I am currently doing some research on some vans to help our fleet department decide on which vans to hire. Can anyone tell me of known faults/issues with the Vauxhall Vivaro and the Ford SWB Transit Van, as well as running costs and likely off-road time/maintenance? These are things that do not seem to be covered by sites like WhatVan etc
Many Thanks
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The Vauxhall has identical twins in the form of a Nissan and Renault version. They are infact all Renaults. So you may want to check out which is going to give you the best deal on finance, servicing etc.
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Do not touch the Vauxhall unless you like lots of hassle!!!! The company I was a Transport Manager for decided to buy these for a different branch, they had no end of trouble, basically they are not man enough for any job, and if they need repairing then they go to your local Vauxhall dealer. But your local Vauxhall dealer is not set up for commercial vehicles so there is usually no overnight servicing, no weekend servicing and I have heard of them saying it will be 2 weeks before they can get to it!!!! So my advice is Avoid like the Plague.
Transit was the most reliable van I ran, but I only had one out of 25, the others were a mix of Daf and Iveco. The Daf's were good work horses, Pretty basic inside but did the job. Broke down a fair bit but they were getting old and had to do about 90 drops a days so was hard on the starter motors, we had excellent service from the dealer so that easily made up for it (starter motor would be fitted whilst driver waited). Iveco, better then Vauxhall, but only just!! Pretty reliable but if they did breakdown parts were a nightmare to get hold of as they would have to come from Italy, so typically would take at least a couple of days if not longer. Driver acceptability was good on the Iveco.
As for running costs, mine were probably cheaper then you will get as I had 25 vans but the parent company ran a few thousand so got very good deals.
It really depends on the type of work they will be doing, do you need a rugged van for buiders to throw stuff at, or just something that will hold large volumes but not doing any real hard work?
I must add that the above is based on my own expierences of running a fleet of different vans doing 4,500 deliveries a week and may not reflect how they would perform in a different environment!!!
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The line of work the Company is in is communications. Some are doing sky digital/satellite installation, some cabling and IT communications etc ... so not building-site stuff ...
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The only thing I know about Vauxhall vans is a friend who works for BT pointing at the four holes along the front, the numerous dents in the radiator and saying 'Look at the state of that!!'
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Still going to have tools and cable thrown around, but no real hard work, all nice onroad stuff - have a look at the DAF (sorry should be LDV) I think the new model is alot better then the old, but my pref. would be the Transit. What ever you decide to go for get ones with Aircon - there is nothing worse in the summer then spending long hours in a van getting hot and sweaty and then having to visit a customer!!!
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LDV Maxus. Light years ahead of the old Pilot and Convoy.
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How about Mercedes Sprinters? I've only the experience of hiring a few but they seem well screwed together and go like stink. Much better than the new Peugeot I drove recently, that had very flimsy trim and switchgear. Are they expensive to buy and run compared to say, a transit?
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bt have just started buying vauxhalls i think the only good thing my workmates say about the vivaro is it's got a cd player it is i believe very suspect in that it is very easy to overload it compared with the tranny,i have the connect at present but have been informed there being replaced by the combi had one for the day while mine was in for service hated it.all above is driver related only
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Many LDV vans use Ford engines and g/boxes.
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.., but my pref. wouldbe the Transit. What ever you decide to go for get ones with Aircon - there is nothing worse in the summer then spending long hours in a van getting hot and sweaty and then having to visit a customer!!!
I hired a van recently from a place that had a huge yard full of pretty new Transits. I *know* they can be had with a/c but the hire staff fell about laughing when I asked for one!
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Be well worth you thinking on the Sprinter - it has stolen plenty of previously TRANSIT ONLY attitudes, from the REAL fleets.
The deals that the makers & BT & the like, boast of, don't TRULY represent whole life costs - they have such a substantial, upfront discount.
& don't forget, the dealer you choose, does need to be, as mentioned earlier, set up for van service & repair.
Most brands do have a reasonably well organized demonstrator fleet - see if you can borrow the ones you fancy, for a week or so, before choosing - that's a proper test drive!!
VB
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What's wrong with the Renault Trafic (Vauxhall to you TU!)?
I've got the Nissan version and I'm well pleased with it!
6 speed box, EW CL deadlocks as well as all the normal stuff you'd associate with panel vans.
One of the badges is or was doing 4 years interest free.
...TU, are you thinking of the Vauxhall Arena, built by Vauxhall? This was a copy of the previous trafic.
H
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Don't know the exact model H, just know it was the transit sized one, Our Fleet Dept had so many probs with them that they stopped buying them. My main point was that Vauxhall are not set up to deal with commercial vehicles and as such if the vehicle is off the road they do not see it as a priority to get it back on the road. Other marques have a very different approach to their commercial vehicle customers.
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From a driving perspective, the Vivaro/Trafic/Primastar are light years ahead of the Transit. I've not driven the Fiat/Citroën/Peugeot clones, the VW Transporter/LT or the Mercedes Vito/Sprinter so I've no idea how they compare, unfortunately. One thing that I think I would miss on a VW van would be the second, small mirror for showing overtaking vehicles and reverse parking.
I've no idea about reliability, running costs or dealer service - though the Vivaro is more economical on diesel (37 mpg vs 32 on the same run in a Transit). Of course my experience is only based on a couple of thousand miles of rental mileage rather than day in, day out slogging.
TU - the Vivaro came in late 2001, the Arena bowed out in 1999 from Autotrader. Does that help you decide which it was? (They are/were both Transit sized, although more in line with a SWB than a Jumbo).
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The Vivaro rings a few bells (of the alarm type), It would have been after 2001 as I only started with the company in 2004 so it was relatively recently.
As for ecomnomy, the transit was the best out of what I had, but then it was on slightly different work, more longish runs, where as the others were on much shorter stop start work.
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To be fair, mine being a nissan maybe means that I get good service.
It has been back three times since I bought it;
1) After I had it for a couple of days and clocked up 600 miles going up to London and back. An ECU connection became tempremental and it went into limp home mode. On the third day of ownership I took it back and was seen immediately by a technician who found and corrected the problem. Warranty repair.
2) A few weeks after I had it the reversing sensors became erratic. I had to go back twice. Once to have the problem acknowledged and the second time to have a new reversing sensor kit fitted. Again, warranty repair.
3) To have around £2ks worth of damage repaired. They were able to do this when they said and it took the time they thought it would, in fact the vehicle was ready for me early, though they let me keep their loan van until I was ready to swap back, as I'd already organised myself around the repair. The only potential issue they were frightened of what availability of a replacement sliding door sill. Apparently stocks of these are not in abundance because it's only muppets like me that wreck them ;). However they ordered up the parts and they were all there when they were needed.
The Nissan dealership are primarily a car workshop I guess but they seemed to have been OK with the van. They do sell a lot of commercial vehicles from that outlet.
Oh, and a plug, Mumfords of Plymouth 01752 309030 Nissan and Renault dealers. They'll compete with internet based companies but you still get the service. I'm seriously thinking of a large Nissan 4x4 in a year or two.
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I agree with most people stay clear of the Renault, vauxhall, nissan thingy van they do not like hard work gearboxes are problamatic too
The new LDV'S are very good even the old one's are a good old workhorses
But for a all round package the old transit takes a lot of beating
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