Viano or Caravelle?

[Blobcat]

I'm now in the market for a 7 seater people mover with decent luggage capacity, in reality this means either a Viano or Caravelle. I have driven a few Caravelle's and like the new chain cam 2.5ltr diesel in 174hp guise. I hadn't looked at Viano's initially as I don't know if they suffer the same issues as the V Class, especially with the air suspension.
I have however just found that MB fit my V6 3.0ltr CDI engine into the Viano so that sounds like fun.

Does anyone have experience of the Viano and Caravelle and if so what would you recommend and why?

 

[dava]

We run both and the carravelle is the best by miles.

 

[Blobcat]

We run both and the carravelle is the best by miles.

Thanks for that, which derivatives do you have and why do you say the Caravelle is better?

What are the servicing costs like for both?

 

[dava]

The carravelles are the one's with the picnic table in the back and blacked out windows and I beleive 150HP, they go well attached to a six speed manual. Service costs are low as they are only serviced every 20k, but we service them every 5k, dont ask! The MB are 112 mini bus variations, we have two autos, with tip boxes and quite a few manuals, all though theses are 03 110, so the might not be the same beast. The caravelles drive much better and I believe return good fuel economy, they also feel a much better build quality. The vitos are prone to the usual faults anti roll bar bushes injectors, etc. In our area there are loads of taxi companies using Carravelles now and that I think says a lot, they picked up Skoda superbs quick enough.

 

[Blobcat]

Thanks for that, I've just put a deposit down on an 07 174bhp Executive Caravelle so looking forward to that. It has built in child seats and DVD player so my E should stay cleaner...