www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Due to circumstances beyond my control ( a dopey cow in an Audi driving into me and writing the van off) my transit has now to be replaced and before I go off spending I'd ask here for recommendations . As I said I've got a transit , low roof short wheel base and I'm looking to get something similar. It also needs to be able to tow a twin axle box trailer which comes in at a bit over a tonne .
To be honest while I like the transit it hasn't been wonderful. Low mileage but it needed a new turbo at around 40k along with other stuff I though seemed to need replacing too early. A friend has a Mercedes Vito and I wasn't very impressed with the bodywork which suffered from rust quite badly and I'm led to believe is a common problem . I've also considered the Vauxhall . I know there are Nissan and Renault versions and seem to recall it being a major job to replace injectors on one of these but can't recall which one ( I'm thinking the Renault but not sure) .
I've currently got a hire van through the insurance but it's a Vauxhall combo and I am learning that it is frankly a bit small for what I need.
Reliability and fuel economy are factors that I am looking for as well .

Given the recent MOT changes you might want to stick to petrol. Talked to my mechanic last night and asked him how many diesels were failing and he said it's going to show up a major issue really soon, just wait till the media catches onto it.

Something that had crossed my mind . Are there many vansof that size that are fitted with a petrol engine these days?

I am not sure, I know that when I rented a transit a couple of years back for a house move, that was a petrol engine.

My mechanics view was that an awful lot of vehicles that he has tested in past years would/will fail under the new rules so in the next few months we will see huge numbers of diesel vehicles failing their MOT and either 2 things will happen, the rules will have to change (i.e bring in a grandfathering rule for older vehicles that are more likely to fail) or the vehicles will be removed from the road causing a crash in the value of 2nd hand diesels and a spike in the value of petrol cars.

One thing is for certain, I am really glad my car is petrol, it's 11 years old now and while well cared for, if it was a diesel I reckon it's days would be severely numbered.

It all depends on the age and budget tbh

The injector issues are on the 2.0 Vivaro iirc that's the M9R Renault - There are special tools to remove them - The issue that causes it is the water deflector off the scuttle what cleverly sends the water down the the injector holes rusting/corroding them solid

Thanks , I called in to a local place and mentioned the injector issue and they confirmed it was with the 2L engines. The newer ones seem to have 1.6 L twin turbo but no injector problems. He had one in at 9K +vat but I'd rather not go that high. Perhaps 7K tops with the vat would be my limit. I'm also looking on eBay where prices seem cheaper.

Well I've spoken to the loss adjusters and they have given me another option. That of retaining the van . If I did this they would pay me a sum that is only £180 less than their offer for the van as a total loss. Seems almost a no brainier to me in that context as I feel I could get it repaired for less than they are offering me.

Grendel wrote:Well I've spoken to the loss adjusters and they have given me another option. That of retaining the van . If I did this they would pay me a sum that is only £180 less than their offer for the van as a total loss. Seems almost a no brainier to me in that context as I feel I could get it repaired for less than they are offering me.

Go for it. Speaking from experience (not a van, a car) If it was an insurance job the bodywork company that I had quotes from were more than double than quotes for a private job.

and I found another company that came highly recommended that were even cheaper than the insurers recommended "approved" garage's private job.

Suppose it depends on the level of damage.

Looking like I'll be going down that route . A friend and I have priced up the parts and it comes in at lest than £300 and could be cheaper as there is a transit breakers about five miles away.
The reason the van was declared uneconomic repair was not because of the extent off the damage. I never really realised how this process worked until now but what they do in the assessment is look at every bump and scratch and knock the value , at their inflated prices , that the repair would cost off the value of the van. Thus they got to a figure off nearly £1000 for the cost of the paintwork alone
Going back to the point about petrol vans I have been looking on tinterweb, eBay to be precise and there are some out there. Predominately older vehicles when one is looking at transit sized but for smaller vans there is a much wider and newer choice.
I would like to know what sort of mileage people would get from a petrol engined transit . I would expect the mpg to be less but then I would have to balance that against other potential savings. One definite disadvantage with petrol is that of storage. It might not bother some but I like to keep a stock of fuel which I rotate in case of shortages or strikes or some sort of interruption to supplies. Currently I can store as much diesel as I like but am limited ( legally) to only 30 litres of petrol. This I do as I use petrol powered tools and they consume much less than a vehicle would . 30 litres wouldn't last long in a van .

The loss adjusters are very lazy in their work and also have a vested interested in writing off the vehicle.

They will often quote a price for fixing everything to a near "as new" standard, partly to inflate prices but also to save arguments with owner (many will claim the vehicle was pristine before the crash, wrongly thinking it will help their case, it won't).

They also have a vested interest as once they buy the vehicle off you (at no loss to themselves) they will then sell it on to either breakers for parts or export it to other countries where cheap quality vehicles are much in demand and the repair work cheap to do.

Oh FWIW I had a look at the local sales pages on facebook, almost every vehicle currently for sale, diesel. Slightly suspicious that.

vw prices have dropped dramatically...……………. again


How will the army do, euro 7 emission's out the back, depleted uranium out the front

Rorschach wrote:Oh FWIW I had a look at the local sales pages on facebook, almost every vehicle currently for sale, diesel. Slightly suspicious that.

It's the same story on eBay certainly as regards newer vehicles . It could just be that petrols are rarer on the ground in the first place or it could be owners are keeping an eye on the future and not selling yet or it could be a combination of the two.
With regards to my van I've picked it up but I'm still in two minds about how to proceed . It's a category s write off meaning some structural damage , in this case the inner wing is deformed and the ends of the bumper cross member bent , and has been deemed uneconomic to repair. It's low mileage at 50K but is nine years old. I'm also aware I'm likely to be paying higher insurance premiums for a class returned to the road.
I may very well stick to a transit as it means I can swop the tow bar for instance and either sell the exsisting van either as parts or as a fixer upper.
Either way it looks like I will be out of pocket for something not my fault which sucks but that seems to be just the way it is.

What ever you get, get one with aircon. I have a hire van and it does not have lots of things, I miss the aircon the most.

I'll have to take your word for it. I've never had a van with air con so wouldn't miss what I haven't got. I've got a hire van at the moment which as far as I know hasn't got it, I'll have to check that in the morning.