Family Vehicle?

[Janne]

Something similar to Carfax. Called Data check or History check?

These ( Carfax or history check) do not show repairs paid by the owner without involving the insurance company.

 

[Janne]

Why buy from a UK dealer if you want a used Japan vehicle?

Buy it straight from Japan yourself. All these used car places are internet based.

Remember, the only thing the British dealer does is to order them online, then wash and wax and hike up the price.
Sure, they tell you they select the best, bla bla bla....
BS.

Toyota Alphard 2004, 2165 USD. Or talking British peseta, 1670 GBP.

 

[Paul_B]

How much to import and UK register them? How much to sort out speedometer if less than 10 years old? Plus hassle. Everything costs one way or another. I've exported through a past job but not imported. So I've got an idea of paperwork one way not the other.

One company says a flat fee to do all the necessary work of £350. The guide price is what they believe they'll get out for plus this flat fee. Their blurb IIRC says that if it costs more or less than their prediction the UK buyer pays more or less accordingly. Nice business if it's true but I doubt they'll only get the £350 to cover costs and profit. They'll probably get something the other end. Can't trust garages or dealerships.

BTW 60k bongo 2.5l v6 petrol Feb 1997. Guess how much otr UK?

That mileage is impossible to achieve and it still be worth buying that mpv. That's 2.5 return work commutes a week for me. My bike would get a lot of use instead of I wanted to try match that. That's without weekend use and holidays. Take out our drive to a ferry port (cycle tour from there) it leaves weekend use no more than 34 miles each weekend without any week use.

Assuming it's not real, why would you clock it so low? Surely there is a better mileage that's believable but doesn't effectively scrap your car in buyer's eyes?

Personally I look to 10-12k a year on cars for my top end but anything less than 5k a year I avoid to, indeed close to 5k I'll probably avoid. Either don't believe it or concerned about how it's used. I also look at 4 or 5 year olds to save on depreciation but I know I'll mostly get a car with a decent life left. Used to take a 4/5 year old to 14+ years easily. Well scrapped one when beyond economic repair but it's been putting off buying again for a year or two and I'd run it to 17 years with minimal work done on it.

I'm starting to think japanese isn't a good idea. That leaves the question what's left? Vauxhall vivaro in crew cab? Hyundai i800 (expensive)? VW? Rip off!

Hey quick question. VWs are the go to van for small campers for a long time. If you go to sites or popular overnight spots those small campers will be 90% VWs if not higher. So why don't they seem to have serious competition?

In my childhood I seem to recall that most cars on motorway journeys seemed to be ford or vauxhall. Now there's so many different brands. Serious competition. Not so small campers. They're hideously expensive IMHO. I've seen Ford, Fiat and vauxhall based small campers selling for low £20k in good nick and not too old. Local garage sells a few VWs and I often drive past a camper / motorhome dealer and they are £36-52k for something twice the age and nothing special other than the badge that I can see. I just don't understand the mentality of a VW buyer and why another brand doesn't compete.

 

[Janne]

Most used cars buyers think a low mileage is good.
A well serviced ( with quality lubricant and proper coolant mixture) engine lasts for several, hundred of thousands of miles.

Change oil twice a year, use the best.
Do an 'Italian tuning" from time to time.

Most Europeans used to do holidays within Europe, sleeping in tents, campervans. People were not so rich in those days, and 'flying' holidays were very expensive.

 

[Paul_B]

There's low and really low. If you're driving a couple of miles a lot without longer runs I would have thought your engine takes a lot of wear. IIRC the short journeys don't give the lubrication time to clear out any debris or metal wear particles. Or some such matter. Relative to the miles the short journeys do more damage. However that's a garage mechanic or breakdown mechanic giving me that spiel so if it's wrong it's wrong I'll likely take your word for it.

Personally I tend to rule out cars run at greater than 12000 miles a year (or a little over that if the car is something special in other respects). Then I rule out cars less than 5000 miles per year. I'm usually looking at 4 or 5 year old cars. The reason is they cost what I'm happy to spend (I can spend more but prefer not to) and they still have plenty of reliable driving years left in them if I pick well. So far I've been lucky (I'm not knowledgeable enough to be completely sure I can pick a good car without luck).

 

[Janne]

Correct. The first seconds, ( varies on engine) the oil has not been pumped to all lubrication points = metal to metal contact = wear. You have seen young guys starting an engine then revving it hard straight away?
A fantastic way to wear the engine prematurely.
Oils today are so good ( unless you get a crap oil ) that they lubricate well already when cold. The old oils were 'thicker' when cold so could not get to the lubrication points quick.

Manufacturers in those days recommended to use a Winter Oil and a Summer Oil.

35 years ago, I had a couple of taxi drivers as patients. 3 guys sharing a MB diesel. Shifts.
They only stopped the engine when it went for service. Never stopped it between customers, when waiting.
The told be their engines did over a MILLION kilometers before they had to be replaced. That is around 600 000 Miles or so?

In Sweden we used to say used car dealers were ex used horse dealers.

I never buy new cars. the latest Defender excluded, but I got it last year, it is a 2013 manufacture stored in UK. The last car I ordered from a factory was in 2001, and that was only because a good friend ( private racer) was allowed to buy 2 cars each year for his racing, at factory price. He did not need two new cars that year, so he allowed me to buy one under his 'umbrella'.

Saved me loads and loads of money, then I sold it 3 years later at a beautiful profit.

I buy my cars 2- 3 years old or so.

 

[Paul_B]

2-3 year old cars big enough for families are out of my price range (I wish I was a dentist/dentist-doctor). What you get at even £3000 more than I have to spend is a lot. The cars are often the newer shape / version and look modern. Then a few years on they are old shape and suddenly look old fashioned shape. That's when I get them unfortunately.

It's like now there's a lot of cars around with angular features or cut outs in the design such as Honda civic or Nissan juke. 5 year old plus cars are more rounded shapes like Skoda octavia. Some new shape cars have more subtle angularity features but it's there somewhere in the shape.

I've met people with a penchant for older cars you can do up and maintain. Including land rover guys (one 21 year old I knew when I was about that age was secretary of a UK land rovers club or area secretary. Had a mrk 1 or 2 ex military LR with extended fuel tanks that made it smell of diesel all the time. The leak could never be found. Even back then when diesel was something like 50p a litre it cost a month's pay to fill all the tanks and he'd take a long time to empty them. LEJOG/JOGLE at least once he thought. Still he wasn't really a car nut in that he only worked on the car with his dad when it wasn't running. He'd rather drive it that work on it. Mind you he did help his dad who had a couple of them too.

I never understood that attitude. If you don't like working on cars buy a car that's reliable so you don't have to and the few occasions you need a fix a garage does it for you. As someone said to me "I never got the way men got into cars until I drove that one, it just goes!" followed by a grin that said speed and acceleration! I got that experience in a subaru impreza. Only 208 bhp but considering my car was then a 1 litre fiesta that at new probably only had 78bhp it was fun. Most fun was the handling though. Mini roundabout on the inside overtaking a saab turbo hse which at 50-70 supposedly out acccelerated a porsche 911. Like it was on rails!

Cars are more about getting me to the main activity that's out of the car for me. A to b only but if it's a nice journey then that's better. Motorway mile eaters are better than hard drive / "race" handling cars

 

[Janne]

I bought my first motor, a Nissan Sunny when I was 28, had no money. I did work on friend's cars, in exchange for the option of borrowing them now and then.

With a family, safety and comfort is far more important than prestanda. in fact, prestanda is quite unimportant anyway, if we follow common sense and the traffic laws.

As I taught my son, it is better to arrive at your destination 5 minutes later that you would arrive in the ER. I hope he follows my advice.

 

[santaman2000]

I have adjusted the mileage on a couple cars myself, both electronic odo’s ( need access to a specific program from the ‘net and the connector to acess the cars computer) and mechanical ( dead easy, you just need an electric drill.)

I was young and did not want to lose so much second hand value. Used to do over two hours driving a day on fast roads, and huge distances on my holidays. Yes I know, it is criminal ......

Yeah but that's not what I meant. When I said "switched" I meant from miles to kilometers and back.

 

[Paul_B]

Did you read any the latest version of fiat punto without any ncap star rating? First car to be fully tested to get no stars at all. Of course there's a few makes who have stopped selling in the EU to avoid ncap I believe.

The benefits of replacing cars is they usually get safer with each generation. My car was 4 star but now probably wouldn't even get 3 in the latest version of tests. The ncap system updates itself with every series of safety developments. As they move towards developing autonomous cars the advances they make seem to be filtering into human driven vehicles increasing safety. To get ncap 5 now you need features that detect what's around and can do things like emergency braking or maintaining safe stopping distance for you I believe. It's the electronic features not the physical structure that seems to be the improvements.

 

[santaman2000]

Something similar to Carfax. Called Data check or History check?

These ( Carfax or history check) do not show repairs paid by the owner without involving the insurance company.

I was thinking more about the mileage than the crash history. Carfax also shows the mileage every time the plates are renewed.

 

[Janne]

You get an idea of the yearly mileage by checking the service history, but if somebody is crafty and adjust between the servicing it is invisible.

I have not done this dubious, illegal (?) and immoral stuff for years and years.....

I do not know it it is even possible with the latest generations of cars. Some makers' computers are very 'locked' for adjustments of the parameters.

Tuners know everything.

I am sending the computer of one of my cars over to US to be reprogrammed, I am installing free flowing exhaust systems without a catalyst, and have the opportunity to free up more ponies. Plus I want to optimize the torque curve, I need more torque at lover revs.
No adjustment of the odometer though. I am to old for tricks like that!

 

[Paul_B]

Just curious, for a small / medium van which suspension design is likely to be best? Double wishbone or mcpherson strut and why?

Just checked out a link for van sizes I had from this site and it's now user account only. So the one I did find had a load of different factors compared and you could compare directly several van models. Suspension types were one factor compared.

Seems to me double wishbone slightly better but potentially more costly to fix if it goes wrong. I think I read the negative camber as its steered makes it sound better but if course I'm unlikely to notice it as significantly as other features. But it's good to know more about these things hence my query.

 

[Broch]

The double wishbone normally takes up more room (for the upper wishbone) so you lose a bit more load space. I doubt you would see much advantage in road manners in non-performance vehicles to be honest.

 

[Paul_B]

I was looking at a vivaro and a proace van from vauxhall and Toyota respectively. The toyota had the double wishbone.

It was interesting how very similar they really are. Same engine size, the vivaro was typically 50mm bigger in all dimensions except wheelbase and turning circle. The power was greater in the vivaro but only by 5. Torque values were identical. I think the slightly lower power might be part of the reason the Toyota had a significantly higher mpg. But the typical running costs were down as identical. I guess that's due to higher servicing costs for the Toyota. The service intervals were 12 months or 12000 miles I think compared to 24 months or 24000 miles for the vivaro.

Sorry nerdish interest in numbers.

Makes me think that like for like there is really not much to really distinguish equivalent vans for size, performance, etc. It's other factors relating to dealerships, warranties, personal preference, etc.

 

[Paul_B]

The double wishbone normally takes up more room (for the upper wishbone) so you lose a bit more load space. I doubt you would see much advantage in road manners in non-performance vehicles to be honest.

Thanks for your reply broch. I didn't think it would matter much for similar vans. I'd expect the simpler strut on the vauxhall is part of the reason they're cheaper on parts and possibly part of the longer service intervals. If a vehicle has less complexity a mechanic charges less time to do equivalent fixes. It's why I miss my old Astra. The seat car we have now just costs too much to get fixed. The labour time is higher to carry out basic repairs.

Things like a replacement switch or control for the seat climate control requires complete dismantling of the dashboard to reach it. Or replacing window glass on front side windows takes over an hour due to complexity.

IMHO vauxhall cars and I assume vans too benefit through simplicity in how things are put together making garage work quicker and easier.

 

[Janne]

For a van - any suspension is good, as you will drive it slowly, specially with family onboard.

There is something to be liked with oldfashioned, simply designed vehicles. Not much to go wrong, and cheaper to repair!

A good test drive will tell you if you like the van.

I would not make the technical design the deciding factor but the safety and more importantly, comfort and personal 'feel'.