I had a plummer round to do a job today and we got talking about vans,we got talking about the reliability of certain vans and then i mentioned that i liked the trafic-vivaro type vans and am thinking of getting one soon,forget it he said my dad works for a gearbox repair business that has major contracts with different manufacturers,he said that they are flat out with repairing gearboxes on these models day in day out and this includes the new shape aswell.
My Trafic gearbox needed replacing at 39,000 miles. I was lucky that it went so early as it was a few weeks inside the 3 year warranty. It still cost me a load of messing about and the hire of another van for a few days.
There is a window cleaner who posts on here occasionally (or perhaps on another forum) who used to be a vehicle dealer. I recall him saying that Trafic and Vivaro gearboxes were iffy until the 53 plate. After that, they started using the Primastar boxes which are fine so I suppose Nissan must source their gearboxes elsewhere.
When my gearbox first went it was New Year's Eve (2005) and I was in the sticks on my way to an Eric Clapton concert. I eventually managed to get the van in gear by attempting to declutch a couple of times and really whacking up the revs. I eventually got it moving in second (first and reverse gears were the temperamental ones) while I had a full load of water on board. I don't suppose it did the clutch much good but I just wanted to get to the concert even if it meant staying overnight miles from home. Anyway, I managed to get it home alright too. I got to the motorway without having to stop once as I was concerned about dropping into first.