Van as family car?

[MsMiaWallace]

Does anyone own a van as their main family car? If so what do you have?

We are looking at getting a van to help with DH's business. I quite like the idea of the space for days out etc so looking at crew vans.

I've got a van, but it's not our main vehicle and it's only got 2 seats.

What business does he have??
Because it's a right ball ache emptying it out all the time......to use it as a normal vehicle.

It's also got blind spots, you need specific van insurance, which is completely different to car. I can no longer drive other vehicles and you need to take the weight into consideration for the licence you hold.

what do you mean you can't drive other vehicles? do you mean skills wise?

We are thinking of doing this. One family car and one van. Kind of like a day van, but fitting in bikes etc and good for days out/hols. We are looking for a 2 rows of seats, pref only 2 seats in front row - we have 3 kids.

I'm off to look up insurance now.

My partner has a transit custom with 5 seats. We use it if we go away. Day to day we use my small car

We also have a transit custom with five seats (we have four kids). It is very big and can fit all our bikes and suitcases in and the kids have loads of room. We do also have a smaller car but it’s very old so we rarely use it.

The downsides are that the kids get quite travel sick in the back because the windows are tinted and small so they can’t really see out. It’s also sometimes a bit tight getting into multi-storeys and parking on the high street can be tricky (but the parking sensors help).

I also find the proportions are built for quite a large man. I find the steering wheel uncomfortable and the distance from the seat to the dashboard is more than I’d like. I also have to crane a bit to look in the mirrors / see my blind spot. My husband (6ft 3in) finds it very comfortable to drive.

All in all though, I think it’s been fine for us.

I used to have a long wheelbase 2001 Toyota Hiace van which I loved. I bought a set of 3 transit crew seats from a scrapyard and had them fitted into the back to make it a 6 seater. They had to use massive coach bolts IIRC. Was all proper 3 point seatbelts and MOT/insurance compliant. Those rear seats were ideal for wedging storage boxes in front of so bags of groceries couldn’t roll around! There was a camping stove and tea making kit in permanent residence.

I’d take it camping and had a great long 2 bedroom tent with one flat end which nestled up against the side door of the van. Like a massive DIY awning you could drive away from. Think it was a vango

I’d massively recommend it, had so many adventures in that van that I wouldn’t otherwise have had. Took 10 mins to pack for a weekend away.

We've got a Ford Tourneo Custom, so it's got three rows of seats. These can be easily removed if you need extra space. We love it. It means we've got loads of space on long journeys - the kids can spread out so there's no bickering. Loads of room for luggage, bikes, watersports kit, camping gear etc. I like the higher up driving position. Only issue is insurance as most of the usual insurers won't touch it but we found specialist van insurance with Brentacre and they work out cheaper than our old Smax. Also, car parks often have height restrictions but you can usually find an alternative.

people who have bikes in - do you take a wheel off?

Also anyone have one with only 2 seats - pref that swivel?

I have a VW T6 - it's my 2nd one in 15 years. Love it.

We used to have a Transit Crew bus, which was brilliant for carting around all our Camping gear, and Brood of 5 DDs. It was my DHs work van, but we were allowed to use it for personal travel on his days off as well. We even rigged up some temporary curtains , and made Bridges across the rear seats to make them into beds with an air mattress on top, and had some great fun doing so!

I also ran a small car for work, and prefared driving it to the Bus as it was obviously easier to park, and l could take it into a Multi-storey car park, where the Bus was just to high to fit. Height barriers on shopping centre car parks and at the entrances to some popular Tourist areas, local Parks, and even the local pubs could be another restriction where we could not visit using our bus.

We were lucky that the company always sorted out the Road Tax, insurance, servicing and fuel for us, otherwise it would have been just too expensive for us to run as our primary mode of Transport. There are also different rules for things like the Road fund license and insurance for what is effectively a commercial vehicle, and the type of driving license you need to drive one!

No rear mirror is heaven at night. No rear side windows less so if you are at a junction that isn't at right angles, but you can position the vehicle to compensate for that.
The best thing is no worrying about what will fit, because of course it will fit.

I also have a long wheel base Ford tourneo custom.

it has nine seats, three isofix points. there are seven of us (four kids me and DH and MIL) and it doesn't feel cramped at all, we can go away and fill the boot with luggage and all four kids bikes etc its great!

My DH has a ford transit with coach seats fitted in the back, and it's our only family vehicle. The space is good, and we like that we can buy campervan tickets at festivals so no lugging camping gear across fields... Pre-kids we could sleep in the back. But the seats fitted in it are shallow and not ideal for a lot of car seats. No isofix or anything. People ask you to help them move things all the time too.

We're swapping it for a large people carrier soon, we don't need a people carrier but DH no longer needs a van for work and we could never go to a regular sized car after being used to all the space. But it will reduce fuel and insurance costs and we can have extended rear facing car seats and hopefully reduce the kids travel sickness.

What is your husband’s business?

The reason I ask is that my DH has a VW transporter with extra seats fitted but because he’s a chippy it’s so bloody dusty in there! We don’t use it as our main vehicle so it’s not the end of the world but if we did the dust would drive me crackers.

He also refitted the bulkhead behind the second row of seats because he carries heavy tools etc, if he were to crash you’d likely be hit by a 50kg generator rolling around in the back so we’d be fucked. The downside of this is that there’s not as much space in there for bigger stuff.

Last point is that it’s usually stacked to the brim with tools and stuff so if it does need emptying for any reason we have to find a home for all the tools and it takes ages. If his business is something more like transporting things you wouldn’t have this issue obviously.

The other things to add is that they are more expensive to run than a car, insurance, tax, fuel economy etc

We have a transit custom with 6 seats, it's not a "work van" though, it's carpeted near the seats, has TV screens in the back and lovely wheels. It's got a plastic washable floor in the back for dogs/bikes. But we also have a car that I use for work and day to day stuff like shopping.

DH has a VW Transporter with 5 seats. It’s his work van (but unbranded) and insured to use for domestic and pleasure as well as businesses. He chooses his own vehicle, and the amount of stuff he heaves around for work easily justifies a the real driver was carrying around bikes and camping gear!

It is very useful having a van, but they are much heavier on fuel than a car. He dies have to empty it of work kit at weekends, but tries to leave this at work if he can.

I also have my own

Grew up with this- Dad had a Vauxhall work van with a second row of seats fitted. It was perfect as all our holidays were self catered in the UK so could always take 4 x adult size bikes, a bag each and a food shop and camping gear with no issues.

The only issue was Dad having a grump about having to empty all his work stuff everytime we went on holiday and the row about who’s turn it was to help him! Eventually he made space in the garage and put everything on boxes on wheels so this got much easier.

As a teen I loved it as Mum, Dad and little brother would all squash up in the front due to travel sickness, meaning I’d get the whole back seat to myself!

We have a VW caddy maxi life which has 3 rows of seats. Decent boot even with the third row. You can seat 7 with all the seats in. But you can remove the third row completely to give a larger boot space and the second row fold flat if you have loads of stuff to carry. So it's flexible depending on what you want to carry in terms of passengers or stuff. It drives like a car and I use it as my main vehicle. Thoroughly recommend it.

I have a Nissan Primastar which has been a great asset for DIY jobs, and shifting materials and hire tools for a renovation and new build project, it gets used so often for those awkward jobs. My children love the fact that they travel beside me in their booster seats, its great for conversation. We only have the front seats I think I would struggle now not having a van, I would likely get a crew cab next time for space for the family and friends.

This is really interesting! Thanks for all the comments. Someone has mentioned about licences - I thought a normal b licence would be fine to drive it?

If it’s transit size you should be fine on a normal license

Depends on when you passed your test but as a rule your ok up to 3500kg on a car license

Yes, much roomier than a car. wouldn't go back now. Renault Trafic.

Ok next question. A few have mentioned specific insurance requirements, but we are finding insurance based just on the number plate easily on the normal comparison websites. Should it be harder than this?

Very interesting thread. I've been looking into this in depth recently, as we're needing to get a large vehicle soon, after our old estate died at the end of last year. There are only three of us, but we seem to have a lot of scenarios where having a huge amount of space is very useful. If we went down the van route, it would be one with windows and extra (removable) seats, so technically a van-based MPV.

A massive consideration for us is being able to tow our (medium-sized) caravan. I haven't really found much in our price range that has much more than 100BHP, though, so I'm not convinced it would lead to a smooth towing experience. As it stands, we're looking at a Sharan/Alhambra as our best option. The high driving position is much better for my mobility issues. We're not really interested in 4X4s, as they seem so expensive at every stage and aren't actually that big inside, as they're packed with armour!

Does anybody on here use a van to tow a caravan? Do you find it quite sluggish (albeit doubtless solid and secure) or am I mistaken in my thinking there?

Re the driving licence issue, you can drive a packed Luton van on a standard car licence - if you passed before 1997, you could also tow a trailer with another Luton behind it! You'd be getting into serious 'unquestionably commercial' territory before you'd need a special licence to drive it - far, far over and above what anybody would ever consider getting as their everyday family car.