How we read a van

Vans for sale across the UK, read the way you'd read it if you were going to live in it. No hand-picking, nobody pays to be seen, and every point we give has its reason next to it.

Fit, out of 100

On Blank Canvas it's fit to convert; on Ready to Roll it's fit to live in. The same questions either way:

• What is it? Big, square, tall vans with cheap parts suit a build best: Ducato, Boxer and Relay; Sprinter and Crafter; Master and Movano; Transit. Mid-size vans (Transit Custom, Transporter, Trafic and Vivaro, Expert and Dispatch, Vito) are easier to park and harder to stand up in. Small vans are weekenders.
• Can you stand up and lie down? An H2 or H3 roof gives standing room. L3 and L4 give you a fixed bed and room for a bathroom. We read these from the title and the listing's own specifics.
• Can you drive it? Under 3,500 kg goes on an ordinary licence. Over it needs C1, and many Iveco Dailys are over.
• Can you take it into town? Euro 6 diesel and Euro 4 petrol avoid ULEZ and clean-air charges. When the listing doesn't say, we estimate from fuel and year and tell you to check the V5C.
• What's wrong with it? Cat S/N history, spares or repair, non-runner, no V5C, no MOT and damage all cost points.

The price, in words

We compare the asking price with vans of the same kind for sale right now: same platform, three-year age band and 50,000-mile band for Blank Canvas; same platform, age band and roof height (and berths, when the seller says) for Ready to Roll. You'll see Well priced, Fair price or Priced high, with the range most similar vans are listed between. When there aren't at least 8 similar vans to compare, we say Not enough similar vans yet rather than guess.

A van under half what similar ones go for gets an Unusually cheap flag and stays out of the rankings. Sometimes it's real; often it's a scam listing, a write-off or a deposit trap. Go and see it before paying anything.

Two lanes

Blank Canvas is unconverted panel vans. Ready to Roll is vans already built into campers. Tippers, crew vans, Lutons and coachbuilt motorhomes are kept out of both.

Spec check pending

New listings are read from their title first. We pull each listing's own specifics in daily batches and read it again; until then it carries a "Spec check pending" badge.

Parts

Under each van we show the wear parts and build kit for its generation. "Fits a 2017 Transit Custom (eBay fitment)" means eBay's own fitment data lists the part for that year, make and model (we check one year in each three-year band, so check the engine code too); "Listed for" means the seller names that generation or a known twin. If something's wrong, the "Doesn't fit?" link tells us and a person checks.

Where the data comes from

Listings, photos and parts come from eBay's API and from private sellers who list here. We never scrape other sites. The reg check reads the public DVSA MOT history live for any UK registration, and every UK van page has a panel to check its plate.

Money

Parts and kit bought through the links on Turfrig earn Little Jam Jar Ltd, the company behind Turfrig, a commission from eBay. The vehicles themselves earn us nothing. Neither changes what you pay or how we read a van. The Rig builder's parts list also links to Amazon UK. As an Amazon Associate Turfrig earns from qualifying purchases. How links are paid for.