Bike van/mpv recommendations

[Alex Ebiker]

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a van or mpv that can carry 3 people and two 2 metre long bikes without the wheels off. Also would prefer if it has a rear window and looks not that much like a van.

At the moment looking at Caddy maxis. Budget is £15,000.

 

[R120]

Peugeot Rifter/Citroen Berlingo XL

 

[Alex Ebiker]

Peugeot Rifter/Citroen Berlingo XL

View attachment 96848

Yes those do look good. Do you own one?.

 

[R120]

No but have come close to pulling the trigger on one a few times, test drove one and nice enough

 

[dobbyhasfriends]

if you wanna go slightly bigger than the LWB car type vans then a transit custom or similar is pretty good. has 3 seats inc driver and I regularly put 2 bikes in the back of mine while its still full of tools so there will be plenty of room for kit and spares/tools etc.
I wouldnt recommend a cheap small engine van of any sort, the renault, citroen, peugot etc etc that use a 1.4l turbo engine or similar if you are gonna keep it a long time. for the reasons why, just google or look at long term reviews for these issues. I only know this from fellow tradies that have problems.
having said that, they often give 40-50mpg which youll never get out of a transit which as a 2.2 or 2L engine with turbo, I get 37mpg from mine with a payload of around 1/2 ton.
EDIT: also has plenty of room under the passenger seats for a battery and inverter system for charging bikes etc

 

[Richywalker64]

I have a Nissan elgrand.
Its an 8 seater mpv and the seats can be configured or removed however you want.
Mine is a 2.5 litre V6 petrol and does around 20 mpg, 25 on a run but I run it on LPG and pay 72 pence a litre at Asda which equates to 40 to 50 mpg.
The seats all fold flat and can be made into a large double bed, or a single bed with the bike along side.

 

[Mikerb]

Not sure why so many folk look for alternatives when a van is the obvious choice.....its not as if modern vans are still very basic commercial vehicles, in fact most are as good to drive as cars, and a lot are combinations of load carriers and MPV as tradesmen often want a van both for work and as a family car.
If you need to carry 2 bikes and 2 passengers plus of course the driver, that is not the total load, especially if you are off to the forest for the day. Clothing, bike spares/maintenance kit, food etc all take up space. I use a LWB T5 and even that gets cluttered with that sort of load. I would not be without mine. It not only serves as a carry all and base for days out mountain biking but has spent most of its life on a beach somewhere loaded with windsurfing gear ( and a bike!). It also carries stuff to the local dump, picks up large items for the house, used to take 2 dogs for their daily walk ( rubber floor means easy clean up!!).

 

[Alex Ebiker]

Not sure why so many folk look for alternatives when a van is the obvious choice.....its not as if modern vans are still very basic commercial vehicles, in fact most are as good to drive as cars, and a lot are combinations of load carriers and MPV as tradesmen often want a van both for work and as a family car.
If you need to carry 2 bikes and 2 passengers plus of course the driver, that is not the total load, especially if you are off to the forest for the day. Clothing, bike spares/maintenance kit, food etc all take up space. I use a LWB T5 and even that gets cluttered with that sort of load. I would not be without mine. It not only serves as a carry all and base for days out mountain biking but has spent most of its life on a beach somewhere loaded with windsurfing gear ( and a bike!). It also carries stuff to the local dump, picks up large items for the house, used to take 2 dogs for their daily walk ( rubber floor means easy clean up!!).

I presume that’s a VW?. That’ll be 25k plus for a low mileage one.

 

[Mikerb]

Mileage is less important than a good service history. I know loads of T5 owners with well over 100k miles on the clock. I have had mine from new in 2006. In all that time the only things to fail have been a starter motor and a drive shaft......and its still worth about 40% of what I paid for it.

 

[Doomanic]

in fact most are as good to drive as cars,

I think you also drive a BMW, so I won't assume you've only ever driven shit cars
It always makes me laugh when someone says this. Dynamically, a van will never match a car, no matter how nice they are inside.

 

[Mikerb]

I think you also drive a BMW, so I won't assume you've only ever driven shit cars
It always makes me laugh when someone says this. Dynamically, a van will never match a car, no matter how nice they are inside.

Horses for courses......I love driving the T5 as much as the BMW but for completely different reasons. Whether I go to the forest or to the beach...or the heath with the dogs, the drive there is an integral part of the experience not just a journey. Fancy a coffee break whilst you are there? Portable stove, water, makings plus camp chairs and table are all permanent items carried in the van

 

[Doomanic]

Having a car and a van isn't the same as living with just a van. If I could afford both, I'd have both in a heartbeat but as I can't I'll take my car over a van every day of the week.

 

[mxh]

I wouldnt recommend a cheap small engine van of any sort, the renault, citroen, peugot etc etc that use a 1.4l turbo engine or similar if you are gonna keep it a long time. for the reasons why, just google or look at long term reviews for these issues. I only know this from fellow tradies that have problems.

I've had a Peugeot Partner LWB for about 8 years now and covered about 80k miles in it. I only use it for commuting to and from work and for taking the bikes out at weekends. We used to get 4 bikes in the back, wheels still in, but as bikes have got longer it's down to 3 with wheels in or 4 with a couple of wheels out.

But I've not had any issue with it (touchwood) and it generally gives me 50mpg. The third seat in the front isn't particularly comfy, but handy for shuttles and short journeys.

What sort of problems have your fellow tradies experienced - just wondering if there's anything I should be looking out for.

 

[RsGaz]

If you want to travel in comfort, then you want a merc Vito dualiner ‘long’ the long is same wheel base as compact but 300mm longer in back, get the 116 auto, I’ve had a T5 and 3 Vitos and there’s no comparison, the t5 drives and is noisy like the van it is, the merc is just like a large car and fully trimmed out like a car, just take out one seat in the back (splits between a 3 seat or 2 seat) and you can get 4 full bikes in rear wheel first and 4 people. I never had any problems with them, guy I used to buy from showed me a picture of one with 386k on the clock and still in use as a taxi.

 

[dobbyhasfriends]

I've had a Peugeot Partner LWB for about 8 years now and covered about 80k miles in it. I only use it for commuting to and from work and for taking the bikes out at weekends. We used to get 4 bikes in the back, wheels still in, but as bikes have got longer it's down to 3 with wheels in or 4 with a couple of wheels out.

But I've not had any issue with it (touchwood) and it generally gives me 50mpg. The third seat in the front isn't particularly comfy, but handy for shuttles and short journeys.

What sort of problems have your fellow tradies experienced - just wondering if there's anything I should be looking out for.

blowing turbos and gearboxes are the main things, the turbos are pretty regular, I know quite a few guys that have suffered it more than once. there are of course wear and tear related items that are not normal for anon tradie user but would be familiar to ebikers.. like going through discs and pads every 30k but all of these things are down to the fact that we use every day in harsh conditions with a lot of weight.
I wish I could get the benefits of cost and MPG etc etc with my custom but reliability is more important than running costs in some respect.

 

[Chris B]

I have a Peugeot Partner Tepee, its a wheelchair access vehicle, has a fold down ramp at the rear and all the comforts of a normal car. It is a 62 plate with about 40K on the clock. As we now have a caravan I need something bigger, so will be getting rid of it. I will put an advert up when I get a chance to take some photos.

 

[Rando_12345]

Reviving the thread with a constraint:

Any good recommendations for full electric or hybrid MPVs/family vans? Ideally, something not too big. Currently have a 2008 Kangoo family version which is unbeatable in practicality, but getting a bit old. Would love something newer with 300kms of range at minimum.

The ideal seems to be ID Buzz, but I'm a long way away from being able to afford one of those, and the prices are unlikely to drop anytime soon even second hand.

Most realistic on the market here in Europe are Peugeot and Citroen that do a full electric version of their MPVs (Rifter and Berlingo) and their vans (Jumpy/Spacetourer and Expert/Traveller), but most of them other than the biggest model only have 50KWh batteries which I think will struggle to do 200kms on a charge.

Havn't really looked into hybrids, anyone have recommendations? (I have free charging at work, will most likely put solar panels on the house next year and rarely do more than 2hour drives)

 

[Mikerb]

any GOOD recommendations? No! Electric are overpriced and range of most is pathetic. Hybrids are a joke.

 

[InRustWeTrust]

any GOOD recommendations? No! Electric are overpriced and range of most is pathetic. Hybrids are a joke.

Wolksvagen caddy , you can find cheap ones in good condition if you search.

doesn't use much petrol/diesel and doesn't cost much in tax so they are very economical.

i can have 2 bikes in the car without taking off the wheels, i think I can have 3 bikes in if i take off the wheel on the third bike.

 

[Doomanic]

Wolksvagen caddy , you can find cheap ones in good condition if you search.

Is there no "Scene Tax" in Sweden? In the UK VW vans are massively overpriced compared to the opposition because of the "Dubber" culture.

 

[Shjay]

Transits are rapidly catching VW in crazy pricing. Take the MSRT as an example converted to a camper it’s about 70k….

 

[InRustWeTrust]

Is there no "Scene Tax" in Sweden? In the UK VW vans are massively overpriced compared to the opposition because of the "Dubber" culture.

sorry but don't see what is meant by "scenetaxes". we only pay tax once a year for like maintance for roads and then environmental stuff

 

[Doomanic]

Scene Tax isn’t a government tax, it’s the price you pay to join the Dubber community. I suspect it doesn’t translate well.