1990 Ford Transit LWB 2.5 diesel from UK and Ireland
Summary:
Popular van back in the day
Faults:
Various dashboard plastic parts coming loose.
Noisy differential near the end, but never gave any trouble.
Suspension parts and brakes replaced.
Normal wear and tear including oil changes and so on.
General Comments:
This was my father's van bought for the company at only a couple of years old. Straight off the bat it wasn't looked after despite having only 10K miles on it. It was already very rough, being used as a builder's van, and now it was going to be used as an electrical engineer's vans for the rest of its life.
This Transit stood up to everyday use and abuse well. The dashboard took a lot of abuse, as well as the rear panels that were later wood lined to stop the already hundreds of dents getting any worse.
To drive the 2.5 diesel engine gave decent economy, but was by no means fast, however it had enough torque in a sense that even when fully loaded with lots of weight, there was not much difference. Most vans really bog down when fully loaded, but this van took the weight in its stride, and it's no wonder through the 80s and 90s and even today the Transit is still a very popular sight on UK roads.
However you won't see many of these early 90s examples about anymore. Some were converted to motorhomes, but most ended up scrapped at around 10 years old, with over 100K miles seeming to be an average lifespan. I always remember this one as being particularly tough though, making it to nearly 200K despite a hard life. The only real problem was the differential gets noisy on these vans as they get older, but this was the case for most rear wheel drive big vans back in the day. Overall however it had a good run and gave little trouble; always have good memories of these vans.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 14th October, 2016