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New member of the family

Karl Hofmann on Sun October 03, 2004 7:25 AM User is offlineView users profile

My wife and I talked it over for some time and have decided that what we need, now that Sadie our dog has settled down perfectly now was a new addition to the family. after much deliberation we concluded that something would have to go, and so this week we bid a fond farewell to my trusty but ageing VW Transporter T4. She had given us superb service and had only let me down once when the after market immobiliser had immobilised me, but she is now seven years old and starting to show her age. The only gripe that I have ever had with her was that with a 1.9Td engine performance from her 68Bhp was a little leisurely, and overtaking when fully loaded was not an option. The bright colour that proved to be such a boon when working for motor traders does work against me when installing ac in to homes as folk prefer not to have such an in your face coloured van on their drive.



After much deliberation, where the Toyota Van was seriously considered for the legendary Toyota reliabillity and their superb common rail 2.5 Turbodiesel (My wife has the 2.0 vesion in her little RAV4) we finally settled on the new VW Transporter T5 with the 2.5 Turbodiesel engine rated at 174Bhp in a more subtle metalic "Wheat beige" colour. I spend a lot of time in my van, so a few luxuries have been added such as air conditioning and a six stack CD. A bulkhead between cabin and load area is also being fitted and the standard rear doors have been deleted in favour of a tailgate style rear door with no windows in, to prevent prying eyes. Sadly delivery is still a month away, so I shall have to work out of the back of the old BMW for the time being, It is surprising to see the reaction of some folk. Turn up in a £16000 van and they think nothing of it, show up in a £600 BMW and they think that you are charging them too much.

Transporter T5 Roadtest



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Never knock on deaths door... Ring the doorbell and run away, death really hates that!

Chick on Sun October 03, 2004 9:06 AM User is offlineView users profile

Hey Karl....Nice Van......Good luck with it...BUT!! With a 6 CD player, I can see you sitting in the driveways blasting Gratful dead and Guns and Roses Cd's and not getting much work done.... Anyway, you deserve it, enjoy it....

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Chick
Email: Chick

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Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose

NickD on Sun October 03, 2004 10:11 AM User is offline

I am dealing with my first vehicle CD player making backups of my original CD for auto use, there really isn't a good place in my new Cavalier to store these things. I got one of those visor mounted CD holders, but that is a chore only to be done by the co-pilot, she doesn't like that thing blocking the mirror so it gets tossed in the glove compartment.

Driving a basic car is fun again, forgot how nice it is to have a manual transmission and having a manual MVAC system. The blend door is instantaneous and easy to adjust for comfort as is the blower switch. The windows always go back up when you turn the crank. Not bad at the gas station either, with 360 miles on the trip odometer, twenty bucks fills the tank.

After about putting 600 miles on it, was getting all kinds of grunts and groans from the front end. I jacked it up and sprayed silicon spray on the stabilizer and control arm rubber bushings, nice and quiet again. Noticed grease fitting on the tie rod ends, but none on the ball joints and the boots looked collasped, was very tempted to drill holes for grease fittings, maybe next week.

I was given some crazy looks at the furniture store when I pulled up with this thing to load a huge box, but opened the trunk and dropped the rear seat backs and the box fit in real nice, very practical vehicle. But it has its limits, searching for either an SUV or a pickup truck for the larger items, delivery charges are outrageous and can't burn stuff in the city so have to take it to the dump.

I purchased my Cavalier at the right time with a $9,300 discount, GM is hounding me to buy another but with only a $1,500 discount, not very attractive. My friend just purchased a very nice 2002 Bravada for $11,000 with only 28K on the clock, a $24K discount is more to my liking. Sales tax on a $35K vehicle alone amounts to $2,100.00 and you have to pay tax in my state on the full value of the vehicle that sucks.

Buying a used vehicle is a chore, first have to read about it's faults, purchase the shop manual, and leave it in the garage for one-two months while I go through it from sten to stern replacing and repairing everything it needs. I prefer to buy from a new car dealer so I can at least have the vehicle for three days before signing on the dotted line. Its amazing what you can find wrong in three days and that helps in negotiating the price.

Karl Hofmann on Sun October 03, 2004 3:08 PM User is offlineView users profile

Thanks Guys.

I only hope that it is as reliable as the old girl. This vehicle is a tool, just like gauges or a vacuum pump so it is good to know the vehicles history. Many commercial vehicles are abused and modern diesel injection systems just won't tolerate abuse. Ford still offer a mechanical diesel option on their Transit for use on construction sites, where fuel of a dubious nature could be used from a fuel bowser. At least for the next three years the van can be thrown back at VW and I can demand a replacement Van whilst it is being repaired.

I booked my wifes RAV4 in for a service yesterday and commented that a couple of the wheels had a paint blister on them, the rceptionist stated "No problem sir, well put on a new set of wheels for you" He then came outside and inspected the rear hubs and brake discs and said that he would order a new pair of brake discs and pads as there was a small patch of rust on one (That I hadn't even noticed)
It seems that Toyota are having a bit of a problem with corrosion on their alloy wheels and poor anti corrosion plating on the rear discs.

After we had bought the RAV we regularly recieved letters from Toyota saying that they hoped that we were still satisfied with our car and if we had any problems at all we should contact the sender of the letter on his telephone number, a nice touch but not every other month!!

Blimey Chick, I'm a bit of an old git for the Gratefull Dead and Guns and Roses, you'll find Jools Holland, Bruce Hornsby, ELO, The Mavericks, Phil Collins and for those really tough days a bit of Luther in my stack...God only knows what an analyst would make of my music collection, it ranges from Jim Reeves and goes up to U2...I guess he would call for a rubber lined van

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Never knock on deaths door... Ring the doorbell and run away, death really hates that!

Chick on Sun October 03, 2004 3:21 PM User is offlineView users profile

That is no different than me my friend..So get extra padding.... The guns and roses was a joke, as you plainy see.....Now if it were my sons van.......

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Chick
Email: Chick

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Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose

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