Cab size.....

Right, I obviously know what the cab size is like on a mid 90's Hijet 1.0L EFI van


and I was shocked to hear that there is less room in a pickup



what about the 1300 Hijet though? are they the same room in the cab?




and what about one of the 'competitors'?
the Bedford/Vauxhall Rascal mainly....


I am thinking of looking at a Vauxhall Rascal with the 970cc 4 cylinder engine (same engine as Suzuki used in the SJ410 I believe)

Only because I cant get a hijet locally.....



now considering I mostly like vans and pickup trucks, that sort of narrows the list a little :p

a SWB transit would be a lovely thing, but they arent cheap enough.....


so currently (unless I drop on a good cheap Transit :p), the list of possible vehicles is:

Hijet van (will have a look at a pickup if I see one) - Engine either the 1.0 3cyl or the 1.3 4cyl
Rascal
Peugeot Partner 1.9D
Ford Escort van 1.8D/TD
Vauxhall Combo 1.7TD

and possibly something like a Nissan Cabstar......

forgot to mention, price has to be CHEAP :p

really £500 is the absolute maximum I could stretch too....preferably less than that......


mot would be nice

and ideally located in cornwall, but might be up for travelling a bit.....




so if you know of a nice cheap van/pickup or can tell me the size difference between a Hijet and a Rascal, let me know

(I know a few hijets were linked to the other day, so dont think I ignored/forgot them :p)

Chill out, second hand cars are like buses, they never come when your waiting.

My thoughts with all those old rascals etc is they will be rotten real bad if its not a rare hidden low milage, garage kept Gem.

There's a real difference in weight and engine size to those other options, and they won't touch anywhere near the fun a hijet will - especially for the running costs.

Be careful and think forward, just because a car is cheap to buy initially doesn't mean it will be cheap to repair, fuel, run, tax or insure. Realistically £500 will buy you a dog unless your very lucky. Like who would sell a transit worth owning for £500? A frickin pile of smoking rot is what you'll get 99% of the time.

I landed on my 1998 5 door 1.5 vtec-e Civic for £650, it had genuine 62k, 2 owners from new, its cheap to tax, and cheap to insure at group 7, and I get just shy of 50mpg out of it. Now i've owned it 18 months and nothing has gone wrong with it.... yet. But it is a boring green colour and it has some scratches on it - they are honest faults that wont cause headaches or cost me money. My wood effect dash board makes the girls moist in seconds.

Spares or repairs cars easily run away to spending as much on them as you pay for them. If it was worth fixing why hasn't it been fixed - although you do land on stuff but its not usually advertised anywhere. Plus getting the thing home will cost you money, or your licence. And its hard to test drive them to find all the faults. Mostly you'll be buying it off a poor person as rich people just scrap old cars, and poor people run their cars into the ground getting every last drip of life from them, and they don't service them - and they spend as little as possible when they go wrong.

My best piece of advice I can offer you - buy your cars off old people - retirement age plus = they don't rag them, they have money to pay for the yearly service, and they look after things much better than the youth of today and the immigrants.

if its got MOT and is fairly solid, I dont really care :p

I have loads of tools and 2 welders (and am pretty good with them)

so if I needed to weld a plate on part of a vehicle for its next MOT, then so be it



its just I need a cheap run around for the moment......

Welding cost money, and crawling around under pieces of junk wears you out so you can't be making as much money elsewhere.

And worse case senario, you injure yourself doing it costing you more money and time than it was worth.


Bargain:>

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201137415246336/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-to/1000/maximum-mileage/up_to_80000_miles/page/2/postcode/tr72bs/radius/60?logcode=p

welding doesnt really cost money for me.....

a small amount of wire (5kg spools so its cheaper)
bulk gas bottle with no rental (so very little cost)
and I buy 'scrap' steel (offcuts from local metal merchant)

and I havent got a job.....so I havent got anywhere else to be



so if I bought a vehicle and in 6 months the MOT is due, and it needs a bit of welding, it gives me something to do :p


I'll just keep an eye out for any good low cost vans....

(being 21 van insurance is much cheaper than car insurance!)

Gotta say, £500 is fairly low for a decent Hijet, but as mine was that i can't see a reason not to try

Mine cost £500, i've spent around £150 on stuff it didn't need, about £60 on stuff it did and £30 on the cost of an MOT.

It's going to need a fair bit for this coming MOT but if it keeps running till December i may even service it(tappets, the works)
Due to circumstances i won't be putting in a new kitchen till next year so it has to last so i can shift the old one and getn the new one here.
Also, as i buy & sell bikes for a wee bit extra cash it's handyer than a trailer.(though a foot longer would be ideal)
I'll prob put in a few hours welding mine but i enjoy doing it and it's better than watching Stinky Bum Lancing or such on the telly

Right as you live in the darkest depths it is probably well different but I couldn't get insurance on a transit for anything under a grand and the jet was about £500 only dfference is we were getting business class 1 as for buying cheap look for mis advertised cars my mk 3 was advertised as a mk2 hatchback as no such thing exists we got it for a snip at £41 inc half a tank of petrol 6 mounths tax and MOT so far I have replaced the engine and box played around with it like god knows what, and including mantainance stuff in 7 years it proberbly cost me little over £500.

My previous hijet was £620 from memory, 22,000 miles, 2 lady owners, all the history and the optional extra paint was peeling on the roof. Bargain

I have no job, jobs suck balls, but I like working for cash - i'll do anything for cash me

I'm 21 and the van would be social domestic and pleasure use....

a hijet is £500 insurance, a transit swb is £600


so insurance on a van isnt an issue.....its car insurance thats the issue (with quotes pushing £1,000 minimum! )

Old mk5 rwd Transits run forever & are easy to repair.
Parts are very cheap & plentiful. The only thing that lets them down is the bodywork & chassis, which are prone to rust.
But if you like to weld, then it's a vehicle & a hobby all rolled into one.
I've been using ours since the Hijet was taken off the road last year.
Ours is the lwb semi high roof & cost about £320.00 to insure fully comp for me & the wife.
It's massive inside & much easier to transport motorbikes in than a Hijet.
But it's more expensive to run & you have to watch out for car park barriers.

yes, I'd look for a Mk4 or Mk5

2.5Di engine I know is very reliable (I know of one in a field transit, thats been turbocharged and pushing 30psi....its still running fine )


where do they usually rot out?

the main place I can think of, is around the top of the front suspension mountings (and the floor near it)

anywhere else I need to look?



I'd only get a SWB simply because I dont need a LWB....


as for more expensive to run....well I used to have a Series 3 land rover with a tuned discovery turbo diesel.....
25mpg on a run, and 20~23mpg running around locally.....

so fuel economy isnt a major issue for me, and as for car park barriers....well I dont really go to many car parks :p



but I must admit, I think a transit would be nice...I could transport my motorbike MUCH more easily :p

difflock123 wrote:yes, I'd look for a Mk4 or Mk5

2.5Di engine I know is very reliable (I know of one in a field transit, thats been turbocharged and pushing 30psi....its still running fine )


where do they usually rot out?

the main place I can think of, is around the top of the front suspension mountings (and the floor near it)

anywhere else I need to look?

They rot just about everywhere!
Ours is quite tidy & I've got front wings, wheel arches, door steps & sills to get replaced over winter.
Other places to look are :-
Front crossmember
Rear crossmember
Rear arches
Rear floor (often hidden by ply lining)
Rear door bottoms
Chassis & spring hangers.

The 2.5Di engine is not very quiet, but you get used to it, (turn up the music).

Have a look in here, it will give you a better idea.
http://fordtransit.org/forum/

the 2.5Di engine isnt as loud as the tuned 200Tdi I had in my landy :p

I've been around a few transits, but havent ever thought about where they rust!



but I'll check the places you've mentioned if I look at one

If its a ford then they come standard with rust the bloke I work with when he first started work used the train to get to work and the line used to go through the back of the dagenham factory and the body shells used to travel outside the sheds between assembly and paint and if they had shells on the rails come firday shut down they stayed there till monday morning.

I've heard that too Rich, they were rusted before they got under coated.

fords always have had a reputation for rust :p


but as long as I find a nice one, I'll be happy

and to be fair, some hijets (mine for example), are rotting out badly now

Yeah tell me about it under the rear side windows on the inside of our MPV there is no metal only a rusty hole with gaffa tape over on both sides.

on my hijet its the entire area around the rear arches......

Plenty of fun fun fun welding fun to get on with there then

I've bought tin foil thicker than daihatsu's

difflock123 wrote:on my hijet its the entire area around the rear arches......

Ditto...
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I find it's only certain bits that rust on mine. The metal bits........

I have a 1986 MR2, 5 winters more than the 'jet, 5 times less rust.

I'd probably be better selling mine and buying a newer one but where's the fun in that?

You can pick up a VW caddy for the £500 mark if your quick when they come up. (gumtree/adtrader etc) SDI's are great engines and they're pretty good on space in the back plus the bonus of cheaper and more easily available parts compared to a hijet. 50mpg+ too.

theres also the Escort 1.8D or the rarer TD....
I've also seen a really good condition 1.8TD with the intercooled engine (very unusual), which is a nice van.

I prefer them to the VW caddy, and I think I've still got a set of glow plugs for the Ford Endura D engine :p



I just wanted something a little bigger really (Hijet is better due to the height inside)

but a transit/vito/transporter/Pilot/etc would be a good size....
the Nissan Vanette Cargo looks nice as well (but SLOW with that 2.3 N/A diesel :p)




I'll just keep looking out for vans