Neil wrote:ford nz produced transits from 1971 to 1980
You are right. I did a little research, and found out that they were assembled at Ford's assembly plant in Lower Hutt, Wellington. Based on my observations of the Transits I have seen here, rather than any documented evidence, I would suggest the follwing is close to what happened here:
The Mk1 was available in SWB and LWB (although LWB is very rare) and chassis/cabs in SWB and LWB.
The Mk2 was available in SWB vans only (no LWB) and SWB and LWB chassis cabs.
Both Mk1 and Mk2's were always petrol engined, no diesels!
All Mk2's were 2.0 OHC
All Mk1's were 1.7 or 2.0 V4's.
Many Ford dealers fitted the Australian Falcon "6 " usually 250 pre crossflow to Mk1's or 4.1 crossflow to Mk2's.
Most of the minbuses I have seen were vans with side windows and seats fitted, not the "proper" minbuses like you get in the UK with flush fitting windows and full interior trim that matched the door cards.
Although vehicles generally survive longer over here, as we do not salt the roads, due to the small number sold here in comparison to the UK there are very few survivors. Approximately 130 Mk1's and Mk2's are still registered and in use, and a large proportion of these are motorhomes/camper vans. It is extremely rare to find a low milage mint example ( I have never seen one come to think of it) whereby in the UK they seem to pop up on Ebay on a semi regular basis.
Conrad