coullstar said:
I have had one of these in the back of my mind ever since we bought the Volvo (V50) estate in 2012 and did a weekend away with 2 kids, Mrs, me, stuff, food, etc etc
The car could not cope with it all really. I could not see out the back windows and I couldn't fit the kids bikes and scooters, beach stuff, other things that would have been nice to take.
After searching and searching, I decided on a Caravelle, one with the seats (7) on rails.
Shuttle and Caravelle are classed as a car, I think the T5 'window van' is too but not 100%.
I was holding out for a decent Caravelle, but this shuttle came along and was too good to be true so bought it instead. Plus Caravelle's are £9-10k for a decent one. I didn't want to spend that much hence the easing off for looking as I had virtually given up hope.
Then I thought, buy a van, add seats, add a window....but I wanted it 100% safe for the kids and the costs just added up. Made sense to buy it all done already. From a monetary AND safety point of view. You need to add lining the back, lighting, heating...
The shuttle has twin sliding doors, it's brilliant. Mine has single seats upfront instead of the 1 + 2 seat. So now you can all get in through the side door and go off to whatever seat you need to, and the Mrs can walk around the whole van and attend to any 'kid issues'!
I nearly bought a Caddy, but thought 'what's the point in doing things half hearted', and ended up giving up on that idea. Nearly gave up completely and was £100 off buying a Mini Cooper S JCW!
I can not tell you how much I love this van, or bus as we call it, but it's brilliant. Last night for example, I got home, had dinner with the kids, so I said let's go to the park...we took 2 scooters, 2 kids bikes, my bike (no need to take wheels or seat off!), football, kid size plastic goal AND I already had 4 18" wheels with tyres in the back and STILL had 8 seats for 8 adults to sit in if need be.
Don't let the LWB and SWB thing sway you, this is only about 2 foot longer then the Volvo and it has parking sensors so a piece of pee to park.
Don't start me on the mod's... :sad: :sad: :sad:
Just bought the middle row seats from a Sportline for £1000 last night, need the front 2 now, but doing it all slowly. Found a set of BMW X5/6 21" wheels in Norwich which I will pick up on way to VMAX and the it will be the lowering.
Found a T5.1 facelift kit that I am waiting on a reply for too..the list is endless!
If you need any info then just contact me, happy to go view anything down south for you. You have my number from when you were after some hollow spokes (through eBay) and I sent you some pics via whatsapp.
:thumb:
