Anyone who's followed Zelandeth’s blog thread on here will know of this little van.
I have rewritten and copied his FOR SALE ad with all the interesting stuff….
He bought this back in January 2022 from @Marm Toastsmith on here when I was in need of something that would Just Work (TM) following a debacle with a Mercedes with what I came to term Schroedinger's Engine - which may or may not have been about to blow up at any time. It was really intended to be a quick stop-gap while I found something more interesting.
However it very quickly became a proper member of the fleet as it drives several orders of magnitude better than I had expected and without a doubt has to be one of the most overwhelmingly useful vehicles I've ever owned.
Since I picked it up I've covered somewhere in the region of 15K miles (odometer currently sits on approximately 115K miles), and save for fixing a couple of gremlins it had when I first collected it (which needed replacement of the air intake throttle assembly as the motor had gone senile, and a couple of bits of missing trim replaced), nothing aside from normal consumables have been needed.
A few people told me when I told them I'd bought this that the 1.9SDI was "Dangerously slow." Complete cobblers. No it's not a racing car...but guess what...it's NOT a racing car, it's a little van. She keeps pace with traffic absolutely bloody fine, and will comfortably sit well above the posted speed limit on a motorway all day long, knocking on the door of 50MPG while doing so. I've averaged 46MPG over the last couple of years, and that's mostly been around Milton Keynes which is absolute murder on economy in anything. I wouldn't be surprised if you saw high 40s day to day in a more normal setting.
While this thing isn't *noticeably* exceptional in any department while on a long trip it somehow seems to have a downright uncanny ability to compress long motorway journeys. I've done Milton Keynes to Aberdeen and Glasgow (twice), and have always got there feeling like I'd been on the road for about an hour, not six or eight.
I did find the nasty plastic steering wheel this came with quite unpleasant though so a leather wrapped one (I believe from a Golf) was fitted which is far nicer to hold.
In terms of rust the underneath of the dropped floor section at the rear looks quite scabby, but has withstood thorough prodding without issue. It's all just thick box section and flat panels though so even if any future repairs to this are needed they shouldn't be difficult.
The worst rust I know of on the car is on the nearside front jacking point where someone has helpfully folded the bottom of the sill over at some point and the damp has got in.
Here's the same area on the offside for comparison.
The underside in general is actually astonishingly clean for a 21 year old van.
There are a few bits which look a bit scabby top wise, but aren't really a worry in terms of structural integrity or an MOT pass at this point in time.
Engine bay is pretty presentable and surprisingly free of bodgery I was glad to find
Timing belt is still a ways off being due.
Tyres are a matched set of UniRoyal RainExperts, and are I'd say at 50% life (rears more than the fronts as I had some issues finding a garage who could actually set tracking properly, so there's a bit of shoulder wear on the tyres currently on the back). Front brake pads were replaced a couple of months ago as it was noted they were getting low.
So. Current issues.
[] Air conditioning is inoperative. The system is gas-tight but the compressor doesn't pump anything. A replacement is supplied with the car, I've just never had the time to get it installed. The expansion valve was also replaced when trying to fault find the issue so that's new.
[] Short MOT. It's out on November 18th. I'm struggling for both time and space at the moment hence taking a punt on it at this price. If there aren't any takers I'll stick a fresh test on it and re-advertise then.
[] Cracked windscreen.
[] Apparently knowing it was about to be put up for sale, it threw a check engine light at me last week literally as I was about to write this ad. This was a code for a needle lift sensor signal error, which was cleared and hasn't come back in another 200 or so miles of driving. This was after it had been sitting for a couple of weeks and the battery isn't exactly new, so it could be a one-off. However I'm disclosing it here as something which has popped up and I can't guarantee won't reappear.
[] Clutch isn't in its first flush of youth. Bite point is quite low and it does judder. I was pretty much expecting to have to put a clutch in when I bought the van...and it's still exactly the same now as it was then. So may well go on for a good while yet.
[] CV joints click on full lock.
[] The smaller rear door lower latch doesn't reset properly when opened so you need to manually flip the roller after opening the door.
[] Paint is...well you can see in the photos. There's not a single panel on it which doesn't have a ding, scrape or something on it. The front bumper was in primer when I got the van and was very quickly painted with a rattle can by me - it's very much a 20' job but made it way more presentable at a glance. I've always meant to paint the wheels as that would immensely improve the looks in a matter of minutes.
[] Rear seats really are only suitable for short trips or children as they're very cramped. They take about 60 seconds each to remove though if you just want the load space.
[] Wheelchair ramp is NOT operable. The actual ramp itself was removed prior to me getting the vehicle, and the dropped section of the bumper is no longer functional. I don't imagine it would be that hard to reinstate that at least though - I'd always meant to look into it for the dogs, but it just never got to the top of the to do list.
Reason for sale? Simply that I really need to be able to carry four adults in comfort for longer trips, and the Peugeot you see in the background of some of the photos has been bought to that end. As such this needs to move on.
This could be a really useful little van for someone, or thanks to the dropped floor could be an absolutely ace base for a micro-camper build as it gives you a good bit of extra height over a standard van. It's served me bloody well over the last couple of years and I will honestly be sad to see it go. I'd quite happily jump in this tomorrow and drive anywhere in the country. It's been one of those vehicles which really exceeded my expectations in every way, proving to be surprisingly a cheerful little thing to use as my daily.
I always had wanted to do something about the paintwork, my idea there being to do something heavily inspired by the Polo Harlequin, as per this ten minute proof of concept I threw together.
I don't think £750 is an unreasonable price for a vehicle like this in the current climate. Or £1000 with a year's ticket on it - though if you want that you'll need to wait a couple of weeks while I organise it. Will be valeted to eliminate as many traces of our dogs as possible from the back and will come with a full tank of diesel