Hello,  This is my first ever post!  I have been a 'reader' for a couple of years and love reading all the good advice and conversations going on.  As my dog family has grown we are now on the hunt for the ideal van for showing, we also have two children so need a van with seats for them as well.

At the moment we are considering the Mercedes Vito and the volkswagon transporter, does anyone have any experience of these or have any other recommendations?

Thanks

I had a VW Transporter and loved it was told to go for the 2.4 rather than the 1.9 which I did. Would still have had it but I wrote it off in an accident. In saying that the Vito also gets good reports, the Vauxhall Vivaro also seems quite popular but don't have any experience of these two.

As a fanatical VW Transporter owner, having had 6 over the past 20 years - you know what I'm going to say.....

Depending on your budget, there are systems which allow seats to slide back and forth in the length of the van to create space for humans or for carrying cages. I bought my present one as an ex fleet hire at 3 yrs old and converted it to a camper - at a fraction of the price of  a 'branded' van.

It would certainly be possible to convert/have converted the larger transporter to carry a mix of humans & dogs + have some basic water carrying/cooking facilities.

As for size, if you're worried about that, the swb models are about the same overall length as a Volvo estate, though a bit wider....parking is no problem, also in the last 10 years they all come with power steering and diddy steering wheels - they are in fact a pleasure to drive ! Though don't think you're going to start competing with boy-racers in acceleration.

Hope this helps,

Scrums

Thanks for your speedy replies!  It's good to hear about the transporters as I think they are easier to find and lighter on the pocket to buy! The conversion idea is great too as we had hoped to use it for camping as well so that we can take all 4 dogs with us on holidays.

Thanks

We have a Ford Transit "Crew bus" - which is absolutely ideal - it has a total of 8 seats, a table, fitted gas cooker & handwasher facility - plus room for 3 Aussies & 2 Leonbergers!

We bought it, 2 years ago, from a company that buys contract vehicles - this one was an ex Balfour-Beatty Railtrack crew bus, had only done 35,000 miles, so it has been excellent.   The only modification we would make is to add air conditioning - and it would have been nice if it had been one of the Turbo diesels!

Margot

Hi Scrums what's the most economical of the VW transporter's??  I have a 1974 VW transporter which I dearly love but I just can't afford to keep running it as it eats the unleaded petrol :d  Do you know of any VW dealers that would give a good exchange rate for it, seeing as it's still got the oriinal bodywork and is in almost immaculate condition.  My hearts telling me not to sell it but my brains saying that I have to.  I wish that I could do sad faces.

Hmmmm.....

Transporters are not the most economical beasts in any guise, but I would have thought diesel is best, my 2.4 gives about 28 - 35 mpg.

Doubt if many dealers would be interested in a '74 VW, certainly not main dealers - if it's as clean as you say maybe try some of the caravanette converters - they're always on the lookout for clean older models.

Scrums  :-(

I had a Transit, but found it v. uncomfortable to drive on long distances!  I now have a Ford Galaxy with all but the front 2 seats taken out and it is luxury!!

Sarah.

Scrums it isn't clean it's immaculate :d  The original body work with only about 2 spots of rust on it.  I'm only it's second ever owner :d

I had a toyota hi ace - which i couldn't fault 100% reliable very economical 400+ to the tank and drives like a car lovely.
Now i was looking to change it an considered three another hi ace, a vito and the vw, my mechanic (independant) said forget the VW as the parts are really expensive eg £70 for wiper! he recons you can't do better then the vito but likes the toyota too.  I think the vito is more roomy esp as the lwb toyatas are like golddust.

we've just bought a mazda bongo, 8 seater or 5 seater with a huge space. The ones with the lids also convert into a 4 birth camper quite easily. It is amazing and really light to drive.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer, it seems we are on the right track with our choices. The next stage will be to find them!

Hi,

I work for VW and the genuine parts are expensive i agree, but remember you can get non-genuine on most car parts now at a fraction of the cost. :o)

How about the vauxhall Movana van. It has two rows of seats and loads of room for cages, everyone at the agility seems to be going for them these days so they must be good.

The Fiat Scudo, Citroen Dispatch and Peugeot Expert are all pretty popular too atm! We've just bought a Peugeot Expert and are very happy with it, it has 2 seats in the front, 3 in the middle and 4 cages (2 up 2 down) in the back.
Renault Trafics and Vauxhall Vivaros are also quite popular.

On a smaller scale the Citroen Berlingo, Renault Kangoo, Fiat Dublo, and Peugeot Partner MPV vans make good dog transport.  You ahve the height in the load area and can choose to either have the whole of the back a van or carry passengers.