HI - HELP - desperately need some advice please. We need to purchase a new vehicle for our business and are unsure as to what to buy.......Fiat Ducato or Ford Transit. Having been a Transit owner for the last 12 years out of pure necessity for the size and affordability of price, we are now twice bitten three times shy and very reluctant to buy a Transit again - however we can get good service and warranty back up for the Transit and spares are more readily available. The Fiat looks great but is an unknown identity to us, service and warranty are a far distance away (3hrs) and not sure of the availability of spares in Australia. Is it the devil we know or the devil we don't?.........Would appreciate any advice you can offer. Many Thanks, Lee.

it shares many parts with other vans Peugeot and Citroen so spare shouldn't be a problem

dave said:

it shares many parts with other vans Peugeot and Citroen so spare shouldn't be a problem

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But these are even rarer that Ducato in Australia.
Fiat parts are very expensive and we don't have the alternative suppliers you do in UK and Europe.
If you do decide on a current model Ducato, be sure to get a NEW one - expensive issues with the earlier current version. All reports I have seen say that the AMT (automated manual transmission) versions are really good.

Hi
As Dave has said they do share a lot of parts with the Citroen & Peugeot but I am not sure that these are sold in Australia, I have yet to see any of these models on the road. But the basic engines with some mods are shared with the Iveco Daily which is sold out here. As Peter has said the Parts are expensive out here but consumables filters etc are available aftermarket & even with the exorbitant postage from the UK it is still cheaper to buy from over there. Brought some genuine Fiat fuel filters (4 of) from UK $130 posted out here, where here as of 18 months ago were $96 each.
We have a 03 244 2.8 JTD Ducato & have had no problems in the 7 years after some initial problems with the A/C evaporator assembly but this was fixed under warranty with no problems since.
The only thing I can say against the X250 model is the judder complaints in reverse in the 2.3 ltr & some 3.0 ltr owners have complained as well (all from European owners) but these seem to be mainly with the motorhome conversions carrying the extra weight. I have a friend with a 2007 Jayco Conquest 3.0 ltr X250 motorhome who doesn't have any of the reverse judder problems.
I have said in a previous post the water entering the engine bay is a threat to the long term reliability of the X250 models, although in Australia where it doesn't rain/snow continuously this might not be such a big problem.
After our experience with our 03 244 2.8 JTD model, YES I would buy an X250 3.0 ltr after doing a road test on the reverse gear problem (just to check for myself as I have yet to drive any of the X250 models) which I am sure has been rectified in the new production models & also checking that water wasn't going to enter the engine bay during rainy periods although I would be prepared to rectify this fault myself if Fiat has not done it properly in the new production models which reading from some reports I sometimes wonder as installing a plastic cover on the engine is not fixing the original scuttle problem & as you will see there are other components damaged through the water ingess over time. See previous posts -
https://www.fiatforum.com/ducato/236615-help-please.html
https://www.fiatforum.com/ducato/215372-2007-ducato-3-0-160bhp-injectors.html


Hope this is of some help

Thanks for the feedback - I really appreciate it. Yes it is a new Ducato that we are buying and we don't have any intention at this stage to keep it past the 3yr warranty period. We have already test driven it and were impressed - but didn't try reversing (that I recall) so will be sure to do another test drive to check for that shudder prior to handing over the cheque! We expect that parts will be alittle harder to come by and more expensive - even though it will be serviced by a Fiat dealer (and some of the Transit parts are very pricey too). After all my research I'm of the opinion that all makes and models have their faults - none of the large vans seem to be without the odd fault, so I think we will take a chance and give a Ducato a go - fingers crossed its nothing like our previous Transits!

Unsure said:

...so I think we will take a chance and give a Ducato a go!

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Come back in a few months and tell us all about it. I expect you will be pleased

A road test probably wouldn't show up any gearbox fault.
It appeared to be mainly on motorhomes, which alledgedly have a different drive ratio, and are getting on for a fully laden weight compared to the empty van at the garage. I don't remember reading any problems with work vans.

dont know much about the newer ducatos but i have had an 05 from new and am really dissapointed in it. I have had in 5 years and 77k miles, starter motor, 3 front wheel bearings, clutch assembly, rad fan, engine compartment fuse box, and I have a hole from rust in the rear wheel arch, also the lock barrels are made from the rejected plastics from chad valley toy makers. I had a tranny before and it was definately better built.

2 sides to every story though, transit door locks (or not!), EGR's, engines blowing up, rear drums getting cut off at first service.

Sorry but as someone who worked on transits for 7 years I disagree (mk2's were best) and the main problem with new ducatos is the EGR valves which are made by ford!

I've done 36k in my 2006 Ducato so far. No problems with the vehicle at all. A pleasure to drive and use as both a town vehicle and a holiday machine.

The only problem I have had is with wheel valve stems! Three of them have given way - two at home and one at speed. Seems they were cracked/perished because of their history (whatever that was from the previous owner and supplier) and leaked air slowly. So the one leaking at speed caused the tyre to overheat and blow up . I have checked and rechecked the others and cannot fault them.

PeterM said:

I've done 36k in my 2006 Ducato so far. No problems with the vehicle at all. A pleasure to drive and use as both a town vehicle and a holiday machine.

The only problem I have had is with wheel valve stems! Three of them have given way - two at home and one at speed. Seems they were cracked/perished because of their history (whatever that was from the previous owner and supplier) and leaked air slowly. So the one leaking at speed caused the tyre to overheat and blow up . I have checked and rechecked the others and cannot fault them.

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I've read a few cases of the valves stems going. Maybe it was a batch fault around that time.
Other problems were campers running at or above 60psi using standard push in valves rather them ones retained by nuts, and the bases of the stems failing again.

mikey72 said:

I've read a few cases of the valves stems going. Maybe it was a batch fault around that time.
Other problems were campers running at or above 60psi using standard push in valves rather them ones retained by nuts, and the bases of the stems failing again.

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Just replaced mine at the side of the road using the jack under the hitch to break the bead on the tyre real pain in the ass to have it go.

mikey72 said:

Other problems were campers running at or above 60psi using standard push in valves rather them ones retained by nuts, and the bases of the stems failing again.

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Mine are the push in type, both the originals and those recently fitted by tyre company. No problems there - running rear at 60-65 psi and front 55-60 psi all the time (3.4 tonne all the time).

Fascinating to read that faulty valve stems on mine may have been rather common!

Unsure said:

Fiat Ducato or Ford Transit

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Back to the original question ..

Transits for sale outnumber ducato/relay/boxer by about 20 to 1 here in Ireland and just over 10 to one in the UK. I researched these figures sites like auto trader and ebay. On ebay the transit parts outnumber the fiat and co. parts by a similar margin. I just checked carsales.com.au and there are 41 ducatos and 401 transits for sale

All this is only really important when it somes to finding new or used parts through channels other than fiat. Surprisingly when it comes to finding parts for ducatos in breakers yards its much much more than 10 to 1 in favour of the transit. I suppose they are 10 times more lightly to sell the transit parts so its better to have a transit taking up space. I find that most of the ducatos are crushed.

I almost always use parts from a breakers for all my vehicles and have had to go as far as hungary on ebay for ducato parts.

I needed a injector pipe lately for the ducato Fiat sell the full set at about 400 euro. Its 10 in a breakers yard if you can find one. Those kind of repairs really add up.

PeterM said:

Mine are the push in type, both the originals and those recently fitted by tyre company. No problems there - running rear at 60-65 psi and front 55-60 psi all the time (3.4 tonne all the time).

Fascinating to read that faulty valve stems on mine may have been rather common!

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Shouldn't be push in type, they're only rated to 60 psi (or maybe 65 psi), so the tyre fitter should have known that.

PeterM said:

I've done 36k in my 2006 Ducato so far. ... The only problem I have had is with wheel valve stems! Three of them have given way - two at home and one at speed. Seems they were cracked/perished because of their history (whatever that was from the previous owner and supplier) and leaked air slowly. So the one leaking at speed caused the tyre to overheat and blow up . I have checked and rechecked the others and cannot fault them.

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Well, at 47,000 km I have had ANOTHER case of a valve stem giving way. Fortunately in the driveway. I think there is only one of the original stems left (but I don't know which one, off hand).

Hi Peter
Our 03 244 Ducato Winnebago has the bolt on type valve stems fitted as OEM. I run 65 psi in the front & 70 psi in the back & I am surprised your Ducato came fitted with the push in type. I remember you mentioning that yours was fitted with Continental Tyres where our Ducato has Michelin XC Camping - 215/75R16C - which I think is the same size as yours.
The pressures you run in yours are not much different to ours, the GVM is 3850kg on ours whereas I think yours might be 3500kg but still I would think the pressures you run would be classed as high pressure & necessitate the fitment of bolt on tyre stems as well.
One thing that worries me is when I get around to replacing the tyres are these tyre places then going to include new bolt on stems in the price as usual or are they then going to extort some expensive price to replace them as the type fitted may not be common in Aust!
Cheers

I am certainly heading to the idea of having the valve stems replaced by high pressure types. There are push-in high pressure stems available (in the USA), as well as the bolt in type. I (perhaps foolishly) am expecting to do the change when the tyres need replacing, but they are wearing so slowly that I might be waiting for a long time.

I am also thinking of going to 225/75R16 tyres when the change is made. Will give me more rubber on the road, more accurate speedometer (presently 8% high), more load carrying safety margin, lower pressures, and more choice of tyres.

Meanwhile, I am checking for cracking in the stems around the insert hole each week or so of travelling.