Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability

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Thu 29 Feb 2024 17:05
Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability - Colin K

I am planning to buy one for the following vans

2016-2019 H1/L2 Transit (not Custom), Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master

I want reliability and economy.

My thoughts so for - feel free to contradict, correct or add.

Transit

Very economical. Wet belt a concern. I understand Ford now recommend change at 40K. Need to be careful to use correct oil. Not sure if 2016 - 2019 are any better then older models re rust

Boxer, Relay

BlueHDi - seems to be most economical, I assume no major issues with timing belts if changed when required. Galvanised body means little rust

Movano, Master

Some engines very economical, some not (any thoughts on this particularly welcome) . Timing chain should be very reliable, Galvanised body means little rust.

Any further comments appreciated.

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Thu 29 Feb 2024 17:37
Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability - badbusdriver

No specific knowledge on the specific years you mention. Also very surprised to learn the Transit has a wet belt, are you sure about that?. In cars they generally seem to have been used on small capacity petrol turbo's, haven't heard of them being used on diesel cars.

But a couple of general observations from someone who has looked at plenty of used vans over the years.

Out of your three choices, Boxer/Relay/Ducato seem to be a little cheaper like for like than Movano/Master, which in turn is also cheaper than a Transit.

Re galvanising and rust issues. I wouldn't expect too much issues on vans of the age you are looking at unless they have had body repairs. If they have, the repairs will most likely have been done as quickly (and probably cheaply) as possible, hence more likely to rust afterwards (which I think would also apply to panels which had been galvanised)

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Thu 29 Feb 2024 19:11
Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability - elekie&a/c doctor
All of these are going to be troublesome at some point , unless they are a one owner/driver that’s kept up the maintenance. Emission and adblue systems on these are regularly faulty, and at this age vehicle, it’s likely the system has been deleted.
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Thu 29 Feb 2024 19:35
Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability - Adampr

Some Transits do indeed have a wet belt with a very short service interval. A friend of mine had his snap before it was due on the previous interval. Rather than sort him out, they just changed the interval for all the other people that had them.

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Thu 29 Feb 2024 19:33
Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability - Will deBeast

Service intervals on the Boxer/Relay are 2 years/30,000 miles. That's proving to be too long - ideally you need one that's serviced more regularly than that (or at least, interim oil changes).

All of them are prone to issues with EGR, DPF and adblue. Some owners will have had them deleted - illegal for use on road, but I've no idea whether they're detectable by an MOT garage or VOSA inspector.

I have a 2021 2.2 Relay - it's been trouble free so far, apart from an Adblue system error, which was fixed by the dealer reflashing the software.

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Tue 19 Mar 2024 15:55
Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability - Perkinsp93

Honestly, the Transit is a great choice, it has all you need!

As long as the vehicle is serviced as per the manufacturers recommendations then if it was to fail, it should be covered under warranty. A good reason to buy or lease a New vehicle as it will be under manufacturers warranty.

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Tue 19 Mar 2024 18:28
Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability - Steveieb

My son runs a 2011 Euro 4 Transit chosen because it has the minimum unreliable emissions technology. Only the EgR to get blocked .

It’s been brilliant .

Over maintained but new clutch and flywheel at 100k .

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Thu 21 Mar 2024 15:00
Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability - up north

My son works as a mechanic and recommends Transit, but you need to get it serviced more regularly than stipulated and the wet belt.

His council work place service hundreds of vans and he says not to touch Vauxhall /Peugeot. So work vans, fleet and school use and private. Taxi vans etc. Real vans in use including brand new. They went from Transit to Vauxhall and Peugeot to save money, and there's so many issues that even dealerships tech can't fix some. Going back to Transit.

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Thu 21 Mar 2024 20:29
Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability - alan1302

My son works as a mechanic and recommends Transit, but you need to get it serviced more regularly than stipulated and the wet belt.

His council work place service hundreds of vans and he says not to touch Vauxhall /Peugeot. So work vans, fleet and school use and private. Taxi vans etc. Real vans in use including brand new. They went from Transit to Vauxhall and Peugeot to save money, and there's so many issues that even dealerships tech can't fix some. Going back to Transit.

What's actually wrong with the Vauxhall or Peugeot? We have one of each at work and not had any issue with either other than a faulty door sensor on the Vauxhall.

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Fri 22 Mar 2024 13:02
Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability - galileo

My son works as a mechanic and recommends Transit, but you need to get it serviced more regularly than stipulated and the wet belt.

His council work place service hundreds of vans and he says not to touch Vauxhall /Peugeot. So work vans, fleet and school use and private. Taxi vans etc. Real vans in use including brand new. They went from Transit to Vauxhall and Peugeot to save money, and there's so many issues that even dealerships tech can't fix some. Going back to Transit.

What's actually wrong with the Vauxhall or Peugeot? We have one of each at work and not had any issue with either other than a faulty door sensor on the Vauxhall.

The poster's son bases his view on dozens of vans, not just two, the actual detail of the many issues (some of which dealer techs can't fix) would be interesting but I'd accept the warning if selecting a van for myself.

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Fri 22 Mar 2024 13:15
Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability - alan1302

My son works as a mechanic and recommends Transit, but you need to get it serviced more regularly than stipulated and the wet belt.

His council work place service hundreds of vans and he says not to touch Vauxhall /Peugeot. So work vans, fleet and school use and private. Taxi vans etc. Real vans in use including brand new. They went from Transit to Vauxhall and Peugeot to save money, and there's so many issues that even dealerships tech can't fix some. Going back to Transit.

What's actually wrong with the Vauxhall or Peugeot? We have one of each at work and not had any issue with either other than a faulty door sensor on the Vauxhall.

The poster's son bases his view on dozens of vans, not just two, the actual detail of the many issues (some of which dealer techs can't fix) would be interesting but I'd accept the warning if selecting a van for myself.

I can push it to 3 as I have a Vauxhall van based car myself and not had an issue as well :-)

I was not making out there there were no other issues just asking what the issues were as like you say would be interesting to know as being told there are 'issues' does not mean much.

And our the Transits that good if they need to be serviced more that stipulated?

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Fri 22 Mar 2024 14:28
Transit, Boxer, Relay, Movano, Master - Recommend Transit Alternative Economy/Reliability - badbusdriver

My son works as a mechanic and recommends Transit, but you need to get it serviced more regularly than stipulated and the wet belt.

His council work place service hundreds of vans and he says not to touch Vauxhall /Peugeot. So work vans, fleet and school use and private. Taxi vans etc. Real vans in use including brand new. They went from Transit to Vauxhall and Peugeot to save money, and there's so many issues that even dealerships tech can't fix some. Going back to Transit.

What's actually wrong with the Vauxhall or Peugeot? We have one of each at work and not had any issue with either other than a faulty door sensor on the Vauxhall.

The poster's son bases his view on dozens of vans, not just two, the actual detail of the many issues (some of which dealer techs can't fix) would be interesting but I'd accept the warning if selecting a van for myself.

I can push it to 3 as I have a Vauxhall van based car myself and not had an issue as well :-)

I was not making out there there were no other issues just asking what the issues were as like you say would be interesting to know as being told there are 'issues' does not mean much.

The trouble with this rather broad statement is that just Vauxhall and Peugeot are mentioned. Seeing as no specific models are mentioned, that list should be expanded to include Citroen, Fiat, Renault, Nissan and Toyota because they all share van platform/body/running gear used by either Vauxhall or Peugeot.

And our the Transits that good if they need to be serviced more that stipulated?

The problem here is that manufacturers stretch the service schedules beyond what would be prudent to make the running costs (and therefore the van) more attractive to big fleets (and I suspect they are all at it). The big fleets in question don't really care what this does to long term reliability as they are passed on after a few years.

When I was looking into the reported problems surrounding the PSA/Ford 1.6, the service intervals being too long seem to be one of the main issues.

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