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I am setting up a delivery service for petfood in very busy streets in a busy town where parking is difficult and need to buy a newish used vehicle to suit this, and for personal use at the same time without being a van. Must have 5 doors and air con, It must be easy to park shortish in length - ideally diesel and my budget is #6,000 for a used vehicle. Any ideas anyone? Oh and it must be a totally reliable make!
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Try a Skoda Felicia, they are abit basic but you'll get a really good one for loads under £6K, even the petrols are light on fuel, any garage can repair them, and you'll have abit more cash for your business.
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Did they do Felicias with air-con? For ease of parking, I'd have thought the Suzuki Wagon R -type of vehicle - short in length and pretty narrow, plenty of visibility. Or Hyundai Atoz, Amica. Or Perodua Kenari (brand new, probably, on your budget). Wouldn't have thought the lack of diesel on these models would make a HUGE difference - they'll still do towards 50mpg. All are pretty van-like with the rear seats out. Slightly bigger, a Toyota Yaris Verso? Or if it has to be diesel, you might find an early Citroen Berlingo Multispace. Air-con doubtful on that though.
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Renault Kangoo. - comes with aircon as an option so may be some second user ones about so equiped.
Renault Scenic. Take out the three seats at the back and you have a van. Put them back and its a nice family car.
Citroen Berlingo as with Renault kangoo
Citroen Picasso as with Renault Scenic
Only vehicles that match your criteria I can think of. Apart from that its either vans or big estates.
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Mrs Fif did a similar sort of job for a while.
If she was still doing this the Citroën Berlingo would have been THE vhicle of choice. 1.9D of course.
We used my estate (then it was a Pug 4051.7DT) as back up when times were busy and the availability of aircon and central locking were a complete boon.
You've already recognised the benefit of aircon.
Central locking? Boon when parking in a dodgy area with a vehicle full of goods central locking saves time as you can zap as you walk away and everything was locked up. Easy in the rush to forget one door.
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Berlingo/Pug Partner Combi, Kangoo, or for real budget stuff Fiat Doblo but DO NOT buy one with the 1.2 petrol engine. I'd go for the Berlingo/Partner (you'll find more second hand Berlingos) with the HDI diesel engine: aircon available as an option and remote central locking as standard. These vehicles are exactly what you are looking for and while small MPVs like the Scenic or Picasso will do the job their interiors will suffer more from being knocked about.
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Or a 2-3 year old Yaris Verso? A Fabia estate might also be available, at 2 years old.
After all, it 'has to be from a totally reliable make'
The advantage of the Berlingo/Kangoo/Doblo is that they have sliding doors on the side. This is because they are vans with windows - though quite acceptable for short journeys.
The disadvantage is that, while none is a complete dog, Renault, Fiat and Citroën don't have the greatest reputation for reliability. These are all cheap and simple vehicles though, and designed for commercial use, so are probably fairly tough.
Longer term, you might find that there are tax advantages in leasing a new car through the busines sthan buying a used one for cash, especially if you pay too much up front and are worried about having the car up front. Speak to your accountant about this.
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Kangoo would be handy with it's twin side sliding doors.
PP
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