[luke1983]

Hi folks this is my first post in the T5 forum. I hope you can help me out!

Right, here goes, I'm after a T5 Caravelle as a main family car. The main reason being that I am 6'7" and due to this cannot fit into our current Passat Estate comfortably with either of my two boys sat behind me. We tried a Sharan too and whilst the seating position was a bit better the leg room wasn't much different. I then thought why not cut oput the middle man and just buy the biggest MPV I can, that I will most likely keep until it falls to pieces/we don't need it anymore. I've always liked transporters so the shuttle or caravelle were obvious choices. I took a shuttle for a drive the other week and then a Caravelle out for the day on saturday with the whole family and was well impressed. As was the wife and kids so Caravelle it is.

I have two that I am very interested in but from my research they are both well over priced, but every one I have seen is!

The frst and favourite is a 2004 130 S TDI ( I didn't even know they did an S, can't find anything about them!) which the bloke is after 14 grand for. I did a parkers used car price guide on it and it came in at £10 500! Before I make any offers to the guy I'd like to know is this simply because he knows someone will pay this and if I want it should I be prepared to pay over the odds?

The other is a 2004 174 SE TDI but has no Service History, 82000 miles (above average) and has been classed as Cat D write off. I've seen pictures of the repair and of course would see it properly before making any firm offers on it. These people want just over £9000 for it but again from what I've read it is too pricey. A Cat D should be be tween 20% to 40% cheaper than market value. (I appreciate that 40% is taking the Pee a little) but it is what I have read. Couple this with the other factiors above and I reckon it worth between 6 - 7000 quid at the very most.

Wow, thats a beast of a post! Thanks for reading of you got this far!T:

Luke

 

[Nokampa]

Hi, welcome and welcome to the t5 world.

I'm not an expert on prices but I know Parkers isn't very accurate with their guides, the trade certainly doesn't use it. Use autotrader or even eBay to try and get an average advertised price and then remove the odd balls that will crop up. Personally I would avoid cat d, especially one with no history. I know cat d could simply be a minor repair that the insurer decided to write off but combined with no record of what kind of life it's had in the past means its a risk.

Have you tried vw's used website? The might throw out a few examples.

I just searched on http://www.volkswagen-vans.co.uk/assured-used/van-search/ and found their cheapest listed Caravelle at Birmingham Van Centre.
2006 2.5 174 SE with 46K, in shadow blue (very nice) with leather interior, 12 months warranty etc....£17990.

So to me, the first van you listed being older and an S but you didn't state mileage does looks a little over the odds.

Have you also tried the mycartext check thingy? Costs about £3 but tells you if it's stolen/total loss, on finance etc but some also give vehicle valuation from Glasses guide (the one the trade fixes their prices with).

 

[Groover]

Not sure if I can help, but I can offer opinion.

Velle No 1 - £14K too rich for my blood, but you don't mention how many miles. If it's got 10K on the clock, I might understand the price, but at average mileage, no way.

Velle No 2 - I don't think the mileage is above average, nowhere near it. The mileage wouldn't concern me on this one at all. What would is the Cat D write off. 40% off market value is what I would be looking at as you have to remember that one day you may need to sell it, and face the same problems that a Cat D write off brings. OK, so Cat D should be fairly minor. If it was cosmetic work (say every panel with a dent/scrape), not such a problem, but structural work/heavy impact damage with mechanical work as part of the repair and I would walk away.

Don't rush. It take most people ages to find there right one. Velle No 1 is the favourite here, but at a more realistic price (milage/condition/FSH dependent).

Good luck with the search. It isn't easy

 

[Cornwallconvoy]

Hi

I would always compare any prices with what you can get from VW assured used and go from there

If your spending 12-15 private then I would have thought if you can stretch for another 2k as to get something from VW then thats a small % more for a whole lot less risk and worry (1 yr warrenty min I think)

If you looking to spend a lot less and keep the car for ages that write off might be a bargain if you can haggle, but what you save buying it will cost you similar when you sell.

I was looking for a 15K caravelle and got put off by spending so much on quite a well used car, was tempted by the Hyundia i800 (18K new, around 11K with not alot of miles) but got put off my lack of camping potential (seats don't fold), no cruise and possibly poor residuals and worries over long term specific spare availability (Drove well though). Ended up with a 9mth old caravelle from VW and a really big whole in my bank balance!

 

[Brian Considine]

First of all welcome to the forum.

I'll be quite honest to start with "if you intend to keep it for a long time, don't be stingy, buy the best one you can afford & don't skrimp with the servicing either".

Caravelles are often overpriced & they often cover megamiles too.

Your first choice is overpriced, unless, maybe its very low mileage. As others have said Parkers is only a guide.

The second I would steer well clear of, to me no service history rings "clocked" bells.

Have a look at VW themselves, at least the vehicles will be warranted & historied - when I was looking for my T5 I found many at good prices (not the right combination of spec's though) - the one I ended up with was an eBay find.

Take your time, the right vehicle is out there.

Good luck.

 

[atk13]

Totally agree with the other poster. Take your time, there are some great. It's out there to be had amongst the dogs and over priced ones. I found my caravelle on pistonheads, after a long wait one that ticked all the boxes appeared. Might be worth a search there too.
Best of luck and welcome.
Andy

 

[nipper9]

hi mate
the trade use cap as their guide ( well vw do anyway )
if you go to network q site you can value any vehicle there using glasses guide for free

patients is a virtue ive been looking for the rite van for far to long
but i will not waver on the things i need
ive looked at and bought some dogs so be careful

cheers paul

 

[squealer]

I'll look out for you around hereford, there cant be too many 6'7" people round driving a caravelle! LOL:

 

[luke1983]

Wow, Thankyou all for your advice, some of it I hadn't thought about and others I had so it confirmed my thinking.

I think I'll give the Cat D one a wide berth. I sent them an offer of £6500 last night just to see how they would react. No reply yet so I'm guessing they aren't keen. We'll see.

I took the other one for a test drive today and must admit I am rather impressed. The only difference I could find between it and an SE was that it had a Cassette player as opposed to a CD player. (easy fix on fleabay!) It has the bed pack, heated seats, aircon, heated mirrors, parking sensor, alloys, metallic paint, to list what I can remember. Its also got 1 years MOT, 6 months Tax, 73000 miles and a FVWSH. They are also going to sort out the bubbles on the table, some small stone chips etc. Couple that with the fact that they've offered me a very good price for trading my 150 000 mile fsh passat in too and I think it might be worth it.

It certainly ticks all the boxes but he wouldn't budge an inch on the price, the sweyne!

I'm going to sleep on it and see how i feel tomorrow.

Thanks again for your help and watch this space!

Luke

 

[yt5]

Hi and welcome think your best off having a good look round:ILU:

 

[luke1983]

Hi mate and thanks for the welcome. Don't worry, i've been looking at T5s on and off for years and finally been looking with an eye to buy for a few months at least

 

[luke1983]

I put a deposit down today!! Quite excited!