DRoader
Guest
Thanks it was the coolant/antifreeze thing I heard about. Is it right some Bongos are now being resold with newly fitted coolant alarms to allay fears?
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6ettinold
Guest
mazda bongo
Hi there,
Some traders are selling Bongo's with coolant alarms fitted - certainly a good selling point?? Alarms are available on ebay for DIY fitment.
We were looking into possilby buying a Bongo 18 months ago. A dust up with up a local dealer selling a bag of nails disguised as a Bongo put us off. We played safe and bought a Mondeo estate instead! Regretted our panic buy and have since bought a Bongo.
I wouldn't and couldn't afford the dealer prices this time around and instead took the riskier ebay route. My point is there are good dealers but there are also the not so good ones with overpriced tat on the forecourt. I've bought cars from dealers before and had lots of issues. I've bought from private sellers and I'd rather talk to the current owner about the vehicle, rather than some orange tinted Bob Monkhouse look-a-like!!
We saw a couple - one very local to us for £4k ( a week after Chrimbo ) which was a mess quite frankly. Frankly the same rules apply to Bongo buying as any vehicle and obviously the addition of checking for head gasket bother and underside corrosion and wheel arch rust.
Any car can suffer from head gasket failure through neglect - I would initially go on instinct - if it looks neglected on the outside then its likely to have been neglected in other ways.
We actually ended up with a 2 litre petrol. This wasn't a decision based on the hg stories with the diesels. Initially I went for it as it had alloys, body kit, etc! It was 200 miles away but the seller put some effort into his ebay listing. We had a lengthy chat about the truck over the phone and it felt right. Train fare to Warrington was cheap as chips - I googled his address in relation to the train station and checked a single return price and checked train time sfor a return journey in case I wasn't happy when I'd seen the Bongo.
£30 in train tickets ( there and back ) was deffo worth the 'risk'. Even used Google street view to see if the area where he lived looked nice and leafy... and to make sure that that was the address he took me to when he kindly collected me from the station.
He was dead honest about the truck and it all went swimmingly.
There have been a couple of small issues. Its 14 year old and is a big heavy thing so I've got the front suspension bushes to replace and the front drop links to do too ( £50 tops ) - nothing compared to the work I had to do get my 6 year old low mileage Mondeo through its MoT.
Fuel consumption is acceptable - the petrol I reckon does around 2-3 mpg less than the diesel - but derv is pricier anyway. Claims of 30+ from Bongo owners should be taken with a dose of salt. We manage about 26-27 on a steady run. Parts are as cheap as they were for the Mondeo. Our Bongo is utterly reliable and I can't envisage any major bills coming our way. Our Mondeo may have managed 50mpg on the motorway - but had started costing a fortune to keep her running. Something I find unacceptable from something that was what I'd consider fairly new, with FSH and 70k on the clock.
The other thing to mention - ours is utterly gutless from 50mph. Anything above 70mph is noisy and I suspect would involve a miserable mpg figure! The relaxed 60mph drive is new to me but the good lady seems happier sat next to me...
I halved my insurance with the Bongo. Tesco were charging nigh-on £600 for my car. I rang lots of 'specialists' - all gave laughable quotes. Lifesure ( huge recommendations on Bongo Fury ) were extremely helpful and came out at £300 fully comp. Interestingly with a side conversion, this would be down to around £200.
I'd buy another tomorrow off ebay - I'd consider a diesel certainly. I'd avoid buying one from the 3-4 home traders residing in Bristol that constantly list the same Bongo's ( each one appears to sell 2-3 times to new ebay a/c holders.... ) as 3 day auctions btw!! Every car / camper have their common potential problems - as with all of the car specific forums, Bong Fury is fantastic but threads are obviously generated by owners with issues!!
Bongo Fury has lots of tips regarding buying a diesel variant. Personally I'd have a coolant alarm fitted or fit one myself. I'd follow the test drive advice.... 50mph+ on a dual carraigeway for 10 mins plus, from memory, check the engines cold before setting off, obvioulsly check fluid levels, mayo, etc., condition of the water hoses ( prone to going brittle and cracking ), see how long it takes for the temp gaugwe to rise during the run, etc, etc.
Personally, I'd buy privately - even ebay?? I'd budget to replace the rad, the hoses and fit a coolant alarm and still save myself a packet.
Another point to mention is that I'm amazed at the amount of Bongo's we see about, IMHO prices are on the up ( not just seasonal?? ) and Bongo Fury is such a great website - we can't all be wrong eh??!!
Apologies for rattling on.
Good luck!
Paul.
Hi there,
Some traders are selling Bongo's with coolant alarms fitted - certainly a good selling point?? Alarms are available on ebay for DIY fitment.
We were looking into possilby buying a Bongo 18 months ago. A dust up with up a local dealer selling a bag of nails disguised as a Bongo put us off. We played safe and bought a Mondeo estate instead! Regretted our panic buy and have since bought a Bongo.
I wouldn't and couldn't afford the dealer prices this time around and instead took the riskier ebay route. My point is there are good dealers but there are also the not so good ones with overpriced tat on the forecourt. I've bought cars from dealers before and had lots of issues. I've bought from private sellers and I'd rather talk to the current owner about the vehicle, rather than some orange tinted Bob Monkhouse look-a-like!!
We saw a couple - one very local to us for £4k ( a week after Chrimbo ) which was a mess quite frankly. Frankly the same rules apply to Bongo buying as any vehicle and obviously the addition of checking for head gasket bother and underside corrosion and wheel arch rust.
Any car can suffer from head gasket failure through neglect - I would initially go on instinct - if it looks neglected on the outside then its likely to have been neglected in other ways.
We actually ended up with a 2 litre petrol. This wasn't a decision based on the hg stories with the diesels. Initially I went for it as it had alloys, body kit, etc! It was 200 miles away but the seller put some effort into his ebay listing. We had a lengthy chat about the truck over the phone and it felt right. Train fare to Warrington was cheap as chips - I googled his address in relation to the train station and checked a single return price and checked train time sfor a return journey in case I wasn't happy when I'd seen the Bongo.
£30 in train tickets ( there and back ) was deffo worth the 'risk'. Even used Google street view to see if the area where he lived looked nice and leafy... and to make sure that that was the address he took me to when he kindly collected me from the station.
He was dead honest about the truck and it all went swimmingly.
There have been a couple of small issues. Its 14 year old and is a big heavy thing so I've got the front suspension bushes to replace and the front drop links to do too ( £50 tops ) - nothing compared to the work I had to do get my 6 year old low mileage Mondeo through its MoT.
Fuel consumption is acceptable - the petrol I reckon does around 2-3 mpg less than the diesel - but derv is pricier anyway. Claims of 30+ from Bongo owners should be taken with a dose of salt. We manage about 26-27 on a steady run. Parts are as cheap as they were for the Mondeo. Our Bongo is utterly reliable and I can't envisage any major bills coming our way. Our Mondeo may have managed 50mpg on the motorway - but had started costing a fortune to keep her running. Something I find unacceptable from something that was what I'd consider fairly new, with FSH and 70k on the clock.
The other thing to mention - ours is utterly gutless from 50mph. Anything above 70mph is noisy and I suspect would involve a miserable mpg figure! The relaxed 60mph drive is new to me but the good lady seems happier sat next to me...
I halved my insurance with the Bongo. Tesco were charging nigh-on £600 for my car. I rang lots of 'specialists' - all gave laughable quotes. Lifesure ( huge recommendations on Bongo Fury ) were extremely helpful and came out at £300 fully comp. Interestingly with a side conversion, this would be down to around £200.
I'd buy another tomorrow off ebay - I'd consider a diesel certainly. I'd avoid buying one from the 3-4 home traders residing in Bristol that constantly list the same Bongo's ( each one appears to sell 2-3 times to new ebay a/c holders.... ) as 3 day auctions btw!! Every car / camper have their common potential problems - as with all of the car specific forums, Bong Fury is fantastic but threads are obviously generated by owners with issues!!
Bongo Fury has lots of tips regarding buying a diesel variant. Personally I'd have a coolant alarm fitted or fit one myself. I'd follow the test drive advice.... 50mph+ on a dual carraigeway for 10 mins plus, from memory, check the engines cold before setting off, obvioulsly check fluid levels, mayo, etc., condition of the water hoses ( prone to going brittle and cracking ), see how long it takes for the temp gaugwe to rise during the run, etc, etc.
Personally, I'd buy privately - even ebay?? I'd budget to replace the rad, the hoses and fit a coolant alarm and still save myself a packet.
Another point to mention is that I'm amazed at the amount of Bongo's we see about, IMHO prices are on the up ( not just seasonal?? ) and Bongo Fury is such a great website - we can't all be wrong eh??!!
Apologies for rattling on.
Good luck!
Paul.
Last edited:
kenjones
Guest
I looked at a couple of Bongo conversions but rejected them as they appeared to combine MPV and Camper but did neither particularly well.
I much prefer VWs and my T4 2.5 tdi tops 40mpg and reglarly does over 45mpg on a run, easily cruises at motorway speeds and has power to spare on hills. It also fits supermarket parking bays. From talking to other owners and my own experience (this is my second T4) this is normal performance.
It would appear that the the Bongo can't match these figures.
I much prefer VWs and my T4 2.5 tdi tops 40mpg and reglarly does over 45mpg on a run, easily cruises at motorway speeds and has power to spare on hills. It also fits supermarket parking bays. From talking to other owners and my own experience (this is my second T4) this is normal performance.
It would appear that the the Bongo can't match these figures.
6ettinold
Guest
I looked at a couple of Bongo conversions but rejected them as they appeared to combine MPV and Camper but did neither particularly well.
Our Bongo is unconverted and we use it primarily as an MPV. When I shopped around, I had no intention of buying a Galaxy, etc., but compared to the usual MPV's, the Bongo made sense. trim seems more durable ( important with 3 young kids ) and 6-7 year old MPV's I saw looked a little tired. We got an awning and all the kit so it suits our needs. Again as far as MPG is concerned, I'd compare it to other MPV's as this mainly why we bought it. We've got an awning - so short trips away camping are a much welcomed bonus.
We'd have loved a VW - but our budget wouldn't have bought us anything as tidy as the Bongo we settled on. I'm probably wrong - but converted Bongo's seem to be priced on a par with VW's?? Obviously then the VW makes more sense.
I would possibly like more space - next time I might consider a Toyota Regius and its possible after a summer's driving I might tire of the lack of oomph.... btw my Bongo is narrower than my old Mondeo - parking isn't a problem - but you lose space inside too.