Are modern Transits any good?

[Cavcraft]

Is the crafter not just a sprinter ?

 

The other way round, I think. For some unfathomable reason though, the VWs seem to be better than the Merc they share a platform with.

[Lankytim]

No , they are terrible too

 

Yeah, but at least Pilots are supposed to be terrible.  Imagine forking out for a prime example of "the backbone of Britain" and witnessing it bodily and mechanically fall apart.

[Felly Magic]

I noticed with the FWD Transits, when there is a bit of weight in the back, wheelspin is a piece of piss, same goes for the Renner Master, even worse when fitted with that dumb arse semi auto/fully auto, in the wet, traction is almost non existent, and the gearbox gets seriously confused

[cort16]

I saw a 16 plate Chinese ldv today on the motorway. It was rusty .

[DodgeRover]

I noticed with the FWD Transits, when there is a bit of weight in the back, wheelspin is a piece of piss, same goes for the Renner Master, even worse when fitted with that dumb arse semi auto/fully auto, in the wet, traction is almost non existent, and the gearbox gets seriously confused

Those trendy VWs are just as bad, almost had a complete fail to move forwards with a mini digger on a trailer behind one trying to move off uphill from traffic lights it was just spinning the damn wheels

[kfsgo]

I'm probably coming up to receiving a four-digit number of these back from their loving* keepers (large fleet replacement) and I think maybe ten of them have been entirely free of rust, granting that it is sometimes just superficial. Just about the inverse of that for the français equivalent...

[twosmoke300]

Well I've just bought a lwb high roof 09 Ducato at the auction ! Wcpgw? Drove well on the way home tho .

Better sell my old one now I suppose

[Lacquer Peel]

The other way round, I think. For some unfathomable reason though, the VWs seem to be better than the Merc they share a platform with.

The new Crafter is VW's own but the last one is based on the Sprinter with VW engines and front clip. I've done thousands of miles in Sprinters and they're alright, comfy and they handle well for big vans.

[sierraman]

Sprinters? They rot like fuck as well. The only other thing is everything is doubly as expensive to put right as a Transit.

[twosmoke300]

And they have the worst handbrake in the history of motoring .

[cms206]

Sprinters are the second least comfortable van I've ever driven, only beaten by the Vito. They both are pantshittingly scary to push on with if the road is anything less than billiard table smooth and bone dry. The 2.2s all seem to shit engines in an expensive way at roughly 160k too and we were doing serious rot repairs on 11-plate minicoaches in the summer of 2014.

 

For all their faults I've never had a Transit or a Convoy try to swap ends on me like I've had in Sprinters and Vitos. Our current LWB Vito Traveliner 111CDi is absolutely fucking lethal.

 

All that said, the best handling, warmest, most comfortable and indeed most reliable (and thirsty) van I ever ran regularly was a P-reg Iveco Daily 35.10 luton so I may not be the best judge of these things.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[SiC]

And they have the worst handbrake in the history of motoring .

Worse even than Volvos?

[Rusty_Rocket]

...and the Kia Sedona?!

[twosmoke300]

I reckon so yeh

[twosmoke300]

Worse even than Volvos?

Learnt something about Volvo handbrake last month . Had an s60 in for mot that failed on poor ns handbrake . Drum in disc so first step was to slacken cable and adjust shoes . Except I couldn't see the star wheel through the stud holes . So I whipped the calipers and discs off to see inside .

There is no bloody adjuster ! Where you would expect to be one is just an H shaped bit of flat steel . Quick call to the Volvo dealer reveals that you can purchase the adjusters as a service part at 20odd quid . Adjusters fitted and a nearly 30% handbrake was achieved .

 

What a penny pinching bit of design

[gordonbennet]

Is the standard Merc Drum inside Disc parking brake on Sprinter?

[SiC]

Learnt something about Volvo handbrake last month . Had an s60 in for mot that failed on poor ns handbrake . Drum in disc so first step was to slacken cable and adjust shoes . Except I couldn't see the star wheel through the stud holes . So I whipped the calipers and discs off to see inside .

There is no bloody adjuster ! Where you would expect to be one is just an H shaped bit of flat steel . Quick call to the Volvo dealer reveals that you can purchase the adjusters as a service part at 20odd quid . Adjusters fitted and a nearly 30% handbrake was achieved .

 

What a penny pinching bit of design

Yeah I remember reading a thread on here where that was recommended. IIRC the adjuster are from the 850's.

[sierraman]

Cannot be worse than a Mk1/2 Mondeo. Awful system, constantly needed tweaking for the test if it had the drums on the back.

[twosmoke300]

It will be worse cos the shoe is about 1/3 of the size and gvw about twice as much .

[Richard]

.

[sierraman]

Never had that. Took mine within an inch of its life but it never did that, that said it was LWB.

[Hendry]

I don't know much about Transits as the ins and outs of vans aren't my bag, but working for a firstly Arnold Clark and then a hire company I've driven all manner of vans in the past and I'd have to say the 2007-2013 model Transit is one of the best vans to drive I've ever driven.

 

I'd agree with Andy CMS about how horrific to drive Sprinters are, and the new Transit from 2014 is just as bad. I remember seeing 4 year old at the time 60 plate Sprinters not just rusty where Transits rust but all over the panels too in random big scabs, rust lines running down them, rust along where the black plastic trim is on the bodywork, just utterly fucked paintwork with rust. Local council still use 09 plate VW minibuses which I think are Crafters and they are pretty much identical.

 

We ran fleets of 12 and 62 plate Fiat Ducato 2.2 Multijet 130s as single car transporters which all had gear selector issues, stiff going Into gear, door check straps snapping off, holes in the floor plastic from wear sub 100k,, continual EMLs, cutting out, steering faults, limp mode, engine malfunction messages, electrical faults, coolant leaks, coolant hoses split, MAF sensors, injectors, you name it they all suffered the same faults. Utter crap!

 

Vauxhall Vivaros must rank as some of the most uncomfortable to drive vans ever, drive one for an hour and you'd think I had chronic back pain.

 

I think older (up to 06 or 56) Citroen Relays were ok, I worked for Citroen and we never really had any bother with them unlike the later ones which I think are basically the same as the Fiat Ducatos I mentioned above. Didn't like the driving position though,

 

Nissan NV200, horrible high clutches on all of them, lethargic engines, not good to drive at all.

 

Would imagine the VW Transporter is horrific as well as it shares the same troublesome 2.0 CR TDi engine as the unreliable and problematic engine in the VW car range.

 

Toyota Hiace was the van, millions of Pakistani shop keepers can't be wrong, they seem to only ever plod around in stuff that's reliable and doesn't need money spent on it because they're really tight, but alas they stopped making it and replaced it with a version of the Dispatch/Expert/Scudo badge engineering exercise.

 

I see a lot of Renault vans, probably only second in terms of number seen to the Transit, are their vans a lot more reliable than their cars?

[Kiltox]

Fucking love Sprinters, done a few big runs in rented ones and was very impressed apart from the rot on the 8 year old 250000 mile one I had

 

Smaller you say? Trafic. I know the reputation is bad but they're comfortable and decent to drive.

[noseypoke]

Another thing.......THEIR MADE IN TURKEY............enough said....Turkish delight...NOT