You need to tell us what and where you want to go - then we can direct you a little better rather than all throwing opinions at you.

The trouble is your probably not sure yet what kind of overlanding you will do, as opposed to what you think you will do ;-p

So relax for now and enjoy reading about others ideas and problems and solutions.

A +strong+ word of warning: Serious long term overlanding is about serious mechanical preparation before you go. You can either spend time and money before you go making sure everything is as good as it reasonably can be - which involves going to the best mechanic, not the cheapest, and using high quality spare parts, rather than cheap crap.

If you don't, you get to spend a lot more time and usually a lot more money on the road where quality spare parts are hard or impossible to find and good mechanics even harder. So they break more than they fix. (I'm used to Africa).

Tales of buying a van for a fiver and selling in Mongolia are fine as long as you accept your van probably would't have made it much further without starting to give serious problems.

For a long round the world trip the vans you are looking at probably need a good mechanic overhaul, so triple the price for a older van, double it for anything newer as a rough guide. It will be money well spent and you can enjoy the trip more rather than trying to fine parts and an honest mechanic.

Don't just listen to advice that suits your budget, figure out what is the best advice and find a way to follow it!

I would strongly advise a 4x4, but if not the most important things with a van is good ground clearance underneath (the space between the ground and the bottom of the vehicle) and not having one thats too long. This makes driving on bad roads easier.

Anyway, relax for now..... ;-)