So many out there, where to start. Have looked at Vivaros and size is okay. So not too big, 5 seats and ample room for cages at back. I have a Doblo which can take 4 but next year may have an extra dog so looking at options now. Sometimes 3 of us go to shows, sometimes more so do need extra seats. Pref windows in middle section (Vivaro double cab has them). I looked on autotrader and so many of them are in a bad state because of commercial use. Sadly cant afford a brand new one. Suggestions welcome so I know which makes to google ;-)

get a vw transporter. many diff models including some with  rear seats and some just plain vans. Recommend the T4 or T5 Kombi but not the 85hp engine....go for the 105 or 130 or 170.

Gosh, there are so many out there. Wondered about ex police vans, Any thoughts or links to follow. Preferably Midlands area. Some of selers are miles away ;-(

I like the transporters too.  What about the merc vito?  I went to see a lot of these as they can be in a terrible condition (and one of those was an ex-police).

Isnt the merc bigger, not too keen on big vans lol

I'm selling a nissan Elgrand, fab car x van, eg extra larger people carrier, lots of space, lots of seats and windows - I can pm you if you think it may suit, good price too :)

my dog walker has a toyotal hilux that is great and keeps the dogs seperate from the humans.  There is loads of room in the back section and as it can be hosed out, there wouldn't be any problems with any mess from the dogs.  It would also allow you to travel with or without cages, depending on your preference.  They are very dependable and go for years without being too expensive.

http://www.toyota.co.uk/cgi-bin/toyota/bv/generic_editorial.jsp?navRoot=toyota_1024_root&nodiv=TRUE&fullwidth=TRUE&forceText=%3Cnone%3E&edname=HL5_CarChapter&id=HL2_gallery_new&zone=Zone%20NG%20Hilux&deepLink=HL2_gallery_new&navType=Internal&sr=Mall  Although the pics here don't show a covered cab, you can get them covered.

Thanks but I think its more a van really I need to get 4/5 dogs in at times. Can only get 4 in Doblo.

I never bought a van in the end.  They were great for the dogs but just didn't have the comfort for the people!  I bought a fiat ulysses in the end and took the seats out the boot.  We fitted a huge cage which we covered with a plastic material so the dog hair/muck didn't come through and we love it!  Another option?

> I bought a fiat ulysses in the end

I've had 2 Ulysses, brilliant reliable cars with bags of room and as you say comfy too. I have a Citroen C4 Grand Picasso now, fancier than my old ulysse but slightly less dog space, thats ok though as the dogs are getting smaller :-)

I've got a Merc Vito and love it. No, I'd say it was smaller than the Vivaro. It's actually same dimensions as a Land Rover, if you go for the Compact version, ie not the long wheel base varieties. The Traveliner comes with windows in the middle section and in the tailgate and seating, still giving tons of space in the rear for 2 up 2 down caging.  I bought mine from a commercial van outlet dealing in ex Mercedes lease vehicles. Mine is a bog standard van, which I'm really pleased I went for now, though I had been considering a van with central windows, and it was in extremely good condition, as were all the other vehicles they had in. So worthwhile having a look around for the people who deal with ex lease vehicles. They tend to be well serviced.

I think the best thing though is to go round and test drive as many as you can. I booted quite a few off my list (including the Vivaro) 'cause although on paper they looked just what I wanted, I really didn't like the way they drove.

I'd toyed with the idea of something like a Ford Galaxy, but when it came down to it, the van enabled me to carry my dogs (5) as I wished, and still gave me plenty of space for all my junk, and was tons cheaper than a car. If you do go for a van it's really, really worthwhile going for one with a lift up tailgate, rather than the barn door openings. You'll probably know how wet you can get loading and unloading dogs into a vehicle :-)

I have driven the older style Peugeot Expert van and that was a really nice drive. You can get these with windows and second row of seating and there are some really good bargains to be had if you're not in a rush. The downside to those for me is that they're barn doors not lift up tailgate.

The vito is smaller and more expensive than the vivaro. The vivaro, renault traffic and nissan primastar are all exactly the same van! Mine was ex police and cost a few hundred getting things right again since they cut everything out when it was decommisioned. If I was buying again id get a standard van and have the cages put in myself. I find a lift up tailgate useful to shelter from the rain etc so that limited my selection a fair bit. The transporter doesnt have as much headroom so 2 up 2 down cages wouldnt be as tall as in a vivaro.

I was doing this some months back - currently we have a Vauxhall combo and we did intend to change it for a larger van with more seats...

All the vehicles mentioned here pretty much were considered, along with the advice of my helpful mechanics (i have two, one down south and one up north, just in case :) )..

Vivaros/trafics didnt rate well on the reliability/fixability front, being either hard to acess to work on (so more labour costs), expensive to get parts for and/or known for dying on you...

I would LOVE a Hilux... however seriously, if you have got passengers in the back, max 'dog' you will fit in the back is a couple of labradors/three spaniels sort of thing. No good to me with a deerhound, a saluki x affie, a little lurcher, a terrier x and a tibby - they like one another but nto THAT much. (Youll get more in with the doublecab pickup with the box back on it, but im not keen on those with dogs in them...). Cost a forrrrrtune to go anywhere though!

So the end result was,  a VW transporter!

However, holding off until OH has a couple of years being insured in his own name, as this years insurance, for a 33 year old on a clean (though only 2 year old) licence.. on a VW combo.... for fully comp... was over £900. (The renewal quote was actually 1200 but im not that numb that i agree to renewals without shopping around!) We have had to go 3rd party f&t this year to bring the insurance down to something reasonable, which im not happy about but its that or walk everywhere!

The VW transporter is one of the best vans about, very reliable compared to a Merc. Most people who have Merc's i know of a van or van type have suffered problems.
The VW Caravelle or VW Transporter Combi is worth looking at too.
I personally would steer clear of anything which has been driven around by a workman, head towards a van which is not used for commercial use - they tend to be looked after better..

When i was deciding between a van and 4x4 i spoke at length to the VW sales man about what it was i required, i wanted a van with the option of seats in the rear, lift up tail gate, windows in the rear and air con at the back. He said the vehicle which would cover this all is the Transporter Combi, they do hold their price though..

Heck, you must have had the same insurer as me ... when I went from estate to van my current insurers wanted me to pay an additional £1100 on top of what I was already paying!!!!

On the reliability front (to OP now) you are going to get mixed tales from everyone and every single mechanic will give you a different story. I got that ... "oooh don't go for a Merc" ... "I wouldn't touch VW with a barge pole" ... "go for a Merc, the most reliable", etc, etc. I spoke with tons of people at shows, get their opinions on the vehicles that they actually drive rather than the stories they've heard about other vehicles.  In defence of my Vito it is hugely reliable, an absolute dream to drive and I will replace this one with another one when the time comes. Vito was around £1000 cheaper than a Transporter, which ditched the Transporter off my list. The only thing I would say against the Vito is it's rear wheel drive. This is not a problem until you get a heavy winter like last winter's. If I was carrying a full load over my rear axle it would have been fine, but 'cause caging and 5 collies don't weigh the amount they're designed to carry, I did have some problems in the snow.  The Transporter is front wheel drive so the weight of the engine over the driving wheels eliminates a lot of this.  However, it was 30 years ago the last fabulous winter we had, so that's something I'm willing to put up with, and the purchase of a pair of Snow Sox sorted me out nicely.

Just talk to people, get the opinions rather than 2nd and 3rd hand stories and get out test driving as many as you can, even the ones that may not be on your initial wish list :-)

Also if you're wanting one to put caging in, check out the dog sites ... you will find tons of vans being advertised and normally with the caging in already - my caging cost me around £900 ... you are not going to be getting that back on a caged vehicle so you may find some good value vehicles there. Sites to look at are:

http://www.obedienceuk.com - look on their e-shop
and http://www.agilitynet.co.uk - look in the Fleamarket section
also if you go around shows ask people if they know of anyone selling a van. Before I got my Vito last year I parked up to a very ice Expert van at a comp and got chatting to the lady who happened to mention she was going to sell in a few months. I was all geared up to buy that but she decided to keep it a little longer, you might find one at the price you want.

As for avoiding anything driven around by a workman ... you can tell if a vehicle's been hammered. Mine was, and still, is in excellent condition, as said it's from a company dealing in ex lease vehicles (there are tons of these around the country) and they only deal with 'good' vehicles. There were 5 had come in with my batch, I had a good look at all of them (all really were excellent) and plumped for the one with the least mileage (25,000 for just under 3 years old). Just depends on your budget, I had a low budget to work with.

My favourite is the VW transporter but when it came to the crunch I just couldn't afford it and had to get a Fiat Scudo, but I actually love it, very reasonable, reliable, economical, 3 seats in the front, and I've had it caged for 3 giant breed dogs, although I can fit 2 in one of the cages for short distances. 

> get a vw transporter

oooh would love one of those... do you have one Sam?

I've just bought a Vivaro, great size, more economical than what I thought (I had a Peugeot Expert previously), lovely to drive. I had been looking round for one for a while but with paying VAT ontop, they were too expensive, BUT I went to a commercial vehicle auction, and bought an ex BT fleet van, '05 plate, 45000 on the clock, a year nearly of MOT left, full service history, still complete with internal racking, which was actually really useful for the crates etc, AND it was about £3000 cheaper than buying from a garage.

The one down side of buying at auction, is that once you've bought it, that's it, it's sold as seen, but we've been really lucky, it's been really looked after, got a flying pass from the mechanic when it was checked afterwards and I LOVE IT, it's great for the dogs, and we're testing it at the weekend for camping at Malvern!!

The biggest commercial auction is BCA, which is at Castle Bromwich, about 5 mins off jct 5(around here!) on the M6

We have just bought a T5 VW transporter, only had it a week, absolutely love it! :)

molezac, i drive a LR Defender for the fieldsports side of my business and on the farm etc, but OH has an ex AA T4 transporter which I ocassionally borrowed for long journeys like dog shows etc. however its getting on a bit (even tho our friends is still going strong at 400 thousand miles on the clock) so we decided to get me a newer one for shows and longer work trips (we drove it to the world show a couple of weeks ago), and went for a T5.....cant fault it atall, and although my defender will always be my 1st love, the T5 is def my 2nd love!! :). Did a useful 38mpg to Denmark and back and we were rarely under 80 on the autobahn :) and I can easily get 5 or 6 hounds lounging comfortably in the back for a show trip.

I haven't got one yet, but when I do I'll look here first... http://www.fleetleasingltd.co.uk/index.php

They are all ex-police vehicles, and the dog vans (which I would be interested in) are all air conditioned so exactly what I would be looking for! Just thinking about the cost involved in converting a normal van for dog use makes me cringe, but these vans are really cheap, are fully serviced and are well kitted out. I doubt you could go wrong!

Except when they are decommisioned the air con all gets either ripped out or cut so you have to pay £400 for a electrician to rewire it all for you!!

Why do they do that?

I didn't realise that... hmm, considering 99% of people purchasing these vans would be doing so to transport dogs, I wonder why they would do that?

Apparently its the law, anything extra the force has put in all has to be removed or disconnected before a sale can take place. The guys there dont really care so the wires literally get cut in 2!! When I first got mine it was a nightmare working out what still worked and what didnt. Mine was direct from the police and they had removed all the fuses and left loose wires hanging out of everywhere. They are also not likely to have ever had a standard ariel or radio unit fitted.

That said, its still a very well cared for engine and drives like a dream and there is no way I could have afforded the top class dog cages if I hadnt bought it that way.

I saw a transit I quite liked but not able to convince Oh we can afford it :-(

I have a semi high roofed transit - it's an ex police van but actually going to a dealer and kitting it out yourself is much cheaper in terms of what you get for your money that they fleet leasings which I did look into.  Mosat of them have over 100,ooo on the clock average of around 120 when I was looking and they only come with a max of 3-6 months warrenty.

Goin to a dealer I got something with 40,000 on the clock, ex police with service history (the fans etc as already metioned were disconnected) it came with a years guarentee and getting cages sorted for myself and it was still about the same price as fleet adn other similar companies.  I love my van too and so do the doggies.  Alos got opening blacked out windows as well which is fab :-)