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Had a brand new Transporter in 9 seater guise from the hire car company as an insurance replacement for the last week. A basic model, I think it's the 105bhp version.
Engine - nice and smooth, not very diesely but not much power up top. You can rev to 5krpm but there's absolutely no point. Pretty underpowered on the whole. 35mpg though doing lots of 75mph which was pretty good I thought.
Controls - steering is nice, dash mounted gearbox is nice also, but the clutch pedal is a bit too far to the right (it's a left hand drive model). Driver's seat really needed to move up and down for me, it didn't. Also didn't have any lumbar support or much in the way of support in general. Passenger seat didn't even recline, Mrs Grips ended up in the back because it was too uncomfortable.
Interior - spartan as you'd expect. Very little padding or insulation on the walls and ceiling, although the soft floor covering was ok. Stereo surprisingly okay. The back seats were easily removable and foldable flat, this was good.
Handling and ride - this was the bad point for me. It's noisy, fair enough, and stiffly sprung, also fair enough, but it seemed to have huge balloon tyres which were really bouncy. Coupled with the lack of support in the seats it meant that driving a long way was a real workout.
Overall then, not so good. We did a few drives of 1-2 hours in it and when I finished I felt like I'd been driving all day. Hard work, very tiring. My 2 year old daughter hated it too and couldn't sleep in it. I've done long trips in vans before and not had these problems. I definitely would NOT want one as a biking wagon, because of this.
Maybe the tires weren't inflated right or something as of all the vans I've had (vitos, transporters, trafic/vivaro, transit etc) the transporter is by far the nicest one to drive. Twin passenger seats aren't the best for comfort as they don't move at all but still not that bad.
I've driven mostly larger vans before when moving house and so on. So perhaps not ideal to compare. I think you can spec different wheels though, most transporters I see on the road (and there are many in Germany) have larger alloys and lower profile tyres which must help loads.
let me guess - other vans you drove had a bulkhead behind the passenger section , and you loaded them full of kit ....
that makes a huge difference to how they handle - not designed to be driven empty - even sticking a curtain up behind my passenger seat makes a huge huge difference !
get a VW caddy. goes like the clappers
even sticking a curtain up behind my passenger seat makes a huge huge difference
to the handling?
When moving house in vans, I tend to drive them to and from the rental place when empty 🙂 Although admittedly not for as far. And they had no bulkhead.
My load for most of the time in this van was 1/4 tonne of my family 🙂
In all fairness they are clearly not aimed at me, being work vans. However since people (including me) are often talking about them as *biking* wagons I thought I'd post. For what I would want one for it does not fit the bill in that guise I reckon.
The Caravelles look nice but they are sodding expensive!
odd. my friend has a VW T5 and drives all over europe in it and loves it more than his old T4
i have a VW T4 and i found driving to scotland and around france no problem with quite a relaxed driving position. i`ll admit hte bench passenger seat isnt great though.
i have one. came as a work van with a bulkhead & was fine to drive.
removed the bulkhead and i had to turn the stereo up all the way to heart it. honestly at that point i was doubting my decision to convert the van.
I would not have a van without bulkhead and sound insulation. I have insulated and carpeted the back of mine (and it has soft furnishings in!) and it is loads better.
even sticking a curtain up behind my passenger seat makes a huge huge difference
to the handling?
To the love life. If the van's rocking don't come knocking.
Well the tyres were down. I pumped them up to the light load recommendation and it was much better.
However I also remembered a couple of other annoyances. I can't get the air vents pointed in the right place - I either have a very cold arm or a very cold ear and side of head, or I'm too hot, none of which are pleasant.
The other annoyance is that the accelerator is either too high or too close (or both) which means that my foot is held up at a high angle and it hurts after a while. If I move the seat further back I can't push the clutch far enough in. Annoying that is, I almost always have a sore foot.
My T5 has stupid low profile tyres on stupid 20" rims and a flat-as-a-fart 85ps engine. It will happily do 70 mph all day and it's fitted with cruise control to save my right ankle.
Spent 5 hours driving it to Kirroughtree last Wednesday, rode the bike for 3 hours then drove a further 2 1/2 hours to our digs at Innerleithen, got out fresh as a daisy!
I think it's ace and choose to drive it in preference to our car, maybe it just depends what you are used too!
Cruise control and better seats, and we'd be getting somewhere I reckon.
even sticking a curtain up behind my passenger seat makes a huge huge difference
to the handling?
To the love life. If the van's rocking don't come knocking.
you can't see the angry motorists and coutryside passing [i]sideways[/i] in the rear view mirror. 😆
I have a new T5 Kombi 180bhp in 7 speed auto DSG guise and it is absolutely fantastic. I do around 15000 miles a year, so far done 7000miles this year. It's very comfortable to drive, much more so than my Grand Jeep Cherokee I had before this. Kids love it and we can fit 5 adults with bikes, gear and camping gear in comfortably. Very powerful too. Best vehicle I have ever owned. Expensive but worth it.
was gonna go with - less road noise...
you cant slouch in a van like most folk do in cars
Molgrips, I think you got a poverty spec version...
Life is better with 220bhp, heated leather seats, height and lumbar adjustment, air con, insulation, cruise control, uprated dampers and springs and wider lower profile 18" wheels...
But it did take me an age to get the seat in the right place and almost traded it in for a Vito Sport-x because of this.... but I have cracked it now and its all good.
Yeah it's the super basic spec, I said above. Rick is yours still sold as a Transporter? I was looking on the VW website and could only find the nice stuff in Caravelle.