best value van?

davelerave

i'm looking for a new or newish van something like a toyota hiace or nissan primastar,not a small van.i'm wondering what's the best value and cheapest to maintain.also 2 side doors and central locking would be nice but not vital.thanks

dcGT

A friend of mine (a mechanic) was in the market for a new van at the start of the year. He had a hi-ace and thought they were a great van but severely lacking in power (he does regular country trips). Initially, it was between the the Opel van (can't remember the name), the Nissan Primastar, and the Renault Trafic. (You'll notice these vans share the same outer shell). In the end he went for the Renault because:
a) he had heard good things about the engine
b) the power in it is great (100 BHP)
c) it comes well equipped with electrics and central locking as standard (I think he said the other vans were extra for this). CD player as standard too
d) comfortable
e) all for a relatively good price

He has it about six months now and hasn't looked back.

Hope this helps,

DC.

ChipZilla

The Opel Vivaro is exactly the same as the Nissan Primastar and Renault Traffic, and is 1000-1500 quid cheaper.

The Citroen Relay/Peugeot Boxer is a bigger van for the same amount of money, ie. 19500-20500 quid.

Or a Fiat Ducato can be got for 16500. :dunno:

Most vans of the size you're after are based on the same bodyshell and mechanics - only the badge on the bonnet is different, so it should be easy to spot the rip-off merchant when it comes to servicing. I suppose you could phone around Opel, Nissan and Renault stealers to find out how much a service is. They should all be the same seeing as the van is the same no matter which make you have :dunno: Same goes for the Citroen/Peugeot van...

dcGT

Originally posted by ChipZilla
Most vans of the size you're after are based on the same bodyshell and mechanics - only the badge on the bonnet is different

Ah right, I didn't realise they had the same engines.

DC.

ChipZilla

The Opel/Nissan/Renault all use the same 1.9D and 1.9TD engines. The Opel has a bigger one as well - 2.4 or 2.5TD I think.

davelerave

Originally posted by ChipZilla
The Opel Vivaro is exactly the same as the Nissan Primastar and Renault Traffic, and is 1000-1500 quid cheaper.

The Citroen Relay/Peugeot Boxer is a bigger van for the same amount of money, ie. 19500-20500 quid.

Or a Fiat Ducato can be got for 16500. :dunno:

Most vans of the size you're after are based on the same bodyshell and mechanics - only the badge on the bonnet is different, so it should be easy to spot the rip-off merchant when it comes to servicing. I suppose you could phone around Opel, Nissan and Renault stealers to find out how much a service is. They should all be the same seeing as the van is the same no matter which make you have :dunno: Same goes for the Citroen/Peugeot van... [/QUOTE

thanks for the replies.i didn't know either they were all pretty much the same how much should the vivaro be new i wonder.

ChipZilla

The 1.9D Vivaro is 19500. Dunno how much the 1.9TD or the bigger one are...

monkeyfudge

I can't say I know too much about vans. But we just got a Vivaro in work and it runs very smoothly.

We've also done alot with this van* that it really wasn't designed for and it hasn't given us any problems. But we only have it a month, so early days yet.


*Installing Ireland's largest mobile antenna and some other things.

pipers

We use the hiace and have being using them since the mid nineties.
We change them every 3 years. They have never let us down and are comfortable to drive. not much maintanance bar oil changes every 3-5 K.However fuel consumption is a little heavy. However the latest model has the D4D engine which should be better (powerful/consumption) than the old one.

When the time comes to dispose of it, they really hold their value.

Any one i know with the current transit has had problems. Avoid Nissan Vannettes, we had one from new, and it disintegrated from day one, we got rid of it after 7 months.

Have a look at the new transporter.