Rusty Vans

[MarvinsMom]

i didnt realise that GM had dropped the astra van.

 

that must have been a good seller for them, especially as there isn't any competition left in that market? 

 

and given that developing one when they have a very comprehensive range of body styles within the car range, would have cost coppers, you have to wonder if vauxhall/opel actually WANT to stay in business.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

I'd say manufacturers make more out of the lease deals than the van itself. Therefore it only needs to last 3-5 years before you'll be in to buy another one for tax reasons.

 

But yes it does hit the smaller business who doesn't want to fork out for a brand new van yet still needs something with a few years left in it.

 

Family friend is a builder / small contractor. He's only ever had toyota hiaces, the current 3 are all at least 10 years old and look presentable.

 

Brother in law used to be self employed parcel courier (Hermes). He reckoned you either have a new van every few years or lose the cash on tax. Last one was a vivaro which looked mint after a few years but was mechanically fucked

[holbeck]

Just had a new carpet and inevitably I ended up discussing old cars/vans. He had a Mazda for 22 years and was moaning that the VW replacement was great at being a car but useless as a van.

 

Seemingly the Mazda van is still the carpet fitters weapon of choice as a 4m roll of carpet will fit in. (won't fit in any reasonably sized van currently available - so I'm told).

 

The moral of this story is if you can find a clean Mazda van buy it and sell to a carpet fitter and make £££££££££££££

[motormatt]

Sprinters defintely seem to rust fairly quick, although I think it's down to most vans having a harder life and possibly not getting the correct maintainence.

[danthecapriman]

My work van is a 60 reg Sprinter, not a single spot of rust on it anywhere. But, it's painted metallic blue not cheapo white so I'm sure that offers a little more protection. The white paint used on vans must be either porus or very thin, white vans seem to rot out worse than any other colour.

The other reason it's not rusty is that I keep it clean and don't abuse it! It still has to do a job but there's no excuse IMHO for leaving things to get totally minging inside and out. Also, though it's not owned by me, it's still 'my' van for its service life so I take a bit of pride in it by looking after it!

I did the same with the previous van, a 52 reg Transit, and although the mileage was highish, it went off to auction still looking very good. The only rust was a small bit of blistering on the sill under the side door. Some of the other identical vans that went to auction with it were utterly filthy and becoming very rusty!

[oman5]

Toyota hiace was a brilliant van. Mechanically bomb proof and they didn't rust badly either. The only reason you don't see any old ones is that they are worth megabucks for export to Africa, for the above reasons.

I have lusted after a late '80s hi ace 2.0 petrol for most of my adult life. They go like stink and have a fun column change too.

[dollywobbler]

We've got a 55-plate Sprinter minibus. It's gone quite badly in places - side door and rear doors. The rear windows are bonded in, so sorting the rust out that's lurking (and dribbling) behind them is going to be a right pain in the backside. Every seam starts to be blowing out on it. The 05-plate VW LT is the same. Our 60-plate Crafters don't seem too bad, though the odd chip is blemishing into rust here and there. One of them recently snapped a rear spring though! 42k miles. Rubbish.

 

Mind you, the Peugeot Boxer we have, an 11-plate, has just had a new clutch and alternator at 36k! It also had the ABS ECU replaced TWICE under warranty, and the heater resistor. Pretty poor, and the horribly plastic door handles feel like they'll snap at any moment. Would not recommend.

[dugong]

My 305 van has no corrosion. 

At least not on the gearknob. 

[catsinthewelder]

We run two Peugeot Boxers and five (identical) Citroen Relays and they are surprisingly reliable for moderns. The only issues in the last six months were with the newest which had a faulty wiper motor and tail light within the first month and has been fine since. They need floor mats though as without them the cab floors start to look rough by 20k. Ours are the lowest power version and are still pretty quick.

[dollywobbler]

Oh gawd yes. The cab floors appear to be black fromage! I think the biggest problem where we are is that despite a six-speed gearbox, overall, the gearing is too tall. It's much, much lower on our VW Crafters, so we swapped buses around to get the Crafter on the more extreme routes. Some school runs involve ridiculous gradients. We've now got another two Boxers, so I'm hoping we don't get further issues. 

 

Worst problem on the Mercedes is the handbrake. Every MOT seems to be a struggle. Why are they so poor? Our VW LT, built in the same factory, has a superb handbrake!

[PiperCub]

They don't need to have anti corrosion, people still buy the shit no matter how bad they rot (no different to people buying overrated new cars with well documented problems from couldn't give a fuck makers/dealers), they're just a necessary expense and written off in x number of years to fleet buyers,  considering how many get spanked every day rust is statistically probably not what writes most of them off.

 

It's the small business that wants them to last, so you'd think they'd have the nous to invest £400 in professional rustproofing when new, but the rustproofer who did my Hilux, who had just completed aTransit for someone, couldn't remember the last commercial van he treated.

 

Think this largely sums it up. The makers know that most will be bought by people that don't care, driven hard from day 1 with even less care and will be off-loaded in a few years (about 100K or so) and buy more new ones. They love this as it 'Keeps the metal moving' as they say, also as we all know, the manufacturers don't give two shits about the next owner down the line, they are only interested in those that buy new so any issues in the future are the next owners problem (the attitude being 'Serves the tight buggers right, they should buy new').

Hence they make them as cheap as possible, no need to rustproof either as they aren't going to last that long anyway!