Van advice

Well, an awful lot has happened with myself and vans in the past 3 years since I started this thread.

To answer the question, I got myself a 2015 T5.1 LWB Highline with all the creature comforts in 140 brake 2.0tdi flavour. If you remember my original budget this seems like it would be obscenely decadent, but in fact it was an utter bargain - bearing in mind it was only 4 years old when I got it, I paid £5,000 for it. It was immaculate in the back but had rolled into a post at about 5mph and had a ding in the bonnet , bumper and grill. It also had 215k miles on it (!)
The first MOT shows it had 180k on it at 3 years old. Full service history though including a clutch and cambelt change in the last 20k.

I bought it, used it as my daily for 2 years putting around 30k miles on it and zero problems at all, save for an intermittent glow plug light on the dash that was fixed with a new cam position sensor.
I converted the van myself to a high end camper with a bespoke kitchen and modular pods at the rear with the help from my father in law at the time.

With the comments I got from it and the strange way the world was going with 'Staycation' and lockdown, we started doing work on friends vans and 4 months later we rented a premises and set up a business converting vans and doing custom work to existing campers. We even had an upholstery room with a seamstress (my sister) and a machinist (brother in law)
Sadly, after a year of it going really well and just getting established, my father in law decided rack up some debt and run off, scuppering everything and leaving me about £35k out of pocket. Needless to say he is no longer my father in law and I hope he gets motor neurone disease.

Anyway, I had to sell most of my worldly goods to settle things, including my T5 (which I got £20k for, even after the cost of the work into it I made about 11 grand.)

While the business was running I had another T5.1 on a 12 plate. Again, this was just about faultless and being a short wheel base on coilovers with a bit of a daft map on it was incredible fun to drive and surprise people with.

I'm priced out of VW now but as the thought of not having a van wasn't palatable I've ended up with a LWB high roof Mercedes Sprinter on a 58 plate with 170k on it. It's a very different experience - It is obviously not in the same league to drive, although the engines feel strong and it pulls with a revvy gusto despite being 110 brake. I paid £4k for it late last year and it was the best compromise of 5 I went to see. Its covered in rust blebs but not rotten (rust problems are a fact of life with a Merc van), all the doors are battered (originally it was a multi drop couriers van and they all seem to be this way) and it just needed a bit of refreshing. To bring it up to the standard where I trust it to drive across Europe or live in I've so far given it a thorough service, changed the steering rack, a couple of callipers and brake lines, inner and out track rod ends and some other odds and sods.
If it all sounds a bit negative it really isn't meant to. The sheer amount of real estate you get with a Sprinter is ace. I've got a small double bed in the back fitted width ways which is fine for anyone 5"9 or under. If you want extra legroom you can still use this configuration but add fiberglass pods to wither side which add up to 8 inches (4 each side) but its fine for a shorty like me. I have 300 watts of solar on the roof and still have room for a massive roofrack / terrace accessible from a ladder at the back or a skylight above the bed. I'm also in the process of making a really spacious by van standards toilet / shower room. I plan on getting something like a Honda Chaly when funds can allow as with the handlebars loose and folded it will fit under the bed.

I've gone on a bit of a tangent of personal ranting here but I'll get some pictures of the vans I've had up on this thread at some point.

PS - my sister had a 1.9 2004 Renault Traffic as a camper and it was always going wrong. It never felt very well put together and it had a clutch, injectors, turbo, every single sensor and most suspension parts changed in a short space of time (and still didn't inspire confidence). When the clutch went again the next year it ended up getting stripped.