Hey Geoff. Hopefully some that have these vehicles will read and respond to your question.
Have you googled them and looked for customer responses - just about every product have a separate site for customer responses nowdays and they may be helpful
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
Also google " reviews " for each on line. I just purchased new Fiat Scudo and happy with for what I want. Also purchased Fiat Ducato 6 months ago and really happy with price paid and 5 year 250k warranty. Work and pleasure. Reality is second hand a lot of vehicles will have hard k's as delivery vans etc.
The answer here is 'heaps of personal preference & a lotta luck'
A decade ago I was asking the same series of Qs
In my case, the vehicle platforms available to me [from Sunliner motorhomes] were a choice of Benz or Fiat or Ford Transit
The Ford was the mid-priced unit, the Fiat being about $10k less than the Ford with the Benz about $20k more than the Ford
Upon asking Qs on these forums, I got many answers ~ some just plain stoopid ~ but the consensus was "anywhere in the outback, 2 platforms can be serviced & repaired anywhere ... Toyota & Ford. So we bought the Ford Transit
Since then we've travelled over 350,000km in the Transit, Yes it's been very promptly serviced every 15k kms, and yes it's had one or two unexpected trips into the workshop. ie; when a fuel pump stops, you don't go very far, very quickly
So- I can't help you 'exactly' with details of your 2 choices, but whatever you end up with, please keep asking Qs here & elsewhere
ps- a very common issue with Fiat front-wheel drives, is that they cannot drive up a slippery / grassy surface. With all the weight back on the rear wheels [from the slope] the front wheels just start to spin on the wet grass. It is very, very common to see a 4wd or a farmers tractor pulling a Fiat motorhome a few metres and out of trouble
Also cant tell you which is best. We have the v6 turbo diesel mercedes. Great vehicle. It has the rear dual wheels so more grip on the soft stuff. Servicing is every 30000 ks but we do it once a year. Fuel consumption is fair. 15 to 16 litres per 100k. I believe the front wheel drive Fiat is better. Just prefer rear wheel drive. But our motor home is 24 ft and has a loaded weight of 4490 kg. No issue at all with its reliability and Merc has a really good break down service. Good luck with your search.
Up to personal tast and layout of each ? It won't be long before they fit elect motors to rear wheels ?
One thing fwd does, it helps big time how the vehicle is laid out.. No driveshaft through the centre..
