Great to have you on board. Keep watching and Southdowns are still looking after us!

Thanks for your comments and good to hear that others have had a good experience of Southdowns, we even sent them a Christmas card! Hopefully catch up this year and if you see us please do come and say hello!

No problem and thanks very much for watching the channel..It really depends what payload and towing capacity you want.The fault with the van was just a split turbo hose, which led to all that trouble and the real issue was the stupid tow truck driver! Don't be put off. We went for the Iveco because it can tow up to 3,500 kg and we tow a car when we are in the UK on an A Frame. Also we do not like being on the limit for the payload for the van,I have too many clothes and shoes! The Iveco has a much larger payload and we never have to worry, we can even put 450kg in the garage. The Mercedes is a good option but if weight is important go for the Iveco.It does drive really well. One point to note however is that it comes limited to 68mph, not even our speed limit and you need to get this taken off by the dealer on PDI. We did not know and wondered why this so called great engine died when we were reaching 65. We then found out so had it taken off and now really love it, not that we bomb around at 70 but we are now in control.

Thankyou again for your brilliant response and incredibly valuable advice and experience in this field, we are writing down rafts of questions as we go. I don't know if carthargo listens to there customers but but it seems to us there's still room to improve in certain areas on design. Please tell us your thoughts small tho they may be bit at this price point important. Iveco customer service response worldwide especially Europe. Glass instead of perpex on shower doors, design and place of nespresso machine and other items we don't even know about. As always manufacturers sometimes do cosmetic changes each year improving or not.. on such items. If you had your time again would you buy the same van. And lastly there's never any mention on any videos of these van owners of how much diesel is to fill uo and roughly how many miles it lasts driving at a responsible speed. My wife and I always raise a glass of wine to you on each video. If you can think of any further questions before we go to the show at the NEC October Tues 15th please let us know. Support as always. Graham & Glenys.

@@ssMan-nf9kn Hi again both.Yes we would buy the same van again we absolutely love it. The Iveco roadside assistance is OK as far as contacting them, although its all run out of Italy wherever you are in Europe, they all speak good English.The initial time in getting out to you is about an hour, so pretty much like the AA but you get a proper mechanic from the nearest dealer. Our problem was because the tow truch driver damaged the gearbox and therefore Iveco put it onto their insurers. We did not think that was right, but it transpired that in Spain that was correct much to our annoyance. We did have to call them out in the UK when we first got it for something that turned out to be our lack of knowledge and they were very good and helpful. I don't actually mind the perspex shower screen, it is light, does not seem to scratch and does fit very well. Coffee machine is great where it is but one issue is that it holds up both by friction and a magnet and the magnet has come unstuck, just happened, the dealers are going to fit a chrome twist catch instead to avoid the problem happening again. It is OK on fuel, about 24 mile to the gallon.It has a big tank so we can get around 300 miles on a tank at a reasonable pace, it does take a bit more when towing. The Adblue seems to last quite a while too. We have an underslung gas tank and it comes with a German fitting so you need an adaptor, the dealers gave us one so all OK. We have an external barbeque point which was fitted by the dealer as the factory fitted one is inside a locker so better to have the dealer do this. We love the slide out trays for storage, no more climbing under the van floor to get to the back and you do not lose any useable space.We would not spec the satellite TV if we had another van, it is a good system but does not always get the channels you want so we have a Firestick which works all over Europe and with a VPN on the router it's like being at home. The lithium batteries are also a good option.My favourite part is the ceramic loo with the holding tank, or maybe the underfloor storage where I keep all the wine! We did not go for the overhead bed, there are only 2 of us, although we did go for the cushions to make up another bed, we have not used them.We got extra lockers and two huge skylights and no noise without the over cab bed. Any questions just drop us a line, always happy to help. We will be back in the van in June, going to Hermanfest so more videos to follow. All the best Sha and Alan

Hi Sha & Alan, cannot thankyou enough for your utterly superb detailed response, it's so valuable to all your subscribers your wealth of experience. Thanks Graham & Glenys xx

@@ssMan-nf9kn You are very welcome

Thanks for the comment. So do we. Couldn't help notice the wonderful Great Dane, we used to have one, Henry, he was wonderful!

@motoringmasons the boy is, in fact a Cane corso (Italian mastiff). Jack, he is now 16 months a big bafoon, keeps us busy tho and loves being away in motorhome x

He's beautiful!

@@motoringmasons thank you lovely x

@@motoringmasons thank you lovely x

We will take a look and see what we can do, thanks for watching

Thanks, we are working on where to go, just got to agree with eachother!

It may have worked out more than one glass!! All the best. Sha and Alan

@motoringmasons wouldn't have been a problem 🤣🍷👈, take care and all the best xx

Not sure if you had a half reply, it suddenly disappeared from my screen, so forgive me if I am repeating myself. We love the van and it is very powerful. The rear wheel drive is so much better, we had a tag axle front wheel drive on a Fiat before and it is chalk and cheese. We never feel the weight and that is even with a tow car on and a full size motorbike in the back. We get around 22 mpg but when we first got it we were only getting around 11! We now know why as that turbo pipe was split from day one. As for Iveco, in fairness the Iveco mechanics in Spain were very good the disaster was the fault of the tow truck driver. One word of advice, it comes with the speed limited to 68 mph, as part of EU regulations, so you wonder why we bothered with the bigger engine and it won't even do the speed limit on the motorway. You cannot reset it your self so make sure that you get the Iveco dealer, through G European, to take off the speed limiter on the PDI. I am sure you will love it, a proper home from home. We have had a cuple of comments about Guernsey, so watch this space and all the very best for your new van. Sha and Alan

Many thanks for your prompt reply & useful information. Peter@@motoringmasons

You are welcome. Anymore questions just shout, happy to help. Sha

They should have picked it up on PDI but it is very difficult to see and yes you are right about the tow truck driver!

Thanks so much for your message that is good news and bodes well. Alan had some complications with clips coming loose so it's taken quite a time and fingers crossed he will soon now recover. He is driving that van in March that's for sure! Sha and Alan

Yes as I said on the video "would we buy another Carthago, yes, on an Iveco chassis, we don't know". On the plus side we cannot see another van that compares for our needs and we went for the S Plus because of the pay load and towing capacity. Also at under 9m with twin wheel rear wheel drive rather than tag, we can get in pretty much anywhere. This was obviously a PDI issue, Southdowns and Carthago have been excellent. We have waited a long time to put this out so as not to put people off as since then we have had no issues other than small usual snagging. If you could get the same payload and towing ability on a Mercedes we would go for that, I understand that this may now be an option, but not sure. Overall excellent van, we love it and if it's any comfort Carthago have never had this problem either with the van or Iveco before and it has been taken up at the highest level. Hope our trials and tribulations have helped! Ironically we kept getting emails for feedback on Iveco Roadside Assist - you can imagine the responses! Last comment, we had a Swift Kontiki before , 675, 9.1m tag axle, same layout, no where near the quality and the dealers, Brownhills and indeed Swift, were terrible and that was around £100k ( we sold it back to them) and we don't regret the extra cash and are looking forward to 2024 travels.