Top Ten Considerations When Buying a Van.

[One Awesome Inch]

Buying A Van.... What are the basics?

After some reading on this forum and a bit of previous knowledge there are some basic things you should consider when buying a van.

1. Buy as new as possible - various rubber parts, hoses etc wear with age. The newer it is the better.

2. Don't buy a van that has been sitting. - After a while the oil and gas in the vehicle will actually act as a corrosive.

3. If its an older van with low kilometres/miles that means its likely been sitting alot. Probably best to keep looking.

4. Buy a van that has been regularly maintained... preferably with receipts and records/evidence to back up the seller's claim. All the better if you can buy a van that has been part of a service fleet like from a school board or power company who's policy is to regularly maintain their vehicles.

5. If you are strongly thinking of buying a van get it inspected by a mechanic first. $100 out of pocket now can potentially save you hundreds, maybe thousands later.

6. Buy a cargo van that is bare bones so that you can build it to your liking. If its a conversion van you have to spend a great deal of effort to rip all that stuff out before you can build. Of course, this is personal preference as some people don't want to build the interior and are happy with a minimum setup. To each their own.

7. Conversion vans likely will have less transmission problems because they have been hauling people, not heavy loads. That's a major advantage of the conversion van route.

8. If possible buy a van with as few windows as windows allow for alot of heat transfer and have reduced insulation properties.

9. If the van has alot of kilometres/miles keep looking. Personally, I get uncomfortable if it has over 300,000 kilometres.

10. If the seller claims that the engine has been rebuilt find out by who. Factory rebuilt is best. You want to be sure that it hasn't been rebuilt with cheap as possible parts that are subpar.

So from the reading I have done those are my top 10 things to consider when searching for a new-to-you van.

Please feel free to correct me if some of my ideas are wrong.

I'd love to read about any additional points that you consider to be important.

 

[Scott_1776]

A white paint color is important as well, less heat gain in the sun. Avoid dark colors. Tans, metallic gold, silver and light pale blue are okay, but a dark color will get significantly hotter.

 

[Gypsysoul]

Thanks so much for posting this. It's nice to have it all in one post.

 

[One Awesome Inch]

Excellent point Scott!

 

[akrvbob]

Wow, you're a quick learner! I think you hit the nail on the head!

My only quibble is with the windows, #8. While I agree with you, many people are very uncomfortable with few windows and that would be a deal-breaker, they need to see outside.

I would also add a warning to be sure you can live with a low-top. Many can, many can't!
Bob

 

[LeeRevell]

Seems a good general guideline, but if one can hit five of the ten, they'd be doing good, as the realities of life seem to preclude our ideals.

 

[citytravelfotos]

I'd add one:

- Get a van that doesn't have the paint worn down. You can have the shine restored via detailer, but it will get bad easily again, vs a van that still has a good paint job. Getting a good paint job done is expensive, likely more than the cost of the van. I did that tradeoff to get a van with a good rebuilt engine, but the van's paint job is not good enough for me to show off to my friends, or for using it for work.

---

That list is very good, but you'd have to be hunting a LOT for a van, especially to get one where the owner has detailed records. If you live in a not so large metro area, your either going to have to wait a long time or spend a lot of money going to the nearest large metropolitan area (I lived in a metro area of 1 million and there were very few choices vs the metro area with 4 million people about 2 hours away.)

Many I talked to in the RTR basically said that they were lucky. You might just be as lucky as they are, you just have to be prepared to jump at the opportunity as soon as it comes up.

---

Also, make sure at least that these core things are in good shape: engine, transmission, air conditioner, electrical system, air bags, and front end suspension. These things can cost a ton of money to fix if they aren't in good condition. Catalytic converters also cost significant money to fix, and as I said earlier, the paint job can cost a lot of money to fix, though it isn't as necessary as the inside.

Get the inspection done ideally by a dealer of the make of the vehicle. I had an independent mechanic to inspect the van, and the guy missed several things of the front end suspension (including something that was out of spec that the dealer service center told me about), which ended up costing me $1,300 to fix.

 

[citytravelfotos]

And a few more notes on conversion vans: As much as it sucks for me to find a parking garage that allows me to park a high top conversion van inside, the high top IMO is worth it as it makes the space feel a lot bigger and much more like a liveable space.

If your looking to buy a conversion van, PLEASE take into serious consideration the company that did the conversion. There are attorney websites on the internet showing the dangers of buying a conversion van, as the seats can fail during a crash (they put in their own seats instead of the van manufacturer), heightening the injury, because the conversion company put seats that don't meet industry standards (because they weren't required to in the first place.) The company that did the conversion of my van was Mark III, and even though they are out of business I used the wayback machine to see their website of long ago and they did explicitly promote that they crash test their vehicles. Mark III was also the top conversion van company for a long while, but went out of business, and as far as I know it wasn't for anything else than just slowing demand (since the demand for conversion vans is much much less than before the days that SUV's became popular.)

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

for the windows, i had a windowless cargo van before. i have windows now. the windowed van number one comment from people has been along the lines of 'looks a lot less suspicious', "not as creepy", "hey, youre not a pedophile any more!" (this one was jokingly/sarcastic)

 

[steveh2112]

'5. If you are strongly thinking of buying a van get it inspected by a mechanic first. $100 out of pocket now can potentially save you hundreds, maybe thousands later.
'

i'm not a mechanic at all so would definitely do this. where would you go? dealer? interdependent mechanic? Meineke?

i'll be buying in the SF bay area

 

[One Awesome Inch]

Any of those. Or you could even hire a mechanic off Craigslist. Just make sure he is certified and has the papers to prove it. Those who are certified make good and sure they mention it in their CL ad.

Best of luck.

 

[One Awesome Inch]

Since I bought my van, a Ford E150, I would like to add another point to that list. Compromise. Maybe everything about it is very good except that it doesnt have windows, which you hoped to have. Or in my case, every thing about the van was quite good except that it has some body damage on the sliding door (it still works). Though I definitely would prefer no body damage, I compromised since over all the van was in great shape and it had a great price. I think the body damage and that the ignition was a little tricky to turn (got a new key problem solved) meant that the seller had a hard time selling it... leading to me getting a decent price.

 

[Gary68]

ask for the title,make sure the vin on title and vehicle match
ask for photo i.d.,make sure i.d. and name on title match