A van buying guide for beginners

Date: 30.09.2009

Buying any used vehicle can be daunting, there are a myriad or different types and also a hell of a lot of different opinions and what make is better etc. The process can be broken down pretty quickly. van buying guide

Firstly, commercial vehicles are designed as work vehicles and typically use diesel engines. Hence your criteria should be quite different from buying yourself a car.

Before you even look at any vehicles you need to sit down and think about the nature of your business, typically along these lines.

What weight/volume do I typically need to carry?
What is the annual mileage that I need to cover?
How long a period do I expect to finance this vehicle over?

Ok, With those questions out of the way we can narrow down the type of vehicle you should be looking at. Basically a car licence will let you drive a van/light truck with a payload up to 1.7 tonnes, this figure is dependant on the un-laden weight of the vehicle itself. The volume will depend on they type of product that you move. For example ,if you are in the roofing insulation business you would most likely be looking at a large volume van with no real weight requirement.

The mileage that you cover is very important. Basically the higher the miles that you expect to cover annually, the better the vehicle that you need. The reason for this is quite simple, if you buy a high mileage, poorly maintained vehicle expecting it to perform well on long distance driving you will be disappointed. You need a fresh vehicle for this type do running, typically if you are doing over 30,000 miles per year.

The biggest single mistake that we see purchasers make when buying used or indeed new vehicles is the length of time they finance the vehicle for. It is not uncommon to see a courier buy a vehicle and arrange their own finance over five years. The part that gets overlooked is that fact that they could be racking up 80,000kms per year. Simply put the vehicle will be effectively scrap within 3 years and the operator finds himself with 2 years finance to clear and a worthless trade-in. Is it any surprise that so many courier companies end up going broke? . The solution to this is to factor in a write off period of 3 years and alter the finance to suit. The vehicle must pay for itself in the allotted time or its time to think about a new career.

For the casual user of commercial vehicles it boils down to finding a good vehicle that suits your needs. Unless you are very familiar with the model that you are looking for avoid auctions as you will be up against far better informed buyers.

Cardinal rules for buying a van/truck

Never buy a vehicle that does not have a recent VTN / DOE test, there is no reason that a seller should be selling a vehicle without one of these, you cannot tax the vehicle if the test has expired.

Do not trust anyone when it comes to miles. This is a worse area that even the car trade, dealers and private sellers regularly clock vehicles. Imports are particularly difficult to gauge. If a seller cannot back up mileage with service history and previous DOE tests, you should walk away. This might sound harsh but it is up to the dealer/seller to prove the mileage is genuine.

Try to buy off a SIMI registered dealer. If you have a problem with your vehicle or feel that you have been treated unfairly the SIMI (Society of the Irish Motor Industry) can investigate on your behalf and penalise the dealer. You don’t have this level of recourse with a roadside trader.