Hi - from a first time buyer! (1 Viewer)

[Keeley]

Sadly as you have discovered, the base van on the old symphony and symbol were pretty poor metal that quickly rusted. Most folk when a vehicle fails the MOT on rust, have the absolute minimum of welding done to get a pass then sell the vehicle on. With a base van intended as a courier or builders van, they built to a budget knowing it would likely be scrapped after 4 years. The steel round most of it is very thin and quickly rusts

Thanks TheBig1...yes that very much appears to be the case - certainly on most if not all the mid-90's vans that have caught my eye ...in fact in all of my checks I've only really seen two that didn't appear to have serious rust issues....but they were both 2004 registered vehicles and way over my budget - one was 23k and the other 24k (ouch!) ....have to say though, the more i look, the more I'm starting to feel that i might have to bite the bullet and up my budget to 20k + if I'm to find something that won't result in me just buying a load of problems and headaches! - and I thought 18k was a fortune!
...i know its a difficult question to answer but did the build quality improve significantly on vans built in mid 2000's? or at least to a degree that would be worth bumping up my budget by 6 or 7K?!

thanks. K

 

[MisterB]

good morning keeley, welcome to the house of fun, glad you took my advice from the uk campsite forum and took a meander over here .....

if you look through some of the old threads, you will see that most problems do have a solution and there is so many people on this forum just willing to offer advise, information and help. its well worth the annual subscription fee as hopefully you will find out ( just compare the number of responses you have had already compared to the uk campsite forum !!!)

best wishes

 

[Keeley]

good morning keeley, welcome to the house of fun, glad you took my advice from the uk campsite forum and took a meander over here .....

if you look through some of the old threads, you will see that most problems do have a solution and there is so many people on this forum just willing to offer advise, information and help. its well worth the annual subscription fee as hopefully you will find out ( just compare the number of responses you have had already compared to the uk campsite forum !!!)

best wishes

Morning MisterB....you were right about this forum - It's great! Thanks for the tip

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[TheBig1]

...i know its a difficult question to answer but did the build quality improve significantly on vans built in mid 2000's? or at least to a degree that would be worth bumping up my budget by 6 or 7K?!

fiat brought out a new model in 2006, which seems more resistant to rust

 

[Grummyb]

Hi Keeley and welcome if its any help i will be selling a transit duetto in 3 or 4 weeks as soon as I have had a chance to get some silly problems sorted out so that when I sell it I know its right
Its a 2000 long wheel base mk 5 so the 1 with the smiley face grill and as its a mk 5 it doesn't have any engine ecus to go wrong its never been welded and everything that's important works as it should or will when I sell it I was going to advertise it for probably £10500 if its of any interest let me know