I guess they are not the most exciting thing to chat about on a car enthusiast forum, but I have found very little chat about vans.
We had to hire a ute the other day, $350 p/d I think it was. A lot of faffing around, worrying about damaging it (it was brand new, didn't help) and trying to get it back in time for closing, etc.
So as we need to help relatives move stuff and we ourselves start to look at having to offload a tonne of stuff in coming years, the idea of owning a van for a while at least is starting to make some sense.
So it's going to be French, preferably a manual with 3 seats up front (because why not, could be useful), hopefully not much more than $10k. I am uncertain about the size of a van; I like Berlingo/Partner/Kangoo for easy parking etc, but wonder if they will come up frustratingly short when I might need to shift bigger stuff (I am ignoring the SWB models, only LWB). So Dispatch/Expert/Trafic might be the go, and I am partial to the Expert 2008-2013 era with the RHK engine. Also want a viable towbar on whatever I get (or the option of being able to fit one) for the box trailer I have sitting here (with nothing as yet in the fleet to tow it with). A higher towing capacity could also be useful for towing a car trailer for bringing home strays, but that's not a mandatory thing. Expert has 2000kg tow cap, but I bet it's only something like 100kg TBM. Have to check.
Anyway, does anyone here have experience with any of these vans and have any advice on what to look for?
We had to hire a ute the other day, $350 p/d I think it was. A lot of faffing around, worrying about damaging it (it was brand new, didn't help) and trying to get it back in time for closing, etc.
So as we need to help relatives move stuff and we ourselves start to look at having to offload a tonne of stuff in coming years, the idea of owning a van for a while at least is starting to make some sense.
So it's going to be French, preferably a manual with 3 seats up front (because why not, could be useful), hopefully not much more than $10k. I am uncertain about the size of a van; I like Berlingo/Partner/Kangoo for easy parking etc, but wonder if they will come up frustratingly short when I might need to shift bigger stuff (I am ignoring the SWB models, only LWB). So Dispatch/Expert/Trafic might be the go, and I am partial to the Expert 2008-2013 era with the RHK engine. Also want a viable towbar on whatever I get (or the option of being able to fit one) for the box trailer I have sitting here (with nothing as yet in the fleet to tow it with). A higher towing capacity could also be useful for towing a car trailer for bringing home strays, but that's not a mandatory thing. Expert has 2000kg tow cap, but I bet it's only something like 100kg TBM. Have to check.
Anyway, does anyone here have experience with any of these vans and have any advice on what to look for?