Van or Car?

I need to get rid of our current van. Its old, knackered and drinking petrol ( £20 a day or so ).

I commute about 100 miles round trip everyday, so I get through my fair share of fuel. Thus a car would make more sence.
However, we need a van or equipment carrying ability as we need to transport hoops to sell, as well as all the camping equipment.

I can't decide if I want to buy a car (Ford Focus I reckon) and hire a van when we go away (£160ish for 4 days ) or if I should just buy a van and commute in that (the position I have is only a temp one at the moment set due end in about 2 months unless they decide to extend).

If its a van, I want a High top Ford transit like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...=tab%3DWatching
or this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...A:IT&ih=011


There is a Ford Focus down the road from us, but I don't know how much it will be for insurance. Its the same with the other vans and vehicles though

I don't know what I want because I don't know how much the insurance will be, but I don't know how much the insurance will be because I don't know what I want.

Speak your brains after the dotted line

..............................................................................

Get what I have, if you can...

Citroen Berlingo... It's fantastic..

Admittedly, it looks like a Postman Pat van... but you can carry people and stuff, and it's fairly good on the fuel (mine only has a 1.4 engine - or something).

See you soon

xx

Sad though it must have been, I think you've made the right decision so far with this first step

I don't have a clue about vans or car suggestions at this point tbh other than get it checked out properly first.

There are plenty of free online insurance quote systems though that you can run through as many times as you like adjusting the vehicle and see what it will be like.

Hate to sound like an ad but the last few years I've found using the AA as a broker has got me the best deal, and the best cover, though as a returning customer I had to haggle a bit in the same vein as returning mobile phone customers don't get the best deals. Most of the advertising ultra cheapo insurance companies I've heard too many specific horror stories of their legal support ditching them (with some it's an extra cost option too), them not paying out, or taking forever to pay.

How about getting a car for commuting, fitting a towbar, and getting a trailer for when you need to haul equipment around?

Thanks for the comments

Clare - Thanks for the idea, though if we get a van, we might as well get a proper one

Yakumo - I'm already insured on my van at the moment, its with Norwich Union via Post Office. It would just be a change to vehicle rather than a new quote. Otherwise I'd have to cancel the current one and get a new one, losing my NCB presumably

misscorinthian - .We had thought of that Only thing is that good/ large trailers can cost the same as a good quailty second hand van

But this is a car with van capabilities

well...Vans are always going to cost a lot to run - especially in stop start and high speed driving. If you get a good car (ie efficient) you will at least not be pinged for petrol driving around a larger vehicle than you need.

Work out exactly how much space you need, a hatchback can hold a lot of stuff with a medium sized trailer you would definitely have enough space to carry what it sounds like you need to carry. I would only recommend Vans for people who put on free parties and festivals or the like...as thats when you really need a big vehicle.

Josh

I have a teeeny tiny festiva
http://www.bobjane.com.au/Wheels/PublicImages/ence28.jpg
and love it... I have my staffs and hoops in the back (the seats fold flat so there is heaps of room) and even sleep in the boot (with a piece of board and a foam mattress. I also moved house in it... amazing how much the little beastie can fit. And costs me pennies (cents, actually) to run.

Having said that... looking to sell her and buy a van and a moterbike, since I am about to hit the road for a year or twooo (or ten).

The trailer is an awesome idea. But I also think you will make do with almost any car. Get roofracks and use a big peice of poly-pipe on it for staffs and strap the hoops to it. Easy and cheap.

I'm not sure what kind of camping set up you use but i can carry a but load of hoops and show equipment in my little hatch back and still have space for 3 people and a fair wack of camping grear. What is the trick? One of these,



They are fantastic, I can fit heaps of hoops plus my fire hoop stilts, staffs tent and extra campy bits plus even a bike some times, and beacuse my one is rated to carry three mountian bikes (it is a little diferent to the one in the photo) i can put a fair amount of gear on there with out worrying about the weight.

It works fantasticaly beacuse it means that any aqkward shaped things can go on the back of the car and the things that are efficiant to pack can go in the boot.

thanks for all the ideas people


Blueberry - Thanks for the pic, though unfortunatly, 2 weeks ago when we went to the southern lights festival, we took 100 hoops!

Thinking hatchback or estate.
Perhaps a Focus estate

Basically we need to be able to carry a complete stall around with us to festivals and as Jon said we had 100 hoops with us at Southern Lights as well as 2 large boxes of hats/bags/clothing. Add to that our camping stuff and you aren't going to get that into the average sized car. If I made and sold something small like Jewellery then maybe yes, but hoops and hoop racks take up a huge amount of space.

What we need to work out though is would owning a car for everyday save us enough money to be able to hire a van for the festival runs and local events... I'm going to be starting weekly classes... Do we have anywhere to store a trailer off road when it's not in use? As a newly qualified driver is Jon ready for towing a trailer? How much more economical will an estate car be than a van? ....

I have an estate Jon it's an old vectra and has a much bigger boot than the new fords, hoops "just" about fit flat in the back with the seats down. My diesel estate does about 400 miles on a tank (45 litre) you could get a small trailer and a roof box and fit a hell of a lot in.

If you buy an estate take a hoop with you to see how it fits a small change in dimensions can make all the difference in mine hoops can lay flat in my mums they can't by about 1 inch and remember if you have a stack of hoops in your boot you can fit a fair size box in the middle of them why waste space.

My car can fit me, simon, stilt suit, P.A, fire gear, camping stuff, gazebo and some shop stock but to be fair none of the stock are hoops.

You need to total up running costs either way to compare, if you transfer between insurers they should keep your no claims bonus from the previous insurance don't worry about that.

I usually check insurance through Confused.com then go back to the AA and say "beat that"! They are usually pretty good and it gets me a discount on the AA Home-Start-Relay option.

The two vans you are looking at are pretty different SWB's (short-wheel-base) are more practical if you are considering using the vehicle for comuting and LWB's are just bloody huge! Great for moving kit around - not so good if you want to park in a carpark and pop into town!

The way that fuel prices are going you might be better off getting a mini for every-day and a tranny van for moving kit!

Hope that helps a little

get a diesel van, run it on veg oil.

you have the stall, i dont think you can consider a car when you have that amount of stuff

thanks again all

 Written by :Nigely Pinky

Don't buy used Volvo. Yes, sure, they're built like tanks and make you feel nice and safe, but here in the UK Volvo parts are ridiculously expensive...

yeah - thats one of the reasons I want to go for a Mk5 Transit. Nice to drive, parts are easy to find and cheap

Fearpig - yep, agreed with the SWB/ LWB differences, Im leaning towards the SWB Hi roof anyway... though it is almost 2 grand at least it's from a reputable company (by the looks of the pictures - they have lots of other vans) and they are a registered Ebay motor vehicle trader, so should be well serviced and come with a warranty.

Simta - I was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention veg oil/ bio diesel. Hippies love as it is better for the environment, mechanics and garages however hate it, because it ruins your engine over time (and then the hippies hate it too, when they have to pay out for a new engine! )
Im siding with the not going for a car too, like you said about the ammount of stuff we have to carry.


Like I said earlier... I'm becoming more interested in a diesel hi top SWB (short wheel base). Seems the way to go in my opinion.

Keep ideas and suggestions coming, they are greatly appreciated

mmm SWB vs LWB - aerodynamically and often mechanically the same - the LWB fits a lot more stuff...eg you could have all your stall stuff, and a camperbed section. If you are going to buy simply for doing festivals buy LWB...Hitops add drag (albeit not *that* much). If I had to choose between diesel and petrol esp, in a commerical, I'd choose the diesel - more reliable and economical, as well as having more torque- which is really what you want in a Van.

UCOF - wishing you a van for birthday

That would also follow my advice. A van is just so much more than a car and if you have use for it - go for it and calculate how long it will take for return of investment.

Think about your business and activities, think about the help you can offer to friends and family by getting them there and beyond, u-hauling etc.

I for my pat regard a car as a waste of money - but then again the last vehicles I registered for me have been:



Made a great camper as mine had a cabin on the back... and



A true beauty, unfortunately not with the stilt-cabin and a engine damage due to a detached oil hose...

However due to new emission regulations, taxes and road toll you don't want to opt for a (semi-)truck
but a van.

Good luck finding the one for you

you should do what i did get a van, and a motorbike its the way forward. if your comuting to work go on the bike even a little 125cc can be de-restricted and can do about 80mph insurence will be about £200 for a year tax is only £15 a year and you'd only spend £20 a week on fuel. then you have the van to haul stuff around keep an eye out for auctions i got a great long wheelbase high top ivaco for a great bargain and its big enough to lug my gennie P.A system all my fire stuff a yurt and i still have part of it as a camper