Advice on buying a Mk 3 or 4 Please

[lioness]

Hi -

I'm a Canadian, married to a Dutchie and recently relocated to the Netherlands. Until recently I did most of my touring on a motorbike, but I now have a 6-month old so we won't be doing that for the next few years. We're looking at getting a camper van to fulfil our touring needs and I've just come across the Ford Transit in ads here in the Netherlands. As far as I know, it's not available in NA, so I really know nothing about it. The ones I've been looking at are between '86 and '91 and are already camperized - not interested in doing that myself right now for various reasons. I've been poking around a bit here and learning lots but have some questions.

What's considered high mileage for these engines?
When doing a walkaround, besides rust and obvious oil in places it shouldn't be, what should I be looking for? I know what most things are and do on an engine and actually enjoy doing maintenance work on my bike, but I'm not a mechanic by any means so simple answers are good.
Are there any Transit specific questions I should be asking the owners?
What are the particular weaknesses of the model that I should be wary of?
How high are maintenance costs in relation to other similar vehicles?
Are there certain years that are better than other years?

Thanks in advance!

[AndyG]

Petrol 1.6/2.0L Diesel/Turbo diesel Manual/Auto

The only thing that kills these vehicles is RUST so have a good prod underneath, especially the chassis rear spring hangers

[lioness]

Oh sorry - I set the topic reply thingie, but the notice didn't get by my spam filter. And I wasn't checking back here because when I posted there were several vans for sale, but they were all sold before I got to them, as was the only one that's come up in between. Which I guess says a lot about how desirable they are - or that the Dutch are on a mad camper buying spree so they can set out for a campground in France in which to sit for weeks and weeks. Some of both I suspect.

But good questions Andyg - I guess diesel since that's what I see most of here, and definitely manual (I detest driving automatic) - but I don't know much about what engines are available - well, I'm guessing that the 2.0 is more powerful than the 1.6 and the turbo diesel more powerful than the regular - but is the 1.6 or the regular diesel sufficient for highway driving or just for booting about secondary roads? Is one engine better than the others or is that a religious question (sort of like "what oil should I use for my bike" on motorcycle forums)?

But I don't know - at this point we're getting about ready to give up for the summer and buy a car and then buy a van (either a Transit of a VW) when prices go down in the fall/winter (and sell the car). Not many camper buses available right now, especially as we want a pop-top rather than a high roof.

[AndyG]

The diesels are all 2.5 litre

The output varies from 70PS right up to 115PS depending on the fueling and whether turbo or not