Car for percussionist - any ideas?

[Richard_C]

Any good ideas for a second hand petrol powered big box on wheels that's affordable to buy and cheap to run?

My son graduates soon, classical percussion and timpani. Early careers are built on ad hoc performance work and some teaching. You need to be able to get around, and get around with instruments. Percussion goes from tiny to huge. Triangles are easy. Snares and Cymbals plus stands heavy but not too big. You can disassemble marimbas, xylophones and suchlike but the cases can be long and/or awkward shapes. Modern portable timpani dismount from their stands but you still have some large (up to 36" diameter cased) hemispheres to contend with. Sometimes you need to travel with others so a van isn't the answer - but not people and instruments at the same time. He will be in and out of the coming-soon London ULEZ zone and occasionally the congestion zone so it needs to be Petrol Euro 4 or better, there won't be any affordable Euro 6 diesels about yet and diesels might well be uneconomic in the not too distant future.

So he is looking for a vehicle, second hand maybe about £6k. Style and brand image unimportant, doesn't need to be high performance or loaded with kit (ac might be nice), petrol, reliable, cheap to run and insure.

C3 Picasso not quite big enough as a load carrier, interior load height might be limiting. Berlingo Multispace/Peugeot Partner would be good as long as row 2 removable, not all are, but no petrol ones until very recently. Pity. Other thoughts so far include Renault Kangoo - I think there are some 1.2 petrols about - maybe a Skoda Roomster, Vauxhall Zafira or beat up Ford Galaxy, VW Touran or .... is there anything toyota nissan hyundai kia - ish or other contenders, or things to avoid?

EDIT - I sort of assumed most C4 grand Picassos pre 2013 would be Diesel - was there a decent petrol engine version I could look out for?

[JohnD]

How about a Citroen Dispatch van with petrol engine. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/van-search ... savesearch

[Michel]

C4 Grand Picasso 1.8 Petrol VTR or VTR plus. He should get a decent 2008-2010 one for less than two grand. To be honest, a Berlingo Multispace Forte (no modutop taking up roof space) will be better than a Grand Picasso. Having owned both, though the capacity of the GP is bigger, the height inside the Berlingo makes it much more practical. For example, I can put my 29" wheel mountain bike in the back of a Berlingo without taking the wheels off. I can't do that in a Grand Picasso..