How do cars and vans differ on a V5?

[Tim in Belgium]

Can you tell if a vehicle is a car or a van on the V5, I'm thinking about things like VW T4 caravelles, Mercedes V Class etc.

[maviczap]

Yes, our works VW t4 is shown as a car on our V5, however be careful as one of my chaps was clocked speeding by a Scamera van because the Council classed it as a commercial van?

Once we'd sent them a copy of the V5 the ticket was withdrawn.

But I think it relates to either the number of seats in it or the number of windows it has or both. Our van has windows in the passenger compartment & has fixed seats so it can't carry any cargo

So its like this and is classed as a car on the V5

http://www.digii.eu/resizes/1200/2009/20090630%20VW%20Transporter%20van/SX07613%20Our%20new%20second%20hand%20VW%20T5.jpg

Not like this, which may be classed differently on the V5, which may apply to similar van construction

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRT9nQ5puuuHe9cVil12oTkdfXmWEv5Y zjScDyYzIyWJEJX50ryLSn2rS_lKQ

[johnnyrod]

Dunno about the V5 but I thought in terms of speed limits, the DVLA called it a van when it wasn't built mostly like a car. e.g. Fiesta van, mostly car = car; VW Caddy, not really like a car = van so lower speed limits.

[Mr Speirs]

I've been reading up about this Tim as I've been looking at VW T5's.
It seems a bit of a minefeild though
Not sure whether it applys to all makes but with the VW's if the no of seats is more than 3 then it is classed as a car. With VW's with they are a window van they will say 9 seats no matter how many seat there actually are. If it is a panel van then it will say 3.

I know for a fact that Caravelles are classed as cars.

[hardhat_harry]

There are different speed limits for cars and vans???

[Mr Speirs]

Yeah. On single carriageways its 50mph On Dual Carriageways Max speed for a van is 60mph. Only if your Gross Vehicle Weight is over 2000kgs though.

[hardhat_harry]

phew think my vivaro is 1900 max, god knows what its weight it is with two bikes, tool box and genny in.

[Mr Speirs]

I think you'll find Gross Vehicle Weight is the maximum allowable weight of the vehicle so laden weight not unladen weight. So you vivaro is anywhere from 2.7-2.9 GVW depending on engine (thanks google) meaning you are restricted to 50 on single and 60 on dual.

[yorkie_chris]

Watching with interest. I thought it was same as car limits up until 3.5t

[Mr Speirs]

No. It's same as car limits up until 2t fully laden.

That said any van with windows in the rear section from standard would be registered as a car. So if the Vivaro that belongs to hardhat harry has windows it would be same as car limits although essentially the same vehicle.

[johnnyrod]

Yeah my Hilux pickup is 2.5 tonnes empty plus another tonne max. payload, so I'm supposed to go 10mph slower. In reality the speedo reads 75 at an actual 67 and if you go much faster it'll (sound like it's going to) explode cos it really needs 6th and maybe 7th gears.