...if I had the money

...I'd buy a Volkswagen T4/T5

A what? A van? Are you mad? Perhaps, but then I'm not alone. The Volkswagen T4 and T5 Transporter and Caravelle are incredibly popular, and not just with the building trade. They exude the curious aura that surrounds all Volkswagens, one that allows dull cars to be cool simply because of the badge, and workhorse commercial vehicles like the Caddy and Transporter to be ravenously snapped up by tuners and those of a "lifestyle" persuasion.

The T4 was released in 1990 and ran for thirteen years before the T5 took over, but their coolness can surely be attributed to their lineage - they owe their existance to their great grandad, the Volkswagen Type 2 "Splittie", beloved and revered by hippes and surfers the world over. Despite the later vans' more utilitarian slant and the loss of the rear engined, rear drive layout, the modern vans are still supremely useable and being vans, are still ripe for converting into do-it-all camper vans and customising with big wheels, paintjobs and glitterballs in the back.

Though lacking in character compared to the earlier vans and having a distinctly more "commercial" soundtrack than the old aircooled flat-four thanks to turbodiesel engines, the T4 and T5 are still brilliant vehicles and deservedly popular on the aftermarket. You are equally likely to see a T4 or T5 at a Volkswagen show as you are to see a Beetle or Golf. Yet unlike those two classics, you can also sleep overnight in the Transporter.

Just like with my previous "if I had the money", the Alfa 146, I've actually driven a Transporter. I rented one for a day to help my flatmate move in, having been promised "A Ford Transit, or similar" by the rental company website. Thankfully for me, it was a T5, of which I'd always been curious to try out but never had the opportunity.

The T5 marked not only the first van I'd driven, but also the first Volkswagen and the first diesel. On not one of the above counts did it disappoint. Sure, I'd been given a basic, 84bhp 1.9 TDI variant rather than the significantly more potent 2.5, 5-cylinder TDI with up to 174bhp, but it still moved with impressive haste and the growly diesel was music to my ears. I tend to subconsciously readjust my expectations when I hop into new vehicles meaning that even something quite shoddy can win my affections, but as far as I could tell it was a tidy handler too, and the interior was great even with several thousand miles worth of rental driver bottoms on the seat. The dash-mounted gearshift was particularly sweet, and the pedals all pleasantly un-vanlike and light to use.

From what I've heard the T4 is a nice drive too - perhaps not as polished as the T5 and not as stylish, but the T4 makes up for it by being significantly more affordable - scruffy ones are as little as a grand, and you can get clean ex-electrician vans from about £2k. With subtle tidying up they can look great too - most original equipment VAG wheels will slot straight on, meaning your T4 can be rolling on Audi RS4 wheels in no time.

In the end I only drove the T5 for 21 glorious miles, enough for a trip around town with a back full of posessions and an Ikea trip, but it was enough to bring me well and truly out of the commercial vehicle closet and the Transporter now takes place on my ultimate garage wishlist.

In the garage: T5 2.5 TDI 174, deep black pearl, Audi RS4 wheels, a subtle drop and a camper conversion with matt silver units and a bed with red silk sheets...

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Welcome to Think Cars... thinking about Modern Classics

Welcome to Think Cars. It's a sister blog to Tarmac, which focuses more on green technology in the automotive industry, small cars, and having fun in small or eco-friendly vehicles. Think Cars is a little more informal - it's just me, picking the first car-related subject that comes into my head, and talking about it. If you follow Tarmac with any regularity you'll realise that it's not very regular, and hopefully Think will be updated more often as it's less specific. I hope you enjoy it.

...thinking about Modern Classics

It's a term that gets banded about with great regularity in the motoring press and I've seen it applied to umpteen different modern cars. It's a difficult concept to understand, the modern classic, as a classic is something old, and something that you only learn to appreciate with hindsight, perhaps much more so than it's appreciated as a new vehicle. Jaguars, Ferraris, MGs and the like have had an easy route into classicdom - they've been special since they rolled out of the factory gates, and I'm sure the F430s and Jaguar XFs of this world will be considered classics in 30-odd years time.

But the humble stuff doesn't tend to cross your mind when you think of classics, and yet they still end up as such. It's why cars like the Austin Princess and Morris Marina have thriving owners clubs, and ex-repmobiles of the sixties and seventies like Cortinas and Dolomites are considered genuine retro classics now.

In the last few years though it's been the turn of the humble transport of the 1980s. These are cars that often lacked the style of previous decades as well as being significantly worse to drive and less well equipped than cars of the 90s, the decade in which car safety and equipment began to increase significantly.

Perhaps it's due to the backlash of heavy modern cars that shield you from the driving experience, but humble 80s runarounds are starting to attract attention again. Cars like the Mk3 Escort and the Vauxhall Nova that have miraculously escaped both the jaws of the crusher and the paws of the cruiser are becoming collectors items yet at the same time are currently escaping the hikes in value that we're now witnessing with cars like the 2CV and Beetle, both of which used to be the bargain-basement and student wheels of choice. Check out this Nova for example, that I photographed at a car show earlier in the year:


It's a car we love to hate, and yet someone, somewhere has invested the time and money in finding the best example they can and bringing it to concours condition, or even finding a bit of a tired example and restoring it. It's even in a fairly basic trim. I think it was a 1.2, or perhaps a 1.4. Many people would have slapped big wheels and a bodykit on it and then spun it into a tree.

It's the same story with old Fords and Volkswagens too - old Escorts, Sierras and Fiestas are turning up at shows, as are Sciroccos, Polos and non-GTI Golfs (though the VW scene is huge regardless of the model), and old Italian cars will always be popular, but strangely, the French scene is lacking a little. Where are the base Renault 5s and 11s, non-GTI Peugeots and Citroen Visas? Have they all rusted away? Have they been crushed? If you're reading this and you have a 1980s French car in great nick (preferably a base model) get in contact because I'd love to see it and post it up here.

What I'd advise though is that if you have a low-mileage, humble, 1980s family car or supermini, tuck it away in a garage somewhere because one day you'll be the owner of a modern classic.

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