First, re the term 'Luton', you do realise that this is just the body type, a big box, separate from the cab, usually with a section extending forward above the cab?. Mechanically there is no difference from any other example of the Iveco Daily (or whatever other make/model you may look at.

Re the Iveco specifically, I used to have a 2003 model. Not sure if it applies to the age you are looking at, but changing the belt was a very big job.

As for the prices, that is just par for the course these days, they are very high.

Going by what you have said you want the van for though, it sounds like you'd be taking unnecessary risk buying a potentially knackered van. Rather than using it for storage, put your stuff in your local storage place and just hire a van for the few actual trips you will need to make when needed.

Thanks! I do realise "luton van" is just the style and they're made by getting a normal van chassis and installing a big box on the back. It's a niche market and I know nothing about the merits of (for instance) mercedes sprinters vs transits vs ivecos, and it's not like cars where there is a ton of info.

For a number of reasons, I do want the van to store stuff in rather than a lock up - I can park it right by where we live, and since I'm going to have to go in and out and maybe (as a guesstimate) at least 100 times that's a massive time saving vs renting a lock up a mile away and trudging back and forth. Plus lock ups are also quite expensive (£150/week was a quote I got which is £8k / year!!) so I figure even if it breaks after a year I will stil have spent less overall.

Edited by daveyK_UK on 19/06/2022 at 11:50

I wouldn’t recommend buying an old van to anyone. No one sells a van just because they fancy a change, these are purely economic decisions and in 99.9% of cases a cheap van is for sale because it is no longer economically viable, usually it is hiding a major failure. Spend £4000 on such a thing and you’ll almost certainly lose almost every penny of it.

Although this is certainly a big risk, it's not alway true, people sometimes change businesses or retire, or just want a newer van etc etc. I've seen a few vans for sale bought by people like me who no longer needed it, one I saw needed it for a movie and the movie was finished so they were selling it on for whatever they could get.