Are vans better offroad than cars ?

[Yorick]

I have a plan. Next race weekend away I'm going to hire this and see if I prefer or hate over the QQ.
https://www.eurodriveuk.com/vehicles/van-hire/

£90 for the Doblo sized van for a weekend and will answer the question without a massive hit through buying and selling a car.

Just hire that whenever you need it. Owning is very expensive

[weeksy]

I have a plan. Next race weekend away I'm going to hire this and see if I prefer or hate over the QQ.
https://www.eurodriveuk.com/vehicles/van-hire/

£90 for the Doblo sized van for a weekend and will answer the question without a massive hit through buying and selling a car.

Just hire that whenever you need it. Owning is very expensive

Aye, I hear you. But I do need a vehicle. Let's see once the boys broken arm is fixed and we're heading off how it does and start thinking from there

[mangocrazy]

Yeah, take the stress and the pressure out of the situation and the best result for you will become apparent.

[rodbargee]

Now dont laugh too much but disco 3's are as cheap as chips and will deffo go anywere there are sorted ones out there for very little money 30 MPG ON the motorway but yes! running expenses Mine currently has 202.000 miles on it and its still going strong you have to regard this kind of stuff as throwaway depending on what needs doing next and are you prepared to spend it. NB get a manual with recent clutch mpg on autos is awful.\

[rodbargee]

Its even got a snorkel

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... 36ee3b4d0d

[weeksy]

Its even got a snorkel

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... 36ee3b4d0d

THankfully i can't get to FB on the VPN

[weeksy]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154557743815 ... 0290.m3507

I'm still trying to persuade the wife that one of these is the way to go.



But she's a bit stuck on the ride height issues... which admittedly are a valid concern, but i'm trying to block them out.

[cheb]

Considering the title of this thread she does have a point.

And buy a Transit sized van and be done with it.

[weeksy]

Considering the title of this thread she does have a point.

And buy a Transit sized van and be done with it.

The offroad context is/can be a small issue... it's not the biggest issue... but it's a factor that i do and will have to consider at times. But arguably it's something i can often/mostly get round.

I have issues with that idea in terms of reliability.

I was chatting with 2-3 people with vans at Silverstone the other day. The guy with the Transit for example was a 2014...

"oh yeah it's been great"
"well there was the steering column, that was £450 as the bearing siezed and was notchy"
"oh the injector needed replacing but that as only £250 as i did it myself..."
"yeah i nearly forgot the DPF..... "

I switched off about then.

It seems to me that vans are great, if you have £2000 spare lying about for the impending doom to follow. It may not, but it's fairly possible/probable. Espeically if like myself, you're not getting the spanners out yourself. He was the sort who's happy to do a lot of it himself, i'm not that kind of guy with cars/vans and i'm struggling to justify the risk. PArt of this is why i'm looking at petrol cars instead of a van. I just think there's less to go wrong regularly with a petrol instead of a diesel. Admittedly there's tonnes of vans that go on and on, but i do wonder how many of them are going on and on because people are either living with issues, or having to get them done as they're what enables them to earn money, so they simply have to fix things.

So the idea of a petrol appeals more, which rules 99% of vans out... but does leave things like the Stepwagon in there.... According to specs, it's 30mm lower ground clearance than the QQ... It's actually higher than the Mondeo was...
You can get a raise kit (shock spacer) which gives it 30mm more and puts it to the same as the QQ is... Although i admit it'll be longer wheelbase.

But the downside is that it won't get a motorbike in.. so would need a towbar and trailer for track duty.

[KungFooBob]

Audi and Volvo make nice jacked up versions of their estate cars (All Roads and Cross Country), you'll still need to tow a trailer, but you can fit a shit load more stuff into a large estate car than an SUV like the QQ. The bonus is they drive like proper cars too and they'll still let you in at the tip, unlike a van.

[cheb]

I get all of that. I tend to buy newish lowish mileage vans and keep them, 3 years and 30/40,000 miles. They get serviced regularly, have a mixture of short runs locally and long distance as fast as possible motorway battering trips.

The last Transit, an 08, needed a DPF but AIUI that was fairly common, they redesigned the DPF. Oddly t did like eating alternators, about every three years. Even more oddly it took a long time to die from rust, it spent all it's life on the west coast of Scotland, my undersealing it may have helped.

The problem with anecdata for me is a general fault may not apply to that specific vehicle, that's just luck and there's not much you do about.

My Transit did nearly 200,000 miles and never had a fault with the dual mass flywheel which was always bandied about in a tooth sucking sort of way.

A previous Vivaro didn't have the widely touted gearbox problems but the clutch slave cylinder started to leak and that was a £1000+ engine out job I managed to avoid. The gear change cables used to fall off too until I made a bracket to stop them Spawn in law's Vivaro does the same.

If you get a goodun then yay, if not then boo.

[Numnut]

I really wanted a stepwagon, but the wife got a bit put off by parts availability. According to the owners group on FB, things like windscreens/rear screens can be hard to come by. There's been a few cases of insurers writing them off if the catalytic converter got stolen too.

[Count Steer]

If you're open to the 'try by renting' with a van it might be an idea to rent one for longer and see how it works out as a daily driver (although I guess you don't need to drive on most days?). Similarly, you can rent a box trailer of almost any shape and size - lots of Iford Williams ones around - as proof of concept. Not as common as in the USA with the likes of U-haul but you can get them in most places. The parking it issue remains though if you hire for more than a weekend.

The SUV solution seems to cover most bases though. Roof rack/box for the gazebo? (Dunno how big it is packed). Drive a decent Q5, if that works, keep the QQ for a while, work on the budget and get one or equivalent that meets your spec.

[weeksy]

If you're open to the 'try by renting' with a van it might be an idea to rent one for longer and see how it works out as a daily driver (although I guess you don't need to drive on most days?). Similarly, you can rent a box trailer of almost any shape and size - lots of Iford Williams ones around - as proof of concept. Not as common as in the USA with the likes of U-haul but you can get them in most places. The parking it issue remains though if you hire for more than a weekend.

The SUV solution seems to cover most bases though. Roof rack/box for the gazebo? (Dunno how big it is packed). Drive a decent Q5, if that works, keep the QQ for a while, work on the budget and get one or equivalent that meets your spec.

The box trailer just simply isn't an option, in any way shape or form..

I don't need to drive often no, usually only weekends and the odd shop trip mid-week, but no reason i couldn't drive a van or even the wifes car.

The majority of my driving is to and from MTB places. Well that or bloody hospitals hahaha.

Decent Q5 test is deffo an option.... but no desperate rush.

[Count Steer]

I like 'no rush'....it's taken nearly 2 years to decide what to replace wife's car with. The conflict between need and want finally got resolved by petrol at £2/l. So, by COP today, for the first time in 25 years there will be no 2-seater on the drive.

I don't know how long a 70mpg, hybrid, 4/5 seat shopping trolley will be there though....zzzzzzzzzzzz.

[Couchy]

It exists

[weeksy]

It exists

Ummmmm i'm not sure on the styling

[Druid]

What you need is an MPV of some sort - all the comforts of a car with the space of a van.

Ford S-Max

[weeksy]

What you need is an MPV of some sort - all the comforts of a car with the space of a van.

Ford S-Max

A petrol Smax is a decent shout yes

[weeksy]

On a side note (and I'm only pulling your leg but...) you've got too much non-focussed energy mate, if I were your mentor I'd suggest that if you put the same amount of oomph into changing jobs and climbing the ladder, that you put into bikes, cars and MTBs for the next best thing, then you'd have a fleet of whatever you wanted outside by now

You fail to see one important factor. That's not what I want to do. Not even slightly, remotely or a teensy bit.

You could never understand my complete satisfaction with that side of life, just as I'll never understand your desires too, but I can't put into words how little it interests me.