![Crying or Very sad :cry:](./images/smilies/icon_cry.gif)
Loved the van for 14 months till hose went now lost faith in what is a brillant concept motor.
Still will wait and see if I get it back before christmas, certainly will not use garage again despite mechanic being trained on Bongo's.....Bonewage
Moderators: Doone, westonwarrior
if you think these are bad,well the toyota estimas are a lot worse, i own both,and am a member on both forums,but i can honestly say the estima suffers a lot more from cooling problems than these and are a lot more expensive to repair,all the estima head problems are down to lack of maintainence of the cooling system,blocked rads ,air locks ect,a well maintained vehicle will give years of trouble free motoring,as these are imported with not a lot of history behind them,unless they are properly prepared on import by some one who knows these vehicles,they could be timebombs.vanvliet wrote:Can't agree with Mike over this so here is my view - - I had a Mazda MX5 for years and was a member of the owners club - mine was a 1992 model It was not a cosseted car and was used daily .Sure MX5's they had the occassional mechanical problem, ( mostly brought about by owner abuse! ) but it was generally a remarkably reliable vehicle .
In contrast the Bongo has a real achilles heal in the design of the cooling system .There are far too many people on this forum ( and god knows how many who are not members )with coolant related problems for it to be easily dismissed and more come out of the closet as they vehicles are used in this country .I have not had any problems with my van but it is always at the back of my mind .I never had this worry with any other vehicle I have owned .The fact that a touring vehicle can be potentially so unreliable, even with the extra care taken by fastidiuos owners , and that you may well be stuck with a van full of camping equipment far from home is a major weakness .I like my van but,to be frank - - if I knew a couple of years ago what I know now it would have put me off buying one. When I give up on this one , and I hope that I will have it for a good few years , I will not be buying another .It is a flawed gem.