Hi all, My faithful 1.9 jtd Dobbie is 9 years old and although has run perfectly well and still does it can't last forever and a new Doblo seems on the cards.
They've changed somewhat in 9 years. Me an' the good woman have narrowed down what we think we require to, basically, an Easy 1.6 diesel. The opinions of you guys and gals would be appreciated.How does the 1.6 hold up against the former 1.9? Start/stop, worth it? Any other options/accessories worth it?
Has anyone had any dealings with Carwow, seem to be some great prices with them.

Carwow:
Didn't go all the way with them, but gave me some reasonable prices.
Brokers were very similar.

Start Stop a waste of time and money.

My 1.6 is disabled conversion, so is heavier than standard.
Never seen anything over 45mpg, even in gentle/normal driving.
Cruises at 70 or so quite happily in 6th, but 6th is a waste of time under 55mph as the engine is revving to low and I like to keep mine at 1800rpm or above to conserve the DMF. Don't be tempted to change up with the idiot lights - not good for the DMF in the long term.
Picks up it's heels a little if you put the welly down over 3000rpm, but not really worth doing unless doing some demon overtaking! It's a long time since I drove the earlier 1.9, so can't really compare.

Options? Don't know what's standard. Air Con for me. The Hill hold is useful (I live on a 1:4 bank) but I can live without it - some of my other cars don't have it.

If you like bling, get the factory alloys, as the PCD on the wheels is not common, so aftermarket ones are either rare or need "wobble bolts" to keep them on.

Probably ride and handle better than the early model - mine rolls a bit and suffers from terminal understeer when pushed hard, particularly in the wet. Tyre noise from the Commercial tyres I have on too, but still refined enough in the cruise.

Mike

Thanks Mike, I have taken it all on board although the car we eventually get may have start/stop whether we want it or not.

Think of start stop as a co2 reducer that puts it in a lower tax band.

Agree with everything AlwynMike says about the 6 speed 1.6 diesel which I have had four and a half years.


Start - stop - I rarely use it
I also suffered serious understeer in wet so changed from the noisy standard fit Goodyear van tyres to a softer van tyre (Toyo Proxes CF1) within a month of buying it which cured the terrible understeer problem and quietened it down at speed.
I also never get better than 45 mpg, even on a run
Instruments can be difficult to read in bright sunlight, but they may have fixed this on the latest model as there were complaints.
6 speed gearbox is one of the best I have ever used.
Mine came with alloys, and I bought a set of official Fiat option alloys as well for winter tyres due to sizing difficulties on other makes of wheel as said above.
Cruisecontrol is useful as is climate control.
Ifyou have the roof bars you can get a lot on the roof as well
There were a lot of suspension problems on the early ones (5 separate times into the garage for me), which have now been fixed on the later Dobby's.


Its a great load lugger and I intend to keep mine another couple of years as it still makes me smile when I drive it. I will likely replace it with another Dobby 1.6 as I don't regret buying it one bit.