Honest opinion

[Spread69]

Hi all.
First post, I’m looking at buying a T30 6.1 Highline SWB panel van. A local van rental company said stay clear, a Hotpoint engineer at my lockup said the locks don’t work in frosty weather...honest opinions would be good, warts and all please. I’m a tradesman so will need it to start at 6am every morning but also carry the two little angels about. Thanks in advance

 

[Gavinda]

It's true, haven't you noticed the queue of transporter owners at the bus stop every time it drops below zero because they can't open their vans?
Honestly though our company has had been running 3 for over 2 years now and haven't had any problems which has kept any of them off the road.

 

[Markgf]

I’ve had two Caddy’s and three Transporter’s over the last ten years of being a self employed tradie. I had a fault with my T6, when the side door wouldn’t unlock, one cold day. Fortunately it was under warranty. Apart from the odd thing, I’ve not missed a days work, due to the van

 

[Spread69]

It's true, haven't you noticed the queue of transporter owners at the bus stop every time it drops below zero because they can't open their vans?
Honestly though our company has had been running 3 for over 2 years now and haven't had any problems which has kept any of them off the road.

Are they T6.1’s?

 

[Murdoch]

Had my sliding doors frozen shut, as was the drivers door - this has happened once in 3 years and in snowy conditions where the snow started to melt then refroze.

being at home I used some warm water - had i been away from home I would have had no choice but to use human warm water !

 

[Gavinda]

Are they T6.1’s?

T6's 2 x TSI Kombi's 1 x 150 TDI panel van.

 

[Spread69]

T6's 2 x TSI Kombi's 1 x 150 TDI panel van.

Cheers for the reply - I’m trying to hear from T6.1 owners for user feedback

 

[Rich Green]

Had my sliding doors frozen shut, as was the drivers door - this has happened once in 3 years and in snowy conditions where the snow started to melt then refroze.

being at home I used some warm water - had i been away from home I would have had no choice but to use human warm water !

 

[Gavinda]

There's plenty of owners on here, not heard any horror stories. I don't think any van is more or less likely than any other to have issues these days.

 

[Spread69]

Yep, some great info on here - I’ve been having a good read the last few days.

 

[Insert Coin]

There’s been a few reports on here about 6.1 doors freezing up on cold mornings. Have a search, pretty sure they were all warranty issues.

 

[Ozi]

Yep, it’s a known issue. Most seem to have been warranty jobs to do with a Bowden cable if I recall.

That said, I have exactly the same issue with my Evoque on very cold days occasionally and as suggested above, usually where it’s thawed and refrozen. A jug of warm water sorts it easily enough.

 

[Tourershine]

Are we sure the doors not opening is not the common microswitch fault that effects loads of T6's, normally the side loading doors in the cold?

Mine does it now and again on my drivers slider, but I've just learnt to live with it, because a few presses on the lock/unlock button eventually opens it.
Also, they unlock from the inside anyway, so most people can just lean through and unlock it that way.

All vehicles have gremlins and you are more likely to find these reported on the internet than the good things about these amazing commercials, and I bet the alternative vans have far more problems.
I've run several different vans through my business over the years but none have compared to my T6 and at 100k she still drives as tight as it did when it was new. You'd struggle to convince me there's a better commercial out their for us that use them as actual work vans.