its starting to feel a little sluggish – should I get it checked out?” type of questions.

Buy from a respected dealer with full service history would be my #1 piece of advice. No idea about Transit prices but for £10k, a 64 plate T5 is going to have moon miles and/or be really basic spec.

Doing the right thing though – we’ve been thinking about getting rid of ours and replacing it with a car/MPV/SUV thing and nothing comes close to the ability to throw stuff in the back and go places. eg we’re off down to Cornwall in a few weeks. 4 of us, dog, 2 surf boards, wheelchair, all our bags and stuff and a load of fishing gear. Don’t even need to think about the packing – open doors, put stuff in, drive away.

but for £10k, a 64 plate T5 is going to have moon miles and/or be really basic spec.

Yes this is why I mentioned in my initial post I don’t particularly want to pay the VW tax.

Is it a tax or are they just better & therefore more desirable?

I don’t have the mechanical knowledge of some contributors here, but I can tell you that for £10k you’re looking at low-spec, high-mileage Customs – and very likely Euro 5.

Of course you could up your budget to £17k and get a great one like Weeksy’s, but that’s not an option for everyone obvs.

You might well pick up an older, well-looked after Custom for £10k, if you don’t need Euro 6. But you’d potentially get an even nicer Trafic/Vivaro for the same money.

Hyundai Iload 2.5 CRDi?

A 2015 van can be had for less than 10k.

@A11y needs to come in and give us his report as I think he is very pleased with his – it always looks good whenever I see it.

So the obvious question is what vans are good?

If you only listen to people who run fleets of work vans you’d never buy anything. Works vans have a hard life and are driven by people who don’t give a shit.

I’ve had loads of vans and none of them have been particularly unreliable. My worst one was a Transit Connect with a wet belt which snapped after 3 hours. Private sale 130 miles away from home. Seller ghosted me. On the hook for an engine swap on the first day. Absolutely gutted.

Is it a tax or are they just better & therefore more desirable?

in my experience, of having owned a T5, Owning a Transit (full size), and having had Fiat pool vehicles. Its a scene tax.

Maybe marginally less plasticy plastics, and more sound deadening, but no more reliable. The T5 i had had the most problems of any car or van ive owned, exacerbated by problems invariably being megabucks to fix because parts were expensive.

Lots of horror stories online about the transits, but touch wood i havent run into any yet (2.2L Euro6)
Mine also doesnt have a clutch foot rest, which was annoying on the first day i got it, but its a RWD so gearbox tunnel is in the way pressumably. I got used to its pretty quicky. I find it very comfortable to drive.

My worst one was a Transit Connect with a wet belt which snapped after 3 hours. Private sale 130 miles away from home. Seller ghosted me. On the hook for an engine swap on the first day. Absolutely gutted.

Savage. I bet he was pleased he dodged that.

Ive probaby said it before; my Dad ran a 405 for years, then part Ex’d it for a 406. Saw the 405 with trade plates on and smoke billowing from the bonnet at the side of the road the next day.

Yes this is why I mentioned in my initial post I don’t particularly want to pay the VW tax.

Consider a Japanese imported MPV, there should be some bargains out there now that they’re not exporting to Russia. Vans are IME crude to keep the empty weight down and increase capacity

Yeah if you don’t need quite as much space, the Honda Stepwagon is an absolutely great choice, 2.0 vtec engine, really nice auto box, big enough, but not quite van size.

As @DickBarton says, I’m happy with mine. 6+ years, 30k miles and nothing gone wrong. Still on original all-season tyres although changing soon due to age/cracking. Used as family vehicle, biking transport, big trips and holidays. About 7k of the first 20k included towing a 1500kg caravan (now gone back to tent camping though).

VW ‘tax’: Transit vs VW T6 for us meant new Ford or a 3-yr old T6 for same cost. We went Ford. Knew we’d keep it a while so specced a new factory build (L2 length, Limited spec, single passenger seat, tailgate, twin sliders, double-cab). Last of the pre-facelifts on a 67-plate. 2.0 euro6 with the wet belt.

Wet belt: main topic of discussion on Facebook Custom Owners Group. I change oil every 2 years/5-6k miles. Ford-branded 0w30 Castrol and genuine oil filters. Wet belt was checked by Ford under recall and deemed to be fine. I’ll get it changed at 10 years old despite low miles and it being a £1200-1500 job.

Cabin is decent. Good A/C. Front heated screen is Best Thing Ever. Heated front seats toasty. Voice activation actually understands my accent which is a first. No problem with driving position at 187cm. Lack of clutch foot rest was annoying for the first week. Cruise/speed limiter useful. Standard radio SQ is adequate but rather than replace headunit I piggybacked to an external sound processor feeding two amps, new speakers and a couple of subs…

Ride’s a bit bouncy/roll (duh, it’s a van). I’ve not spent enough time in a more modern VW van than my previous 2004 T5 (lowered 70mm or so on Bilstein B14 coilovers…) to have a valid comparison, but it’s perfectly fine to live with.

Read into it though and people will tell you they’re massively unreliable too but you only need to be on the T5 forums/FB pages to see the absolute whoppers that drive/own them

I know @DaveyBoyWonder’s talking about VW T5.1s here, but that’s applicable to just about every vehicle’s online forum/owners group. Nobody ever posts about the good things, it’s only ever the issues.

I’ve done 19,000 in my Transit Custom this year. It’s a 2016 and now has 62,000 on it, i think i paid £16800 for it. Faults, none. Issues, none. Comfort, excellent. Driving, great…

I don’t recognise anything on the list above. Mine has just worked and worked perfectly for the year.

I bet the locks are still shit unless it’s had the obligatory replacement drivers door lock and hopefully the update to disable global unlock without the key.

Also grease the bonnet cable, you’ll be glad you did.

I’ve got a SWB 2015 tourneo custom 2.2 8 seater tunned to 180bhp which is our big family car

I think it drives lovely. Its not bad on fuel for the size of it – 33mpg. On a run i may get to 36 if i’m good.

Over the years i’ve had the normal issues.

Main one was the dpf vapourisor went – that was £700
It eats tyres on larger wheels – i’ve gone back to 16″ alloys as the roads are crap and tyres are cheaper.
Brakes aren’t cheap as you have to remove the hub to change the disc’s.
Power stearing hose failed.
Normal lights are terrible – i’ve upgraded the LEDS ( but have to swap them out for every mot!)

I went for the tourneo as its fully lined with aircon and is classed as a Car – so normal speed limits apply.

So far i’ve had no breakins – i’m guessing becuase you can see through all the windows whats in the vehicle.

With the middle seats in i can fit to massive 29ers in the boot diagnolly.
If i take wheels off i can fit 5 / 6 bikes in with still loads of room on top to fit campong gear etc..

I bet the locks are still shit unless it’s had the obligatory replacement drivers door lock and hopefully the update to disable global unlock without the key.

Also grease the bonnet cable, you’ll be glad you did.

I fitted better locks on the back…. If they wanna get in the front, they can put a side window out in seconds.

RE: Transit issues

4. The barn doors can get stiff

Known issue, you have to drill a hole in the hinge and oil it or it seizures. If you own one and don’t believe me, go check out the rust coming out of the hinges.

Friend upgraded from a 06 T5 to a ’17 Transit, says it a much nicer drive & has all the toys, unlike many T5’s.

Consider a Japanese imported MPV,

Another m8 has a (older) Nissan Elgrande, it’s suffered a dash board fire and they have some sort of part you can’t buy as a new spare…. I’ve asked for clarification

I want a day van, with two rows of seat, with the ability to fold one of these rear seats down, only the T5/6 seemingly has the ability, all the rest have benches.

I want a day van, with two rows of seat, with the ability to fold one of these rear seats down, only the T5/6 seemingly has the ability, all the rest have benches.

Could you buy a standard van, remove the bulkhead and install the rear seating of your choice?

Nothing against VWs myself (apart from the prices), but it seems limiting to stick to one make of van just because of the seats.

Could you buy a standard van, remove the bulkhead and install the rear seating of your choice?

^ Wot he says. Mine’s a factory Dual Cab In Van (DVIC aka Kombi) with non-folding 3-seat bench and factory bulkhead. Sometimes I really like having the bulkhead, but other times I wish I’d bought a standard van then added the 3 individual seats from a Tourneo – these fold and are removable.

Tailgate avoids the barn door hinge issue! But it’s f**king massive and needs a good space to open it up fully.

Security: all vans are poop. Tempted to add a glazed window in the tailgate so scrotes can see there’s nothing kept in there usually, other than soem basic camping stuff and a portaloo (which NOBODY would want to steal).

Could you buy a standard van, remove the bulkhead and install the rear seating of your choice?

Yes, but that assumes it easy to do & I simply don’t know if it is or not (dependant on the floor and what underneath), as it not something many (if any) ppl do. Do I buy a van and only then find I can’t? I can’t ask std van owners, as they’ve never done it… I can’t go check, as I don’t know what involved..

Similar to @jwh above. We’ve got a 2015 2.2 Tourneo Custom (8 seat limited/titanium spec). Owned from 18 months old, now worth £5k more than we paid for it (to replace with same age/mileage) which is nuts. In the nearly 7 years we’ve had it we’ve done about 40k miles. We re-mapped too, it tows our big caravan. We love it as a family bus (3 kids, dogs, bikes, pushchair etc etc) but its not cheap to run or insure (surprise surprise), we don’t do huge mileage though so that softens the blow. It’s comfy but is not refined (its a van).

In terms of issues we’ve had the front door hinges replaced under warranty before they dropped and did damage to the front wings. I had the bonnet cable seize and take out the lock mechanism but I managed to fix and replace myself. We had the steering hose leak (started sounding like a excavator hydraulic system). It consumes front brakes quickly (2.2T and tows a caravan). The locking wheel nut tool is rubbish so had them replaced with standard nuts. Our stop start hasn’t worked for a little while which I need some time investigate (probably low voltage one of the two batteries). Every now and again I need to run some premium diesel/redex through as we’re getting sporadic loss of performance sometimes (but no error codes) which I think is the EGR valve or throttle body choking with carbon, they need a strip down and clean or replacement.

@snowrock i’ve had my egr valve replaced – think it was about £400 from halfords to do it.
I’ve also noticed that the fuel filters are crap – i possibly need to get the tank cleaned really.

Also Start / stop won’t work if there are any error codes on the ecu.

Also Start / stop won’t work if there are any error codes on the ecu.

Nothing at present (only ever had EGR failed to fully close before). Somewhere I’ve got a snip of a post from the custom owners group on FB which shows a list of all the conditions under which the start stop won’t operate, it’s a long list…

+1 for the Japanese MPVs. If you’re not doing big miles then mpg doesn’t matter much, anything petrol and 2007 on is ULEZ/CAZ compliant, and they’re much better in the back than a combi van – proper AC and opening windows.

Prices coming down in japan has me tempted to import another, my current stepwgn is ULEZ complaint so easy to move on and I quite fancy a later one or maybe an Alphard/Vellfire.

If you are looking for Euro market stuff for passengers & bikes I think the better value is in the minibus versions (VW Shuttle and equivalents). Take out the rearmost seats and heavy tint on the rear windows. The camper conversion lot don’t like them as poptops and furniture are trickier than a bare panel van.

You then get clobbered for car road tax on heavy emission vehicle rather than plg rate.

We have a 2.0 LWB Tourneo Custom bought in a Black Friday deal 5 years ago. As above they are going for alot more now than we paid for it. Daughter has taken it all over Europe with a mattress and 2 bikes inside. Ideal for what we need.

We also have a 2.2 Transit bodied motohome bought 8 years ago when daughter was Enduro racing. Its done 60k and looks like new. Again they are fetching alot more than we paid for it.

Just on our way back from Finale in it