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If it helps then hubbys Transit vans and Citoren Relays he had for work were still going strong at 150k on the Clock, which was the time the fleets manager had set for their lifespan, stating that it wasnt cost effective to keep a van running for any longer for business use. They were used daily, mostly to do Motorway work for buliding maintainance jobs,  and most managed to hit their 150k renewal day within 5 years.

One thing to watch out for if buying a van thats been carring heavy loads is the effect on the rear suspentions, im not a expert on vans by far, but i know the tranny had some serious problems with its rear axel which was put down to the ammount of gear and supplies that was carried in it everyday, and when it was taken off the road it went to a breakers yard for scrap and parts.

Its also worth considering how you feel driving a van, especially if changing up from being a car driver, some have a more car like feel than others, and the citorens, fiats and pergeots have most models with the hand brake on the right hand side of the driver and fairly low down, no good at all if you only have fairly short arms, and unless you want the added expense of fitting an extention handle, there no good to you as we discovered when we were handed the keys of the Relay, only hubby could drive it and not me!

Julia

Some years ago I spent many months searching for a decent campervan/motorhome. I could only afford about £6000 at that time which to me was a lot. For that money I found myself looking at vans sometimes up to 20 years old and for some strange reason practically every one of them had an oil leak.

It got to the stage where the very first thing I did was look underneath for the oil dripping off the engine, which could mean anything from seals to a cracked cylinder head to a cracked sump. The owners of course would always say they either hadn't noticed it or it was something simple like oil seals...well if it was simple why hadn't they repaired it?

So my advice to anyone buying a campervan is look underneath first then walk away when you see that blip of oil hanging off the sump.

I gave up in the end and bought a new car and a tent

I know of Ford mechanics with stories of transits being welded at 3 years old and a short supply of diesel pumps for 2002c models cause that many were faulty. I have \a 2002 Sprinter camper with 219k miles, goes like the clappers. No oil leaks, no smoke and certainly no welding, but rust scabs are an issue. To be honest its a question of an educated guess and luck