My wife have been looking for months for the right car to use as a day van. We have looked at the obvious ( Vivaro, Traffic, Vito etc.. ) but then someone said why not an alphard

All we want is a day van with seats in the front, seats in the back and then a big space in the middle for our 3 dogs. We would then install a mini fridge and say a portable stove and away we go

Is the alphard ok for this ?

We would only have a budget of around £5k ish

thanks

This pictyure is just an idea of what we were thinking

It's perfect for that! It's how we use ours.

On 1/29/2026 at 11:59 AM, smallzoo said:

My wife have been looking for months for the right car to use as a day van. We have looked at the obvious ( Vivaro, Traffic, Vito etc.. ) but then someone said why not an alphard

All we want is a day van with seats in the front, seats in the back and then a big space in the middle for our 3 dogs. We would then install a mini fridge and say a portable stove and away we go

Is the alphard ok for this ?

We would only have a budget of around £5k ish

thanks

This pictyure is just an idea of what we were thinking

Hello Paul,

I agree with Jenny,

Remove the middle seats, hey presto.

That comes for free with a little effort; some early vans even come with rotating fronts seats.

5K ?

You should be looking at a Series 10 updated model, at least.

The 2.4 will have a 4 speed auto gearbox; you should consider a V6 which has a 5 speed auto.

If planning short distances the 4 speed should be fine; longer distances they can be thirsty and the V6 ( I am biased) should be more economical.

Benefit of a 4 speed ? Chain cam drive.

V6 has a belt that should be changed at 60k. Toyota told me they are good for 100k to 120k !

If the V6 cam drive fails you will be stranded, but the engine should receive no damage as the valves do not encroach into the piston swept area.

To remove the middle seats is our bolts per seat, but that will leave the seat runners in place.

Removing those is not difficult, and can be achieved from inside the van (unlike some ater models), but is not trivial either.

One end of each rail will need to be lifted to allow runner removal.

Are you looking at 7 seater or 8 seater ?

Why ? They have a different quanity of seat rails.