van / pickup advice needed.

[legrandefromage]

LGF knows his stuff though so it might be worth taking that on board.

Not according to Neil...

Anyway, I'm sure he'll be along sometime to say that its all guff and that you should buy a hot air balloon.

Rise above it I say.

Me, yesterday. Took ages to pose for this:

 

[rosstheboss]

Re: .

Don't get a Navara.
We had a 2.5 tdi at work. Under warranty it had a gearbox and an engine :shock:
Then at 4 years old the electrics cried enough to the point where the main dealer couldn't fix it.
They are also hopeless on fuel, motorway cruising returned about 18mpg :?
The boss now has a Toyota hilux invincible, which is better but not that great.

What model Navara and what were you doing to it to get 18mpg!?? We've had two D40s that have never gone below 25mpg being thrashed/towing stuff or both! A mate has a D22 that does loads more than that too... Sounds like you had a bad one!

The two navaras we've had never had a problem (the first one was written off by some contaminated fuel, the second one has done nearly 20k in a year and is perfect), we've also had an L200 which was also faultless. All returned on average between 30-35mpg, with me driving so lots of 85+ motorways and bimbling around town too. The problems with them (i.e. pick ups) lie in what other people have said - the load bay is open to the elements as well as tea leaves. If you look at most vans they can comfortably tow 1T these days in relative comfort too. Before we the pick ups we had a crew cab transporter which was great but it wasn't perfect for carrying the stuff we put in it (think big rolls of turf) and the inside got damp and stayed damp.

Personally if I was you I would get the crew cab van for best of both worlds, although it sounds like neither a van or pick up is perfectly suited!!!

 

[highlandsflyer]

LGF knows his stuff though so it might be worth taking that on board.

Not according to Neil...

Anyway, I'm sure he'll be along sometime to say that its all guff and that you should buy a hot air balloon.

Rise above it I say.

Me, yesterday. Took ages to pose for this:

Dude! Uncalled for man. Chillax!

I am still saying get a van. T4/T5, Merc Vito, etc. all give a fairly car like drive and there are LWB versions so you still have oodles of space with the five seats in.

I used a Vito for years as a 'car', and you can't go wrong with a low miler.

 

[ere-tis]

Before you get too far into which vehicle fits the bill, there are a few things to consider.
Check out the laws regarding towing a trailer for hire or reward or commercial purposes, because you'll almost certainly need a tachograph fitted and abide by UK drivers hours regulations.

If the gross vehicle weight of the vehicle is 3500kg or the gross vehicle weight of your vehicle and trailer together exceed 3500kg and used for commercial purposes then it's possible you'll need a standard operators licence too*



*please note the use of the words 'almost certainly' & 'possible'
I'm not an expert, but have encountered similar problems myself over the past couple of years and want to give you the heads up on possible extra expense and hassle.
It's well worth looking into your particular case before you go ahead and purchase a vehicle.
(It can cost as little as £200 to fit a tachograph to a 'new' vehicle, but can cost between £500 and £1000 if you are retro-fitting one to a used vehicle)