buying advice

[karladams]

Hi

 

I am looking to buy a used (1995 to 2000) 4 berth van for touring europe.

There are lots of Fiat ducato 1.9 diesels, are they under powered or do they do an adequte job.

Thanks

Karl

[duffers]

in our experience - def underpowered,

go for the best you can get - and also go for turbo, otherwise you'll find any long journey noisy and painful,

no acceleration, no decent cruising speed,

Fiat also quite unsophisticated - VW and Ford better

 

the 1.9 was a popular conversion because it was cheap

not because it was any good

 

hth

[flicka]

Hi Karl & welcome to the forum.

Assume you are looking at small Coachbuilts.

I agree with Duffers, the 1.9 is sluggish & think you will struggle if you intend touring in the the hills / mountains of Wales, Lake District, Scotland or abroard.

There is a selection of the 2.5litre Diesels on the market, with very little price difference in the 1995/2000 age range, which should provide better power.

The Fiat (from 1997 if my memory is correct) was built at the Sevel factory, along side the Peugeot & Citroen.

So although Fiat's are the commonest, look at the other 2, along with Ford & VW. Although the VW's tend to be a little more expensive.

[Mel B]

Having had the older 1.9 turbo diesel (1991), followed by a 2.8 non-turbo diesel (2001), I certainly would NOT buy a motorhome that wasn't a turbo diesel. The older 1.9 turbo was a much better perfomer than the later 2.8 non-turbo was so I can only guess at how poor the performance of a 1.9 non-turbo diesel would be, similarly a 2.5 non-turbo.

 

If you are used to modern cars with a bit of umph, I'd suggest you stick out for a turbo-diesel as you'll really notice the difference otherwise.