Longjing

I've got a bit of house and garden clearing to do... not commercially or anything, just my own house. The garden in particular is full of rubbish, so I was thinking I would have to hire a van on a few occasions.

Now, even a shabby van will cost a few quid to hire in London. I reckon 200 notes probably, for three different day hires. It's got me thinking about whether I should buy an old shed instead, and then I could use it at my leisure over summer, or lend it to my dad or whatever. Probably not a great deal financially but there would be at least a chance that I could flog the thing and maybe not lose too much. It could be disastrous too of course.

So, I'm after ideas in the small van/estate category. I'm thinking of something £500-1000 here, so I expect everything to be shoddy - but I hope I could get something not too unrelible for short distances around town.

I don't know anything about vans. The only vague idea I've had so far - prompted by something on a thread here somewhere - is an old Suzuki SJ. Which is quite possibly stupid, but with a long wheel base one and the back seats out, they're big enough. I had one as a hire car years ago and thought it was ok for a cheap small thing.

Japanese seems sensible with old car. But I'm just guessing really... maybe what I want is an Astravan or something.

Any ideas or experiences, scoobynetters?

TIA

Chip Sengravy

you will struggle convincing insurance co's to insure you on a private policy for a commercial vehicle..I did when I had a caddy van.

get yourself a salty old volvo or mundano...

Chip Sengravy

bit more money...
eBay.co.uk: Vauxhall Omega Estate , 2000 (item 290080299680 end time 08-Feb-07 18:34:45 GMT)

Longjing

Hadn't thought about insurance. Hmm.

Perhaps a large and flaky estate is the way.

Chip Sengravy

It's do-able, but they don't seem to believe its for personal use, so they take your pants down anyway...

mine was 850 quid TPF&T for 2001 caddy worth about 2.5K! I had zero no claims though, and a few endorsements

Longjing

850! Gordon Bennet.

I'm thinking about an old Volvo now... seems to be a fair choice around.

A 240 is almost a classic now!

Cheers for the advice.

johnnyroper

you could probably get a 406 or vectra estate diesel ex fleet with high miles in your budget around p reg
good load space and fairly cheap to run should be reliable enough for what you need

Bat-Fink

Cheapo Escort Diesel estate?

Can get them well cheap.

aggs

Hire a skip.
When its full ask them to come and pick it up.
Easy.

simplesteve

A mates just bought a Ford P100 pick up, for lugging stuff around while he modifys his house with 6 months MOT and tax all for £75! Looks like a dog though.......

rossyboy

iTrader: (8)

I feel like a stuck record here, but Mondeo Estate would be perfect.

I wouldn't get an escort, when you can have the Mondeo for the same money.

Brendan Hughes

Early mondeo estates from photocopier salesmen etc are probably that money. The advantage with them is that you can fold the back seat forward WITHOUT lifting the seat squab up, and so not be limited to the length of load you carry, except by the length of your legs and how far back the driver's seat goes. You can get a full 2m IIRC. It was a big thing for Dad when he chose his.

Buy a cheap sheet or two of ply to put on the floor to protect, if you care about resale...

rossyboy

iTrader: (8)

Here are some mondeo estates at less than £1k

Buy a used FORD MONDEO - Auto Trader UK

Not my postcode in the search

Longjing

Bit of consensus towards the large repmobile estate then... maybe that's the way forward. The Mondeos certainly look big, not been in one though. I'd quite like a high-ish roof but that's not a requirement really.

I'll be moving a few items of some value (eg a huge CRT tv) as well trash, so I do need a vehicle rather than a skip... and with a roof ideally. p100/hiace type pickup did occur to me, but worried about the insurance now.

Autotrader ahoy. Cheers for the input everyone.

rossyboy

iTrader: (8)

I got a bath in the back of my HATCHBACK Mondeo with the seats down and still got the hatch shut! There was room for the rest of the bathroom suite aswell.

tonybooth

Xantia diesel estate? Mate has one for sale. PM if interested

T

Franx2

You can pick up a huge Volvo 740 or 940 for next to nothing

Hardly the most exciting thing to drive, but they're comfy as hell, and enormous. Still seems to be a demand for 'em when you want to sell it on as well...