Grew up in the 60’s in a splity & Bedford Dormobile, had a T3 early 80’s, wish I still had it, spent a lot of years on the the road.
At 65, got our 2000 T4 2.5 Tdi Cali Coach in 2017 imported from Germany paid top dollar for rust free but with a few mech problems, clutch was shot but drivable 500km home slipping, oil leaks, both belts drenched although we drove it another 4,000km before changing belts etc and oil seals.
It came with no service history but a fully stamped service book, 3 previous owners, got to look at history via local VW in Italy, apart from belts and water pumps it’s had no repairs and from what I can see it’s completely original at 306,000km, after EGR blank & decat there’s no smoke, has surprising performance as we run it fully loaded even as a daily runner as we never know when we are off somewhere, even a trip to the airport in Milan 3 hours away, may turn into a several day trip.
Only down side is cost, it’s not costly to run after we have worked our way through a 20yr old van, good on diesel 7.8 lt/100km average, clutches are the problem mainly caused by where we lived until recently with very difficult uphill exit and weight, just weighed it with the 2 bikes on its at max GVW 2,800kg with the 2 big teens in the back it’s a bit more.
36,500km on a clutch ridiculous, thanks VW for having the smallest clutch you could find, I’m throwing the DMF sing next week and fittings solid flywheel kit from Valeo and we move down out of the mountain.