LDV light commercial vehicles: Should you buy one? | Auto Expert John Cadogan

If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, emerging brands like LDV offer a compelling, rock-bottom price. It can be hard to look away - especially if this is a business decision, if the budget is tight, and if you’ve got your economic rationalism hat on.
But what is LDV, and (seeing as ‘price’ is not the only component in the ‘value’ equation) should you even consider buying one? Going to try to get to the bottom of that in the next few minutes.
OK - so here in Shitsville, LDV is imported by the Ateco Group, which is relatively unknown publicly, but is well known in the business. Ateco has runs on the board importing small, emerging brands into Australia, but frankly it’s not renowned for world-class customer support.
I’m talking about dealership technical training, spare parts inventory and that ‘bend over backwards’ attitude (or not) towards making things right for you, if you have a problem. So that would be strike one, for me, on buying an LDV.
The entry G10 van is $25,990 drive-away (that’s from their website today). Base-model Hyundai iLoad (itself a bit if a Hiace up-ender when it lobbed) is $42,987 (also off the website today, drive-away).
The LDV G10 van in poverty spec is an incredible $17,000 cheaper - that’s an immense bottom-line difference, compared with buying the iLoad. That’s provided everything else is equal, which it may not be.
Despite the scorching prices, LDV sold just 6000 vehicles last year in Australia. Part of that is down to the anorexic inventory - but they are in some big segments, like seven-seat SUVs and dual-cab utes.
It’s very hard to achieve critical mass if you are an automotive brand in Shitsville and all you sell is 6000 cars. It’s hard to get your dealer network motivated. It’s hard to get a bunch of technicians trained up. It’s hard to have a warehouse full of parts. So there’s that.
They could also go belly-up as a brand, and/or be a resale value disaster, the latter of which risks which certainly offsets the up-front saving to some un-knowable degree. There’s no data on this - the G10 wasn’t released until 2018.
I don’t want to imply that these things are being hammered together by peasants in the middle of a rice paddy out of old aluminium cans and leftover Leyland engines. That’s not the case.
LDV is a division of SAIC - the Shanghai Automobile and Industrial Corporation - which makes about six million vehicles annually. You can’t do that without state-of-the-art technology.
But it’s safe to say, they’re probably not Toyota in terms of the quality target, or Mazda in terms of the R&D. Yet. SAIC are also in bed with General Motors and Volkswagen.
I’m really not sure that’s a plus, given the underlying ethical landscape in both bedfellows’ boardrooms.
The name itself - LDV - originated from Leyland DAF Vans. It kicked off in 1993. It stuttered along for 15 years, then the Russians ended up owning it and the GFC hit - yesssss! The British Government tried to save LDV several times, but it went into administration again and the Chinese picked up the IP in 2010.
So, the kindest I can be on this is that they know about building light commercials, been doing it for a quarter of a century, but I wouldn’t generally look to the Brits or the Komitet Gosodarstvenoy Besopasnosti as beacons of automotive excellence. Going Chinese is almost definitely a step forwards.
The price is unbeatable. But on the risk management side of the equation, the viability of many a fledgeling small business depends on the ongoing serviceability of your vehicle. It’s a bit of a bastard if you can’t deliver the flowers (or get the tradies and their tools onsite).
Being off the road for three weeks (or three months) is going to dent the bottom line. You’ll have to rent (or buy) a replacement. And there might not be funds for that.
You could look at this another way: Where’s the point of equivalence?
If it costs you less than $17,000 for - let’s call them vehicular contingency expenses, renting a van, whatever - and both vehicles do an approximately equivalent job in the context of the balance sheet, then LDV wins.
This choice is simply risk management versus cost saving up front. More than anything else, these are the warring factors at play. LDV is cheaper and riskier.
In a way this is a lot simpler than buying a cheap car. At least with a van you’re (usually) not making a personal statement about who you are. With a car, you’d almost certainly be labelling yourself a cheapskate.
Hopefully now you can weigh it up, and make more of an informed choice.

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