My mechanic mate was saying new vans are all electronics and they don't want anyone bar themselves to work on them. He was saying a customer bought a new Transit 4 or 5 years ago. Ford garage told him, this is brand new technology and we don't know how to work on them at the moment and suggested an older van. The guy was determined to be the first and the van lasted 4 years and was in and out of the Ford garage and even had a new engine fitted. In the end the van disappeared and he now has another new Transit but they have seemed to iron out alot of the problems.
Better to buy an old shape van until its been out there on the road for 3 years so they know all the faults that have came in. I'm looking for a 23 or 24 plate Crafter but swapping tank over will be a headache and better to do it in the Summer when daylight is still there at 10pm.
You are right. Never buy a new model of any vehicle until it's proved itself in the marketplace.
I've never understood why there is usually a queue to buy a new model vehicle by enthusiasts.
In 1998/9 Alfa launched their new Alpha Romeo 156. The first models in the showroom were absolute junk, IMHO. Internal plastic components just fell off in the showroom and on the lot. They were back numerous times for coolant leaks. Fix one, give it a clean bill of health, and another leak would start a week or so later. Some of those early models were in our workshop more than with their new owners. If the leak was at the heater matrix, the whole dash had to be removed to fix it. Fiat's answer was that customers just accept that Alphas are going to be quirky.
My wife was then given one as a company car. No issues, apart from that it used oil, which it continued to do all the time she had it. In fact, there is still some oil for it in our garage. It was specifically for that Alpha engine. I topped that engine oil up every weekend.
The same thing happened when Citroën launched the C5. It took them a while to solve electrical problems. They were fitted with numerous computers (I forget how many), but they sometimes didn't talk to each other correctly, causing the vehicle to go into limp mode. In the end, they were pretty good cars. What I could never understand is that motor manufacturers never seem to test new models in an everyday environment. All they have to do is send a few models over to Africa, and faults will become immediately evident within a few hours.
What did amaze me was that the best troubleshooters were the recovery lads working for the RAC and Green Flag. (Citroën never used the AA.) In 99% of recovery cases, their road side fault diagnosis was correct. Most of our workshop mechanics had no idea how to trouble shoot.
