I miss my old T5, a lot, but whilst living in the city it was just too much vehicle for the amount of driving I was doing and the import requirements forced me to make a decision to send it to the great parking lot in the sky.
Now though, I live outside town and a while from places I need to be and I fancy getting another. The thing is, we have a lot more building work coming up and, despite knowing a small van (Berlingo/Connect) would be a decent compromise, I find myself looking at pickups and realising they make a lot of sense. Well, apart from the pickups being Vw T3s.
Yes, I know they are old, noisy, slow, slooooooow things, but they are about the biggest small pickup I can find. I won’t be driving it a huge amount but, when it does, it will probably be with building materials in the back, think 4m lengths of timber and the like.
Does anyone have experience of owning one? How hard are spares to find these days? Are they simple enough to work on myself if I have half a clue about cars?
My neighbour spends more time fixing his than driving it.
Spares are dead easy to get.
Very simple to work on. Even dropping the engine is a doddle
They rot so buy on body condition. Mechanics are easy as once it's fixed it's fixed. Rust is a pain as your forever chasing it.
I always wanted a skoda pick up. Which was a caddy basically
We had one for work when I was a yoof, I learnt to drive in it and it was my party wagon at weekends. Throw some patio chairs in the crew cab, good to go!
Quite a refined vehicle to drive really, with the engine out back. Compared to a Tranny of the same era, the T3 cab is an oasis of calm. I loved it, with that big windscreen giving a mini lorry feel. Don't fancy crashing one though.
IT broke down, a lot. The underpowered, overheated 1.6 TD was a disaster. I'd expect anything still on theroad to be either rotten, or restored and expensive.
In your position, I'd do myself a favour and get something modern with a roofrack if necessary.
4x4 Suzuki carry pick up?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265803835114?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=SN-2xyBOQEu&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=LJIqZ7XGTkq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Why pick up and not van?
Used to have a T3 camper back in the day. Felt more refined than my previous campers (T2s) but you still have the problem that the crumple zone is your legs. I would think you are into collectors territory, too so you will be paying over inflated prices for a decent one.
I was also doing a lot of building work a few years ago on our house and found a twin—axled trailer to be far more useful and a cheaper option.
it will probably be with building materials in the back, think 4m lengths of timber and the like.
Well the bed isn't 4m long. Any estate car or small van with a roof rack will carry that that sort of thing just was well.
Be honest with yourself - practicalities are an irrelevance is you're buying either a classic car, or in the UK - a pickup - a vehicle for transporting things you don't mind getting either wet or stolen. The reason the T3 pick ups are so rare and so sought after is there were a terrible idea in the uk and hardly anyone bought them when they were new.
Get one if you want one - but wanting one is the point. Pretending its practical is just kidding yourself, its not part of the equation.
IT broke down, a lot.
The reason they're more popular as campers than as commercial vehicles is theres somewhere to make a cup of tea while you wait for the AA
I always wonder about the old VW and reliability,if you were so mechanically inclined and had had the Wonga wouldn’t it be possible to rejig one to be as reliable as a new car.
I dont remember the vw flat as being a terrible engine and back in the day as a kid my dad had a fair few vw’s I think he only used to put an electronic ignition kit on them but I don’t remember them being inherently unreliable apart from rust.
Or is it people buying old cars without mechanical empathy/ability.
MrsRNP and I did a big building project but we already had a LWB MK7 Transit van and it was perfect - pallets/ton bags/ tip runs (going on the weighbridge at local commercial waste centre was far cheaper than a skip), 8x4 sheets/steel beams/ladders/mixers etc. The other thing was that it was generally a reliable van so I didn't have the distraction of needing to fix whilst we had everything else going on.
I have a Berlingo now and whilst it's better suited to our life now I wouldn't want to do hardcore building works with it.
I’ve seen a couple of t3’s here that have been engine swapped for either the newer 1.6 or 1.9TDi motors from Golfs and even one with a Volvo B230, but how they would go through beisktning here is open to discussion. Then there’s the question of the gearbox and brakes and…
A small van (Berlingo/Connect) would make more sense from a “head” point of view, possible even with space for bikes in a longer wheelbase version. That said, I tried to do “jack of all trades” with cars before and it didn’t end well.
I always wonder about the old VW and reliability,if you were so mechanically inclined and had had the Wonga wouldn’t it be possible to rejig one to be as reliable as a new car.
the old vw reliability was largely a myth.VWs weren't the most reliable cars, Volvos weren't the safest, just marketing. Breakfast isnt the most important meal of the day, thats a Kellogs slogan. If you're comparing them in any way to anything modern they won't measure up. A golf that was marketed as being relabel, back in the day would on average be able to clock up similar milage in its lifetime as a contemporary astra. The only two real diffences was a golf would feel a bit better in older age when you slam the door or waggle the gear stick, and the odometer had one more digit than the astra. Most cars would go round the clock at 100k making it seem like they'd reach their useful lifespan so people would stop maintaining them. Even through pretty much every VW would lunch its water pump, barf up its head gasket and warp the head at 90k - there still being a zero on the odometer made it seem like there was plenty of life left in it and people would spring for the repair rather than scrap it.
But the comparison to anything modern - nah. And I mean anything from the last 20 years - The first car I took to the scrap yard, in 1996, was only 8 years old, rotten sills, leaking fuel tank, gearbox had been replaced at 5 yeats/ 60k, everything you'd touch - window winders and locks didnt work properly etc. My current car - something unreliable, complicated and French is twice that age and milage and everything works and it still pretty much looks brand new - theres never been a call to the AA for it in those 16 years. Nothing in life now (as in anything you would buy new or even something you'd buy thats old) is a unreliable as an 80s / 90s VW 🙂
Could you use a berlingo/rifter etc etc etc car version Xl model where the window in the rear door lifts up to allow long things to be slid in/out. (Seats fold to give flat base)
x2 for a trailer, get a decent size and they're not actually that hard to live with (ie. reversing). That or an MPV you don't mind trashing.
I'm guessing you're drier up there than the UK since a pickup is great for making dry things wet. Fine for flinging gardening tools into in New South Wales, less so in Old South Wales.
Also, those Suzuki Carry's rot for fun, work's had a couple for a number of years that look like they built the place.
I had an old SJ bac in the day. Hilarious for green laning in, but terrible on the road and soooo cold in winter.
The problem here is not so much salt (although some places do salt the roads, it's the long cold of the winters and the long distances between places. I _know_ a modern van like a Berlingo or Connect would make more sense, but I keep looking at a T3 and getting all nostalgic.
Will see what happens over winter. I'll probably end up with whatever was cheapest, had a tow hook and was legal to drive.
I have a T3 camper.
I love it and its taken me on some great trips. its a 1.9 petrol and not the quickest but will happily sit around 60mph
I like the fact you can't go anywhere super quick makes it more chilled!
Spares are readily available as are body panels if you need to replace,
Check out Brikworks for spares.
The pickups (known as Dokas) do fetch a bigger price as they are super cool 🙂
I find myself looking at pickups and realising they make a lot of sense
Do they? All your stuff gets wet and stolen, surely?
Why pick up and not van?
Exactly. Van with a roof rack will easily do what you want and be secure for things you want to keep inside. 4m+ timber easy on a roof rack. Add a decent twin axle trailer (doesn't need to be a posh brian james or iforwilliams or similar, I picked up a no name one for 300, new tires a few bits ended up at about £500) and a ladder rack and you have even more capacity and can buy bulk bags of aggregate.
Nah, i'm down near GBG (but in the middle of nowhere) and the trailer i share with a neighbour is far far far better than the T5 we used to have.
Fuel costs and vehicle taxes are only going one way, so something that uses less fuel when it's not loaded up (car with towbar) is going to be much easier, unless you actually find a suitable european T3, as they should all be exempt in sweden by now.
Also can chuck far more varied stuff in it. This year i've done a handful of trips to Återviningscentral, including rubble, gardening waste, half a dead tree, miscellaneous household junk, three trips to pick up wood (2 cubic at a time) and a couple of trips for collecting soil and another couple for building materials (including 5,4m decking planks). Some of those trips would have ben ok in the T5, but anything with significant volume, or loads of dampy manky crap would have been horrible, or all but impossible.
So the trailer, a pair of winter wheels and a roof rack for the car is cheaper, and far more flexible than what we had before.
And when the trailer needs repairing, all the bits are either cheap and easily swapped, or can be fixed with a hammer.
vw t25 (type3) crewcab 4x4 syncr is probably my dream van.
I`ve had t2s t25s t4s and the t25 was better than the t2 for getting about (1.9 petrol) but i exploded the engine on he m5.
the t4 was indestructible but lacked character
id love a crewcab t25. (2 rows of seats but a flatbed also). i could even be pursuaded to part with my current t2 bay for one.
vw t25 (type3) crewcab 4×4 syncr
I was offered one 'back in the day', for £1.5k. Even better, I had been my work vehicle for 4 years and I knew it inside out.
One of my few regrets in life.
