2005 T5 Transporter - Worth It?

[Transporter]

Well, I drive modern diesel engines for the last 15 years and I never had a problem with them.

There is not much difference in how do you diagnose diesel and petrol engine, you need a good scanner for both but at the same time you need the knowledge and experience.
If anything, I can say that the petrol engine is the one that could have more faults, ....if you're unlucky.

jfoldbar, don't think that the diesel engines are less reliable just Just because you had a bad experience with one (for what ever reason). In reality it's a fact that the cars are more reliable today than 20 years ago regardless of the engine. The car had always its useful life and once it reached that, one had to spend some money to keep it safely on the road and because the newer cars are more complex you will need to spend more to maintain them once they are old.

Back on topic, buying old doesn't have to save money to one and it doesn't have to be worth it, ....if the car wasn't well maintained or just neglected.
Just like you said "get the good one and can you can get another 300,000km out of it" but I'm not sure if that would be without a problem, no matter what you buy. If you buy old put some money aside for the repairs and start saving for the new.

[Sunny43.5]

Diesels engines are renown for long life some in excess of 500000 kays sometimes there are faults found but hopefully not many . Wrong oil seems to be the main culprit on the early ones . My work T5 petrol 2.0 petrol is now clicking over the 250000 kays and still going strong and believe me it does not get exactly the same love sometimes that I give our other ones , left foot and right foot coordination gets out of whack a lot !! The day is coming when it will need a new engine as you all may have noticed recently when it rolled down the hill by itself even in first gear it will roll away easily .

[jets]

Year - 2005
Kilometres - 234,000
Diesel / LWB /FWD

If I was in your position there is no way I would buy a van with that amount of k's. Money pit seems to come to mind.
You don't say how much they want for it. If it was only a few thousand you could walk away from it when the first big bill came in.
The other thing that nobody has mentioned is whether you have skills to DIY. Although parts are expensive, the repair costs will be considerably reduced if you can service/repair it yourself.

[Mtwem]

If I was in your position there is no way I would buy a van with that amount of k's. Money pit seems to come to mind.
You don't say how much they want for it. If it was only a few thousand you could walk away from it when the first big bill came in.
The other thing that nobody has mentioned is whether you have skills to DIY. Although parts are expensive, the repair costs will be considerably reduced if you can service/repair it yourself.

Its for 8,000...Unfortunately I do not, i have close friends who are mechanics but I do not know much about car mechanics,

[jets]

I just had a look at carsales & there a quite a few vans with high mileage that are listed much dearer than the one you looked at. EG 2004 manual with 205,165kms in NSW for $14,900. If you are still interested, you would need to investigate the past history [city or country], all service history & a full inspection by someone who is very familiar with the T5. Good luck with whatever you decide.