[jaykie]

Im getting my first van next week which will have a WFP system put in, i had my mind set on getting a Peugeot Expert, once i got a quote on this i thought id try a quote on a Vauxhall Vivaro which to my amazement was cheaper on insurance, does it cost much differance in tax or diesal between these 2 vans. Should i just go for the big van or start small and get the vivaro once ive grown.

Cheers

Chris

[Alex Wingrove]

think of the debt

im buying a transit 300 this week, 1200kg payload, more that enough for what i need

with the vivaro, you are going to be pressed to get a 650l tank in the swb, leaves you with about 300 - 350kg left for stuff to carry

the lwb can take 1200kg but its 1k more, i have heard alot of bad things about the vivaro, i would like one, they look sweet handle sweet, its like having a car, but i dont want to be caught out, its the same for the traffic and primastar,

look into goggle and find some customer reviews, if you want one best bet is too buy brand new and then get your 3yrds warranty if it does go wrong,

[darren73]

if your getting a 2nd hand vivaro i would make sure the gears feel ok because if the gearbox goes it can hard to get(2nd hand),expensive to replace and this is a common fault in these vans-just my personal experience(04 vivaro)-im sure all vans have their share of faults though

[NWH]

You will easily get a 650ltr in a vivaro-trafic van with lots of room to spare,no offense Alex but i can`t stand the look of them transits the larger ones that is,i would go for a trafic as i am to soon but just make sure you buy new or as new as you can.In fact you would get a 750 in it if you wanted.

[jaykie]

I was going for a peugeot expert with a 500 litre tank in but if i can get something like a vivaro, traffic or vito and its not going to be mutch more on insurance etc i maybe better off doing this.

[Jon-scwindows]

im looking for my first van, but im not sure - i was going to go with a transit 330 lwb in silver or something, with medium high roof, but ive seen the Iveco daily lwb and that looks more than enough, id prefer a bigger van than small

[NWH]

If your going WFP don`t even think about a small van there`s simply not enough room and i don`t care what anyone says on here your wasting money as 6mths down the line you`ll be kicking yourself you didn`t go slightly bigger.A medium sized van ie vivaro-trafic is perfect and as said they drive like a car so you have the best of both worlds.

[MJH]

Well said NWH i agree, i have a new combo excellent van but too small for me now, i have heard good things about vivaros and will look at upgrading soon, just wish i had got one in the first place :

[Alex Wingrove]

in the lwb vivaro, etc you can get 800l, but in the swb its payload is 1000kg, 650 is the maximum size tank you can put in one.

I know what you mean NWH about the look, personally, i would love a new vivaro lwb, but in reality i only work three days a week and 17k of van isnt gonna earn itself back,

whereas a 6.5k i can afford easily, plus it can take a 900l tank if i want if i really really want

[Alex Wingrove]

im looking for my first van, but im not sure - i was going to go with a transit 330 lwb in silver or something, with medium high roof, but ive seen the Iveco daily lwb and that looks more than enough, id prefer a bigger van than small

you know you can get a 330 transit swb right with 1400kg payload?

[Paul Coleman]

I have an SWB Trafic with the 1200kg payload (2.9 tonne GVW rather than the more normal 2.7tonne).  I would not have bought a 2.7 tonne version myself as I wanted to be sure that I would be able to carry enough water for a large first clean if I was a long way from home.  I also had to make allowance for my errrm excessive body weight (aka flab).
Although mine is the Renault Trafic rather than the Vauxhall Vivaro, I can confirm that I had a gearbox problem.  It needed replacing at 39,000 miles - a few weeks inside the 3 year warranty.  Now I did read something about this issue but I'm not sure if it was on this forum or another one.  There are a couple of guys who started a WFP business between them who used to run a vehicle dealership between them.  One of the guys posted that from around the 53 plate onwards, Vauxhall started using the Nissan Primastar version of the gearbox as they are more reliable, so presumably not all the parts are sourced from the same places it would seem.
Personally, I would only buy another Trafic/Vivaro/Primastar if I could see documentary evidence of the gearbox issues and what has been done in recent years to resolve them.  A great pity really as I do like the concept of a 6 speed box.  I suppose that any vehicle can be prone to inherent faults.  I quite like the idea of a Toyota Hiace as my next van but the new ones have now dropped to a 1210kg payload from the previously available 1340kg.  Still, I currently have about 1200 kg available to me so I would be no worse off than now.  I don't need to concern myself with this for a while anyhow because my loan for the current van runs until October 2010 so, gearbox permitting, I intend to keep it until then.

[Alex Wingrove]

they do a 1200kg in swb?

now that i didnt know, hmmmmm

[Paul Coleman]

Im getting my first van next week which will have a WFP system put in, i had my mind set on getting a Peugeot Expert, once i got a quote on this i thought id try a quote on a Vauxhall Vivaro which to my amazement was cheaper on insurance, does it cost much differance in tax or diesal between these 2 vans. Should i just go for the big van or start small and get the vivaro once ive grown.

Cheers

Chris

It might be helpful to you to browse   http://www.whatvan.co.uk/search.asp

Personally, I reckon that buying asomething that is a bit too small could hamper your business growth.  I suggest going for at least 1200kg payload.

[Paul Coleman]

they do a 1200kg in swb?

now that i didnt know, hmmmmm

I don't know about Vauxhall but Renault certainly do.  I don't know if this is so but I'm assuming that the only alteration is an upgraded suspension so it may be possible on any version.  You'll be seeing it soon enough I imagine.  Please give me 2 or 3 days warning when you want to do what we discussed Alex as I will want to start filling a few containers - just to make certain there is plenty for both of us.

[Jon-scwindows]

im looking for my first van, but im not sure - i was going to go with a transit 330 lwb in silver or something, with medium high roof, but ive seen the Iveco daily lwb and that looks more than enough, id prefer a bigger van than small

you know you can get a 330 transit swb right with 1400kg payload?

i didnt know, though i would probably prefer the van i get to have a LWB. I have seen some good transit 330's for around 4k, which look good and do just as good a job as a more expensive vivaro/etc..
like this for example
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170190672328

i like the idea of one of these, a bit OTT but why not.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170188848007&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=007
then you could have plenty of room for large wfp tank and gear, and room for other gear like pressure washing stuff or something.

[NWH]

I love the look of the Trafic-vivaro but i must say after all the talk about the gearbox problems over recent months i`m thinking more along the lines of the transporter,i looked at a 174 transporter the other day and the only thing that put me off was the colour it was pale blue,terrible colour.

[Paul Coleman]

im looking for my first van, but im not sure - i was going to go with a transit 330 lwb in silver or something, with medium high roof, but ive seen the Iveco daily lwb and that looks more than enough, id prefer a bigger van than small

you know you can get a 330 transit swb right with 1400kg payload?

i didnt know, though i would probably prefer the van i get to have a LWB. I have seen some good transit 330's for around 4k, which look good and do just as good a job as a more expensive vivaro/etc..
like this for example
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170190672328

i like the idea of one of these, a bit OTT but why not.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170188848007&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=007
then you could have plenty of room for large wfp tank and gear, and room for other gear like pressure washing stuff or something.

Knowing what I now know, I would have gone for an LWB as well.  Most of the time it's not an issue but there are times when things seem a bit too cramped.

[Alex Wingrove]

i did check what van for when i was looking at a vivaro, just said 1000kg for swb, didn't look at the Renault,

the transit 300 which i will go for is 1200kg which i agree leaves plenty of room for expansion if needs be, i expect nwh is looking at that

jon, i see what your saying, but they are MASSIVE i don't think i could get that in my garage let alone some on my customers houses

[Alex Wingrove]

the difference between the swb and the lwb is quite small in the vivaro, sometimes i have to look twice to figure out what it is

arr yes the transporter, they are nice, you can get the swb upgraded to 1200kg aswell for £200, and all the locks done for £450

[Sir Squeaky]

I've got an '07 Trafic and it's 1250KG payload.
It's the SL29 version.

The SL27 version is 1050KG.

The van weighs 1650KG, so that's why they've got those names, that's the total weight.

Oh yes, and it's SWB.
Wouldn't have any other van instead of it.

[Alex Wingrove]

whats the maximum payload of the lwb model then

[Sir Squeaky]

The same apparently.

[Alex Wingrove]

hmmmm thats weird, i though it would be more like 1400kg

dont you have a 400l tank in your van squeek?

[Sir Squeaky]

Certainly do.
With the hosereel, bucket, battery and poles I'd say it's about 500Kg maximum.
Add me and 2 passengers and it's still waaaaaayyy under the limit.

It's really not much slower when loaded up.

[alanwilson]

NWH - just buy the transporter, honestly, you'll love it - no I promise you, you will, come on man!!

we've got an hdi expert too, great van, goes well, looks well, its fitted with a 650 so is a little close to the limit.

[Captain Scarlet]

Jon-scwindows, no offense meant by this at all but how on earth are you planning on getting insurance on either of those vans? ( you said you had just turned 18 ) You cant put it on your mums/dads insurance if they dont use the vehicle too, the insurance companies are having huge crack downs on that type of person. I am lucky, somebody has insured my fully comp on my 2.0 hdi expert for only £436!!! ( Im 18 too ) I doubt many companies would insure you on those vans.....have you seen how big they are, that Daily lwb is huge. They would see you as a huge liability in such a large vehicle at such a young age, Luke

[joe.b]

true i drive a 1996 trafic and it costs me 2000

[MJH]

2k joe.b how old are you mate, that sounds steep!!

[joe.b]

20 in two weeks

[MJH]

Thats why then, its crap being a teenager im 28 and my car and van(group 13) is half that!

[joe.b]

hah bloody hell, well i spose you got have some bills, otherwise we'd be millionaires

[MJH]

2k insurance thats a large chunk of earnings mate but work hard and it will pay off, i started at 24 and worked hard its worth it!!!

[geefree]

2k insurance thats a large chunk of earnings mate but work hard and it will pay off, i started at 24 and worked hard its worth it!!!

now he is passing work to me lol.

[MJH]

Might have some more for you Gazza shortly if you can be asked coming to leeds for it m8!