Having seen this one, I don't care what anyone says,

buying an mpv when you have no kids is stupid if you ask me, i'd want to put off that kinda of purchase forever!

No shit my girlfriend has a Kia Carnival and I hate it with a passion. Gutless as f*ck. She is forever trying to blag my car for a loan.

Fraser

The 6th and 7th seats would be mostly folded. That would be where I would store the servers when transporting them.

Next big shift will be 10 1U servers, 2 4U Raid1+Raid5 database servers with redundant PSU, 3 Cisco switches, 4 APC powerstrips, a rackmount keyboard/monitor, 2 Cisco firewalls, 2 Juniper routers and all the associated mounting hardware. This will be when we move into our new datacentre for our disaster recovery suite. In the Celsior, to carry it safely you are probably looking at 3 trips 15-20 minutes each way. A decent van or people carrier could carry the lot in one trip.

Then we have to decommission one of our other datacentres as the company is a pile of s**te and has turned into a disaster zone since they made me and a 3rd of the staff redundant.

Then we have to rationalise our 3rd datacentre.

Also, one of my jobs is carting all the recyling material over to our other office. Normally piles of cardboard, so bulky rather than heavy but sometimes very dirty so you don't want it on the seats.

A van would be ideal, but private insurance on a van is higher than a car, even with business cover. And sometimes I need to seats in the back because when things like sight tests need to be done, or a number of staff are attending a conference locally I have to transport them for petrol expenses. I could buy a car totally unsuitable work, but the chances are 50% of my duties would disappear over night and probably my job too. I'm useful, because as well as the office IT/phone answering I can also do the humping and shifting. I get paid too well to just be a multitasking receptionist.

I don't understand why this is your cost and responsibility to bare? What mileage rate do you get for moving this stuff around?

Your position is being abused. If you need a vehicle for removal work, the Company should provide you with this. End of.

Personally, I'd get what I wanted and then get the Company to buy a tow bar and rent trailers when needed.

Running a people wagon when you don't need to is extreme, again in my opinion.

Still - does it have good cup holders?

And there's your answer : hire a van to do it. 30 quid - if your company can't afford that, I'd worry.

For the regular box humping, seats down in a hatch or estate has got to be the way forwards...

cheers, clive

He's not joking you know.......

;-)

I never joke.

I reckon with careful packing I could get most, if not all of that in my Xantia Estate with the seats down. Self-levelling too ;-)

Mike P

Can't remember what rate, but the company owns no vehicles. The boss used to move stuff one by one in his old SC430. His DB9 doesn't hold near enough, although he did move a 6U server on the frot seat. I was worried about the leather, he was more concerned about me crammed in the back seat.

The other boss has a GS430h. The batteries/motor take up so much space there is barely enough room for one bag of golf clubs.

A lot of jobs have a requirement to have a vehicle suitable. Nothing has been stated out right, but when he asked what I was after next and I said something diesel with a decent sized boot he said "Good".

The G spec ones I would be looking at usually have a beer chiller/kebab warmer, never mind a poxy cupholder.

Life's to short for folding seats. And every car I've owned with folding rear seats has handled like a 3 legged pig on roller skates in a greased bearing factory on stella with the seats down, especially when loaded.

The exception being the Estelle, with the rear seats folded, you just got a big flat area inside a normal stiff saloon shell.

It seems like so many cars use folding seats as a structural brace.

Even the Saab?

Life's too short to shift boxes between offices, but you're doing it. And face it, doing one of those runs you're not exactly going to be pushing the handling are you.

cheers, clive

My 206 felt exactly the same - just a bit louder/rawer sounding, which made it feel a bit quicker weirdly.

The Saab was one of the few cars that didn't flex much. But then most off the time the back end was big enough anyway.

I get paid to shift boxes. And you would be surprised how slow but twisty roads can make a normal hatch body flex. Especially one with a few years on it.

Even the GT4 which with the seat up felt like the body was hewn from granite, wobbled like a jelly with the seat down.

The Octavia was probably close to being the worst, you could hear/feel the body flexing with the off if you were loaded in the boot, the seat clips would rattle against the fitting round corners. And there was nothing wrong with the body on that.

So you get paid to put the seats up/down if you need to.

Remember I drive an old hatch - one with various plastic panels, engineered to be light. Most of its life is spent with the seats down.

Thing is, provided you're not actually caning it, the flex ain't a problem. (heck on the BX it isn't a problem anyway if empty - it's not as if the back end actually does anything). And if you're caning it with a boot full of servers on company business, you've got a whole different set of problems.

If you want a previa, go ahead and get one. You'll get bored and want to change it in a few months time anyway. But don't sit there making up bogus reasons why you need one - concentrate on "want" instead, coz that's lots more satisfying.

cheers, clive

No they don't.

HTH

John

Nonsense, cars go faster with the rear seats down - I read a now legendary forum post about it.

IIRC the boot of a BX is hyooge with the seats down.

Seconded.