SUV or Estate car as a work vehicle

[IrishSparks]

Due to an ever increasing family I am thinking of buying an estate car or a SUV and using it as a work van by letting the seats down during the day.
Just wondered if anyone else uses one?
I can't put the kids in the van as I have no back seats and the wife has the family car gone to work so we run into problems when I have to pick them up from the childminders. Usually I have to drive to the town she works and swap the car/van,this is a pain as she works 30miles away.

I don't do much domestic work any more so I'm not carrying huge loads of cables or ladders. My work is mainly in the electrical control maintenance of AHU's and BMS controls type work.So really all I ever have is a tool box,drill box and the odd bits of cable in the van.
I do from time to tome have large control panels that I am installing for a AHU or something so I do still need a bit of room.

I was thinking of either a Skoda Octavia estate or a Ford Kuga SUV.The reason I have decided on them is that you can let the rear seats down totally flat so it turns into an almost van like car.
Just wondered if anyone uses an estate or a SUV as a work vehicle and how they find it? Is it very practical ? Or is it a pain letting the seats up and down everytime you want to use it for the kids or for work.
I'm not sure I really have a choice,and I think I will have to buy something as I can't afford to have a van for work,a car for the kids and the wife's car!

 

[i=p/u]

Volvo estate = massive boot with towbar or van with seats Ouse estate car for same idea as you bmw320d but Volvo has bigger boot.

 

[i=p/u]

Got offered one last week but don't have the cash to change.. Or would of 2.4 so plenty of power and 44 mpg roughly

 

[tuckermot]

I also use a volvo v40 estate they don,t rust and keep going my one has 225,000 miles on a petrol engine and does not use a drop of oil

 

[Octopus]

Ford S-MAx or Galaxy?

 

[monkeyelectric]

I used to use an old shogun, it looked quite smart turning up to a job but all my kit was on show so i had to be careful where i parked it

 

[Hiddo]

I have got the same predicament at the moment. Too many kids and not enough seats in the van. I'm thinking of getting a pick up with one of those snug tops on it. Has anyone else tried that?

 

[monkeyelectric]

There are some really nice vivaros's about with a second row of seats in the back and then you still have a large area behind the seats that you can partition off, keep work and pleasure seperate in one vehicle, its what i've been looking at but i love my van and my jeep too much at the moment

 

[Fin170]

Can not say I've ever herd of a Ford Kuga being used as a vehicle for the utility of sports equipment :lol:

I've been using my Subaru Forester for work for a fair amount of times but recently started 'boring' a Vauxhall Zafira which is a fantastic van as the 3rd row of seats fold flat and the middle fold up against the front seats to provide a huge cargo area and bulkhead. Get nearly 50mpg out of it as well and being the 150bhp version has a fair amount of wooosh too

 

[Robert Turnbull]

I have a vauxhall combo crew van for the kiddie situation.

Has 5 seats and a fair load space.

Can be folded down to make a normal combo but I have built shelves In the back for spares/parts/consumables and have a van safe in there and loads of tools. I even have 6 tread steps stored along the roof inside.

Put cable in rear foot well

Then I usually chuck stuff on the back seats.


Emptied it out after work yesterday and has
Taken 5 in comfort 300miles to South Wales for the weekend

 

[mydigitalhome]

Freelander for me, comfortable, reliable and the majority of the time will hold all the gear. Great on long trips and ideal on those wintery days. Good luck with whatever you get.

 

[i=p/u]

dont get back wheel drive if snowing, jeep be great... was offered discovery 3L but it is square as cube

 

[papycompany]

what about vito dualiners or transporter combi, these are great as van/car combination with a decent bulkhead load of space for the family in the back

 

[RmBo_0]

Was just looking on fleabay at a transporter and this caught my eye. A really good photo of it

 

[papycompany]

:confused5: yeah, you realy can say a lot about the van from that photo...and the price it's "good" as well...