Faults:

Bought the van July 2010 for £600. Couple of bits of surface rust around, but no corrosion. Not even on the arches, which is rare for these vans. Chap had done the clutch and the timing belt a couple of thousand miles before I bought it, so as yet nothing has gone wrong. Touch wood.

General Comments:

The driving position takes a bit of getting used to, and it can be daunting at first driving right at the front of the car. But once used to it, it becomes perfectly normal, and the seats themselves I find very comfortable.

Handling obviously is not a strong point of these vans with their high sides and narrow wheelbase, and with no load in the rear the tail can be quite lively in the rain, which you need to look out for. Personally, I find the lively rear end amusing.

It will hit 70, but running at 70 for any length of time isn't recommended. Will sit perfectly happily at 60 all day though, maybe a bit more with a tail wind. Acceleration to 25-30 feels amusingly nippy thanks to the rev-happy engine and the snappy gearbox.

The 970cc engine is geared more for torque than outright power, so whether she's empty or full, and whether I rag her or drive economically, I still get around 30-35mpg and c.220 miles from a tank.

Mine is the MPV/crewbus version with 7 seats in the back rather than a load space. Seats are on quick-release bolts, so can be easily converted back should you need to do a run to the tip etc. I've tried to liven mine up with coloured side panels, a retro floor and a flip-down DVD player.

Faults:

Badly worn tyres.

General Comments:

The floor is 9" higher than the old Carry Van / Bedford Rascal, which is a great waste of space and inconvenient.

The suspension is very uncomfortable on poorer back roads.

Road-holding is dangerous in the wet and crosswinds, and very poor under braking, especially in the wet.

Unbelievably there is no light in the rear load space.

Very dangerous sharp points to bang your head on the tailgate when it is up.

It seems to me that these are very basic design errors with what is otherwise a great little van.

I would buy another if these errors where corrected as there is nothing else which is anywhere near as conveniently small, but with 3 rear doors.