Transporter

Choices The standard head unit on the T5 is a fairly uninspiring lump reminiscent of my first Audi's Concert II. It is admittedly functional and the previous owner had added a parrot blue tooth and ipod dock to spice things up. I do not own an ipod however and the parrot doesn't stream music so it was definitely stuck in the naughties. There is a huge collection of after market head unit options available for this van requiring some serious review reading to pick out a winner. I was keen to keep the OEM look which was somewhat restricting me unless I went for the new shape centre console which would allow me an RNS510. Changing the centre console opened up a quite a few more options including the Kenwood DNX520 which not only offered even more features than the RNS510 and better navigation, it was also designed to work specifically with VW's unlike most other aftermarket head units. I read a mixed bag of reviews for this and the later 521 complaining about poor pe

Intro Having previously owned a B7 Audi A4 S-line SE last edition, I had become used to a rather plush interior and I was having some problems with my T5 from the drivers seat. T5's are better appreciated from the outside than in. Much to my dismay this seems to be the case even for some modded vans I was finding on the internet. A wise man once said: " I'd rather live in a cave with a view of a palace than live in a palace with a view of a cave. " In fact it was Karl Pilkington and he is an idiot. The point he missed is that my T5 cave was clearly designed for a cave man and you still have to look at the inside of it whilst everyone else enjoyed the far prettier exterior. It's like a VW Dime bar only the crunchy inside is a mix of plastic and rubber that would do little for your teeth. So just like a Dime bar then. I'd like to stress that the interior isn't bad at all. It is perfectly functional and solid, it's just far from attracti

Hunting Dubs Time wasn't much of a healer. The memory of the oil making 4-motion was with me as I searched the internet for a suitable replacement.  "It had been a bargain and what if it had been a simple fix"? I might have thrown away a genuine bargain and I was now struggling to find a van with similar speck and at a similar price without astronomical miles on it. Time however was on my side (healing properties omitted though they were) and one particular example did crop up on auction. Sat at a starting bid of £12,500  and no bids there was a silver 2.5 130ps LWB with electric pack,  barn doors and a few bits added to make it into a light day van. Some pimping Landrover alloys, coil overs, a rear spoiler and fancy headlamps also gave it a pretty gnarly look. The mileage was at 85k, not bad at all for a van, so after messaging the seller to see if they were happy with a bit of a wait I stuck a minimum bid on it. Which I won. I paid a holding deposit

Picking Picking the right van was a far more difficult task than it aught to have been, but then I am a picky bugger. Having recently sold my Audi A4 Avant B7 Sline SE 2.0 Tdi 180ps (to give it is's short name) I had gotten used to a rather plush drive. I also had to shift the urge to not buy one of those big bi-turbo S6's or similar, so suffice to say my research was far reaching. My needs were simple. I wanted a reasonably interesting vehicle that could transport a couple of guys, bikes and kit to a race and back . A car and trailer were an option, but an undesirable one, if I ever wanted to take up motorcycle racing seriously. That left a van. There are lots of these about but they are generally agricultural at best which is great if you are using it for work but this would also need to be my primary caging device and as mentioned before I had turned into a bit of a tart so this was going to be tricky. So a premium van was in order; realistically leaving me the Merc