My new van.

[Geordie McBoyne]

I've decided to get rid of the Mitsubishi L200, it's not a particularly nice vehicle in fact Trevor describes it perfectly, it's like driving a Moskvitch car, remember those? A first I considered a Nissan NV200, but after a over week I've received no responses from the garage where I made the initial enquiries. So next on to a Vauxhall dealer. The Vivaro is on special at £12,000 + VAT, that's a good price but somehow they didn't seem very interested in my L200 for a trade in. All right then, it's off to the Ford Transit Centre. Proper van blokes who know about what van men like so I've decided on a short wheelbase Transit, but never mind it will carry a 8 X 4 sheet of plywood and that's important to van men. Also, the firm can take the L200 in PX because they have another branch which is a Mitsubishi dealership.
The VW Transporter might have the edge over the Transit but is considerably more expensive, also the Transporter has IRS which is a desirable feature, the Transit makes do with a beam axle and leaf springs, just like a Saxon ox cart, so does the L200 but the Transit set up seems to work better.
The Transit is made in Turkey, the land of Vestel.
I'm going back to my motoring roots, it started way back in 1962 with a Thames van. this will be my fourth Transit.
Geordie McBoyne.

[Murphyv310]

Oh Dear a Ford
Gone are the days when Ford made a commitment to the British worker and the British public bought a Ford because it was "British"
Sadly the Transit was taken away from us in Southampton and it is now made in Turkey as you rightly say.
Certainly the new shape transit is much better than its predecessor but I have heard of some problems with it, the older engine had well known fuel pump issues and whether the set up is the same I have no idea. VW have of course been using their own tried and tested engines for a long time now and are reliable and long lived.

Enjoy your van David but for goodness sake dont pander to those ungrateful folk you seem to have in your area, at you're age you should be taking it easy with a stick and getting meals on wheels

[radioman]

I hope the door hinges on new ones have been strengthened...
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/owner-review...urier-2014

Andy

[Geordie McBoyne]

Hi Andy,
The door hinge problem relates to the Transit Courier, one of the smaller vans in the Transit range. Haven't heard any horror stories about the full size Transit. I didn't consider one of those smaller vans because of the car like sitting position.

Geordie McBoyne.

[pwdrive]

My Landrover has a Transit diesel engine in it.

Lawrence.

[Murphyv310]

Posted in error

[Geordie McBoyne]

My Landrover has a Transit diesel engine in it.

Lawrence.

Ford was the supplier of all engines to Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) a legacy of the fact that Ford was the owner of JLR up tp 2008.   I believe all the larger engines are still sourced from Ford, all the V6 and V8s for example. Now all the JLR four cylinder 2 litre petrol engines are made in house.  The 2 litre petrol engines are called Ingenium.

Returning to the subject of the Ford Transit, details of the companies range of diesel engines:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Duratorq_engine

Geordie McBoyne.

[AlanBeckett]

Ford was the supplier of all engines to Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) a legacy of the fact that Ford was the owner of JLR up tp 2008.   I believe all the larger engines are still sourced from Ford, all the V6 and V8s for example. Now all the JLR four cylinder 2 litre petrol engines are made in house.  The 2 litre petrol engines are called Ingenium.

Not so. My Freelander (02) has a BMW Engine and my mate's Discovery has effectively the same one with an extra Cylinder.
If I remember rightly the V6 Petrol was effectively a Honda Engine.

Alan

[Geordie McBoyne]

After the Land Rover company was sold by British Aerospace to BMW sometime in the 1990s the latter mentioned company got into difficulties and was forced to sell LR to Ford. The Mark 3 Range Rover was developed during the BMW era and was initially fitted with BMW V8 petrol and 6 cylinder diesel engines. The 1996 Freelander was developed during the British Aerospace era.
Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo became part of Ford's Premium Automotive Group (PAG).

Geordie McBoyne.

[Cardigan]

After the Land Rover company was sold by British Aerospace to BMW sometime in the 1990s the latter mentioned company got into difficulties and was forced to sell LR to Ford. 

Indeed. They dubbed the Rover company "The English Patient" after the contemporary movie of the same name.

One thing I remember about a visit to Germany in the late 1990s was the number of Rover 75s on the road there - many more than in the UK at the time!