For heaven's sake! Just buy a new van and stop messing about. The payments on my new van when I bought it were £35 a week, can anyone tell me they can't afford that? Thats straight HP no baloon payments or rubbish like that at the end. It was cheaper than leasing by a good way as well.
And they threw in metallic paint, aircon and a side door free.
Its in its fourth year now and hasn't had as much as a light bulb replaced. Still on the original tyres and brake pads
Agreed Vince - mind you my van is now 4 and a half years old; 26K and just started on it's third set of tyres as of yesterday.
Trouble is, most vans were never fitted with aircon as standard around 2000, so the chances of finding one are very remote as it would have been a special order and factory built.
Again, most vans of 11 years old will have high mileages and be battered about. The good ones will be snapped up privately and most will never go to the 'trade' or be advertised.
Vince is right. Better a newer van, ex demo or the like. Running an old van will usually guarantee expensive repairs - better to spent that money on financing a newer van IMHO.
But as Tosh reminds us, if financing is not an option, save like mad and keep looking. When you are in a rush to find something, you never can.
Spruce