http://www.vwt5forum.co.uk will tell you everything you need to know. AFAIK the 1.9’s are meant to be a bit more “durable” than the 2.5 and are certainly better on fuel and you can always get a remap if you want more power to take it up to 130hp on the 104 version.
Take it for a good test drive and make sure its shifting into all the gears smoothly with no clunking, the 2.5’s have a habit of being heavy on gearbox’s but this can be down to the 6spd box apparantly being a bit weaker than the 5 and the higher torque of the 2.5 engine. 1st to 2nd gear is where youll most notice it.
Make sure theres no knocking or spluttering/ other strange engine noises that could be faulty injectors. And perhaps do a few hill starts to make sure the clutch is in working order, should be fine on a 50k 1.9 engine but on higher mileage engines they can go.
Thats most of the things that i have gathered to look for on my search for a t5. They are very reliable vans and the issues that ive stated arent that common and are mainly confined to the 2.5l engine vans.
Goodluck with your search.
Jon
