Brett,

Ever heard the saying

"Never judge a book by its cover"

Dont look at his car, look at the tools. They dont have to be festool but they do have to be in good order, clean and cared for. Thats a better judge of if a guy can do his job.

John

JMB, for some  the familys are  more important than a van, days out, shopping etc than carrying £10,000 worth of tools around in a van. Site joiners can easily get away with just a car you dont need a mass of tools.. What would you do if there was a power cut on site? go home as you cant use hand tools??

John

Here's my van. I can just about fit my MFT 800 inside the trunk/ boot! Not really recommended for professional contractors!

Hey get a crappy fiat lol. I paid £11200 for my van so well with in your budget

Jmb

Dan,

Leasing is like van rental. it is a direct overhead, its totally tax deductable. Inc the Vat element

John

Should have perhaps said lease purchase.

Haahaa lol.

All the lads i worked with a few years ago made money on sites just using a car. Me and my mate shared his car to get to the site, with a few power tools and hand tools. You only need basic power tools on site, i think i only ever used, mitre saw, cordless drill, circular saw, jigsaw and nail guns.. Which will fit in the back of a car.

About 7-8 yrs ago before i went self employed i used to drive my honda civic type r to work and i got nothing but grief from the foreman on site who were jealous, couldnt do without my van now tho no way! I used to get loads in my honda even took half a stable door back to the workshop on the back seat once, i remember driving back with sawdust and crap all over the interior thinkin darn i need a van lol!

Umm type r

You r into car hey lol

Jmb

Well, I've got three, plus the wife. If we all go, we go in her car. The van is for work and well worth having for the write-off. No rear seats. I reckon when I've fully depreciated it, I'll swap the full bulkhead and security grilles into a new one and put a bench seat in the old one for the herd. Maybe a couple DVD screens, a playstation, a camper awning.........

The van is great for connecting with only one kid at a time. With three, sometimes somebody gets left out for a while. Riding in the work van is a special time. 

When i was single, a plumber friend asked me if i would build a stone fireplace for him up in Vermont.  (I'm in southern Connecticut).  I told him i would only do it on weekends, which was fine with him.  At the time, i had a couple of trucks and a motorcycle.  i loaded all of my heavy equipment and my hand tools into the pickup truck and headed north.  I started the job and left for home Sunday evening, leaving my mixing tubs and mud pans, along with shovels and mixing tools up in Vermont. 

The following weekend, and for several weekends to follow, I would load my tool bag and a bucket full of stone tools, sleeping bag, duffel bag with extra work clothes and some extras for my Saturday excursion into Bennington, all onto the back of my motorcycle and head back north to the hills.  Sticking out behind the bike was my four foot level with a big red flag tied onto it.  The load was so heavy, that the first nite i headed to the job, I was riding up the hill to the job in pouring rain at 2 am in the morning.  As I neared the top of the hill, the bike was about to stall, I started to spin as I twisted the throttle.  As the rear wheel grabbed into the mud, the front wheel rose for the sky and over I went, tools and bike were in all directions.  somehow, nothing ended up on top of me.  The owner (the plumber) had heard my bike climbing the hill and happened to look out thru the side of the house (still open , but it did have a roof) and happened to see the bike go over.  He came out to help and since I was ok, we both stood there laughing in the pouring rain.  I was ok with great protection from my raingear, but he managed to get soaked.  He often talked, and laughed, about that nite for many years afterward.
I finished that job on a weekend when it snowed about 12 inches.  I would go to the foot of his hill on Sunday afternooon and jump into the freezing brook to get cleaned up before heading south.  My friend was laughing that I would not go into the brook in that snow storm.  He often told his friends about that one also.  he could not believe that I actually did it.  It was quite a ride that nite with the snow coming down and the load of tools on the back of the bike.  By the time I got to Pittsfield, the snow stopped and i had a good ride the rest of the way home.
Yeah! When the work is there, you drive what you need to drive.  You also gotta have a little fun along the way.
Tinker

Great stories Tinker from what, I expect, has been a great life!

Tinker story was really cool. Thank Almighty it didn't end up tragic but... what the heck you live once!!
My two pence to topic.
I drive MPV - Seat Alhambra - I can take all seats apart first row (passanger and driver) and then it turns into quite spacious van. I never had a problem that I had to leave some tools behind coz they didn't fit in.
I can't afford having van - maintenance costs are just too high. If I need to get something heavy then I just take my bro in law's Nissan Patrol and hook up big trailer (3.5T capacity) and I can go anywhere.
During weekends my 'van' turns into family car as I have 9mths old son and 6yrs old daughter plus wife plus plenty of gear for wee ones and shopping on top of that - Sometimes with family I'm packed more than with tools!!
Recently I mainly drive my bro's 4x4 as roads in Scotland are not so great and simply any van or car would be wrecked in no time.
And at the end I dun care what ppl drive as long they have all they need for a job and do job efficiently - to me you can have even riksha or skateboard if it's enough.
Rule is simple - no tools - no job, and that's all it matters.