Vanaways Arvostelua 

I had a great experience with Vanaways. I had my heart set on a VW ID BUZZ. At the time they were as rare as rocking horse poop, Vanaways Had them in stock and were very polite and understanding when I delayed the purchase by 2 months.

I'm super impressed with my ID BUZZ

WARNING TO ANYONE CONSIDERING VANAWAYS

If your vehicle is delivered faulty (even if it’s brand new), this will become an absolute nightmare that will result in your business or you personally losing thousands of pounds.

I purchased a brand new Ford ETransit on a hire purchase agreement with Aldermore Bank via Vanaways. The van was delivered in January 2025 and from the start there were all these error messages and warning lights, plus a really low mileage range.

Vanaways just directed me to Ford to try and sort it out.

Turns out one of the batteries on the van didn’t work (failed a diagnostic test). They changed this battery which helped the mileage a bit but the whole van’s internal operating system and safety system just doesn’t work.

Critical red and amber service lights and warning messages appear on the dashboard plus error messages constantly flashing up. Things like “Check ABS Brake System” and “Critical service required”. If you look these up online, Ford’s website tellls you to pull over and have the vehicle towed to a service centre.

So yeah, obviously not safe / not feeling great about it. Plus the van vibrates / makes this loud humming noise fairly frequently … and the back brake lights don’t work properly (policeman pulled our driver over because brake lights stayed on as driver accelerated).

Ford hasn’t fixed the issue in 5 service visits.

We finally got Aldermore Bank to file a formal request to reject the vehicle and unwind the finance agreement after an independent engineer report validated all our issues with the vehicle.

That was 2+ months ago. Vanaways brought in legal counsel then just blindly accepted a statement from Ford that vehicle was fixed and ready for collection (“We’ve cleared the fault codes and can’t recreate the errors. The vehicle is ready for collection”) … I’ve heard the same thing after the last 4 service visits … we’ll collect the vehicle then experience the same issues within 24 hours of driving it.

We’ve lost thousands of pounds on this because Ford didn’t offer us a replacement vehicle until this last service visit. So we have all these additional labour costs (pick up hire van, clear out at end of day, drop off), hire van costs, inability to expand operations and grow, unsafe driving conditions, and myself who has probably spent over 200+ hours personally (so roughly 5 full working weeks) on this van since it was delivered faulty in January.

Because Vanaways won’t accept our initial rejection request, I’m asking them what it would take for them to change their stance. Their legal counsel and Vanaways now won’t respond. I don’t even think their legal counsel read the details of my case, very poor customer service and slow responses with no real explanation or acknowledgement of all the documentation and evidence I’ve provided.

I’m not sure when this will end or if it will ever end, I have to fire someone now so the business doesn’t go bankrupt.

If I were to go back, I wouldn’t have bought the vehicle through Vanaways, I’d go straight to a dealership, test drive the vehicle, make sure it’s fine and just don’t go through a broker.

Vanaways is nice over the phone when selling you a vehicle, but when the vehicle is delivered faulty, they won’t help.

STAY AWAY

I run a small business and in 2023 I entered into a finance agreement with Close Brothers through Vanaways for two brand‑new Maxus Deliver 9 vehicles. From the start it has been a nightmare.

Both vans arrived late and already damaged on the front bumpers and doors. Within weeks, one van developed a clutch and gearbox fault, went into the garage for repair, came out, and then blew its gearbox again. That van was off the road for around four months. The second van later developed the same gearbox fault. I was actually told to keep driving it until it failed — I refused to risk my team’s safety.

Courtesy vehicles were only provided for the final nine weeks of that downtime. For the rest of the time, I had no choice but to hire vans at my own cost just to keep my business running. Between finance payments of £700+ VAT per van and hire costs of over £2,000 a month, I’ve been forced to pay thousands on top of a finance agreement for vehicles I cannot use.

I formally rejected the vans in May 2024, but over a year later Close Brothers is still taking payments. This dispute has now dragged on for well over a year, during which time I’ve been passed from person to person with no real resolution.

The only “solution” offered was via Vanaways — to hand the faulty vans back and start a brand‑new finance deal for replacements, with no refund of all the payments I’d already made. In plain terms, I would be paying twice, while Close Brothers and Vanaways protected their profits.

This has nearly folded my company. I’ve carried the entire financial hit, while Close Brothers and Vanaways continue to be paid. If you’re reading this thinking about applying for finance with Close Brothers or Vanaways to help your small company: don’t. Because if problems arise, Close Brothers will always protect its partners and brokers — and leave the small business owner to carry the cost.

Liam and Joe are the gentlemen that I liaised with. They are really friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. I have purchased 36 vans from this business and I have had no problems with the orders.

I strongly recommend to anyone to use this business services. They are great people.

We had a difficult time trying to source the amount of vehicles we needed to serve our business. We was put in touch with Liam at Vanaways and the rest is history!
Safe to say we’ve found our vehicle sales partner for life!
Thanks to all at Vanaways

Good prices.
Good service
Highly recommend

We recently purchased a van from this dealership, but this review is specifically about Lillie Mae, who assisted us during the process. She was extremely helpful, polite, and professional throughout. Her friendly attitude made a real difference. Thank you, Lillie Mae!

Personally, Vanaways have been really good helping me throughout getting my new arrangement completed, All the team have been amazing throughout, regularly checking up on me making sure everything is okay, the van dealing with Lillie ,Jack from day one has been a smooth journey, I would be more than happy to recommend vanaways and the team to get your next commercial vehicle completed with no stress as they deal with everything in a very professional manner.

Excellent service from start to finish with Steve and Lily, thank you

Good service from start to finish, although we are waiting for the last van to be delivered tomorrow.

I had a great experience with Vanaways, brought a new Maxus Eterron 9 with the help of Steve Newport it was a great service and will certainly be using him for future vehicle purchases.
Lillie-mae Northover was also very efficient keeping me upto date every step of the way.
Thank you both

A very smooth & easy experience. Staff (especially lillie-Mae Northover and Jack Doney) were very helpful indeed.

It was a very easy process throughout. Lillie - Mae was keeping me up to date throughout it all. Van got delivered first thing as well.

Vanaways were a pleasure to deal with - of all the companies we contacted they listened to our requirements and were responsive as our needs evolved. Handover from sales to the delivery coordination process was smooth and Lillie-Mae Northover did a great job of keeping us informed and sorting out a couple of minor issues (caused by the dealer).

My van recently starting costing me a lot of money so I decided I wanted to get a new van that gives me the piece of mind of having a warranty. I stumbled across Vanaways online and after contacting a couple of similar companies, they were the ones who offered the best offers and quickest deliveries.
Simon and Lillie-Mae were both very helpful and quick to respond to any of my enquiries.
Id highly recommend vanaways

The sales man sourced us an ideal van for our companies needs. The quote was excellent. Vanaways admin was very smooth easy to navigate and the van was delivered direct to us on time

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Excellent Service – Highly Recommended!
Lillie Mae was an absolute pleasure to deal with from start to finish. She was honest, helpful, and made the whole process of buying the van smooth and stress-free. Communication was spot on, and everything was exactly as described. Couldn’t be happier with the purchase – highly recommend her to anyone looking to buy a vehicle. Thanks again, Lillie!

After I placed the order with the sales team, this was passed to Lillie-May to manage the next team to manage the admin through to delivery. My contact was Lillie-May; she has done a fabulous job for me, getting a delivery date secured sooner than expected but also keeping me fully informed during the process. In addition, Lillie-Mae followed up with me on the day of delivery and afterwards to ensure we were happy and every went smoothly. An asset to Vanaways!

Great service from Lille-Mae and team from Vanaways. Been dealing with Simon Lewis for a long time. Would recommend.