Ex British Gas vans

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woodsy
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Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 6:41 am
Engine size/power: 1.8 20V Turbo

Ex British Gas vans

Post by woodsy »

I had my heart set on a SWB Caddy till I went to look at some yesterday :(
I never realised how small the rear was. I need a van to carry 2 mountain bikes and all my gear with some stop overs and also to carry big dogs at other times.
So now I'm looking at Maxi Caddy's. There seems to be loads of ex BG vans at sensible prices without the dreaded VAT.
My question is.......are there any pitfalls to buying one of theses ?
They seem to all have low mileage/FSH and described as very clean.
The blue is growing on my....slowly :?
SnoWhite
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Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2015 6:41 pm
Engine size/power: 2.0 CR TDI (108bhp)

Re: Ex British Gas vans

Post by SnoWhite »

There are plenty of folks on here who appear to be reasonably content with a BG maxi as a base vehicle - suffice to say plenty have taken to modifying them since. My strong advice is to try and find one of the rarely available 2.0 models - They tended to be allocated to the supervisors at BG and do come up from time to time but obviously are far less common.

As you may have spotted the 1.6 engine is a bit prone to eating fuel injectors, and in all probability have as you say been fully serviced - which unfortunately means they may well have had the dreaded Emissions update fitted - which in more than the odd occasion has proved a very bad improvement. On the 2.0 even if the emission update has been done its a software only tweek, so decent tuners like Pendle can reverse any ill effects and indeed give you a van with around 170bhp without going outside the envelope in terms of MPG or reliability. Then at least you will be able to overtake swiftly something I found with the stock 1.6 models was extremely frustrating, and required care, planning, a massive gap and a whole lot of thrashing to achieve.

The size difference between swb and maxi is all reflected in extra internal space so you will end up with a far more versatile van for only a small amount extra.

Have fun - post up photos if (when) you find something which works for you.
spuey
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Re: Ex British Gas vans

Post by spuey »

Also worth considering they're usually limited with a specific limiter that some people can't deactivate!
Celticrsmith
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Re: Ex British Gas vans

Post by Celticrsmith »

Welcome mate

I plumped for an ex scottish has van (swb) and I'm happy with what I've got. It was a 2010, so just before the face lift but I kinda prefer the front end a little more 'old skool' as such. It had 48k but with a fsh. Ofcourse itl be due the belts/pumps done (probably sooner rather than later) but it had all the spec I was looking for...electric windows, air con and so on.

Go get yourself one, you'll love it! But be prepared to get flashed and waved at by all the other gas vans still in commission haha
Captaingrim
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Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 11:45 pm
Engine size/power: 1.6 CR TDI (102bhp)

Re: Ex British Gas vans

Post by Captaingrim »

Hi and welcome,

Bought myself an Ex BG Maxi , which I'm planning on converting into. camper/ day van less than a week ago, very happy with it so far.
I made the dealer take the limiter off as part of the purchase price- its a software upgrade for Bosch units I believe that can be had for free. I find it fairly pokey and decent to run about and is more than happy causing at 80mph, though you do need to slightly heavier foot than usual about town. I'll be saving for a remap I think.
I've got it booked to have a Cat 1 alarm fitted next week as it only comes with a factory fitted immobiliser and vans are being nicked around here with unusually high frequency !
As for the colour, there are plenty of very nice mods about to help make it better. I've got a sign writing company playing with some VW graphics in dark blue to break it up a bit and stop BG engineers waving at me :) :)
I'm also trying to find car audio person to fit a new head unit- I want something that talks to my iPhone , but 'add swear word here' me , that seems much harder then it seems!
Oh and I'm ordering a recon injected from eBay 'just in case'
Once all those are done I can get started on the internals!

Go on dive in :)
woodsy
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Engine size/power: 1.8 20V Turbo

Re: Ex British Gas vans

Post by woodsy »

Thanks for the info so far.
I hadn't realised that BG guys wave at each other.......have enough of having to nod my head to every biker when out riding as it is :D
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the swan fiend
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Re: Ex British Gas vans

Post by the swan fiend »

woodsy wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2017 9:05 pm Thanks for the info so far.
I hadn't realised that BG guys wave at each other.......have enough of having to nod my head to every biker when out riding as it is :D
Start blowing kisses to them, they should soon stop :-)
Rescue me from the swans in me
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