ford transit at chgo auto show

Jack_Berry · Mar 8, 2009

New Ford van at dealers, soon (pics inside) - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

found this on the ford truck enthusiast site. just the shorty version is shown. certainly not a serious work vehicle.

mjolnir131 · Mar 8, 2009

i like the shape good aerodynamics should be better for mileage ,but the wheels look really small smaller wheel higher RPM of the tire lower miles between new shoes

that brings up the question of are the other fuel efficacy features going to cover the cost of buying more tires?

greg334 · Mar 8, 2009

Finally Ford is going to market it, they have been saying this for the last four years, have tested a lot of them here and even smashed a couple on the Southfield freeway.

RLENT · Mar 8, 2009

Too bad they aren't bringing the bigger ones over - give the Sprinter some competition ...

brownie4042 · Mar 8, 2009

I read a Ford press release about a month ago. At that time all that was coming to the US in 2010 was this "shorty" aimed at the inter city delivery and the repair people. No deck longer than the 72" was mentioned, not a van for most of our needs.

Brownie

greg334 · Mar 8, 2009

Well what I heard the last time I was down there is the marketing department thought to get its toes in the market by offering the shorter version in the soft van market. They think, and I disagree that they can't go head to head with the sprinter.
The transport is a big deal in Europe, if the car companies would fight to get some harmonization of the regulations between the US and the EU, companies like Ford can bring their EU products here with all the options.

Jack_Berry · Mar 8, 2009

did you notice that this transit is not coming with the diesel engine. ford usa just will not believe in diesel as an alternative.

isn't this the version ford has in nyc for taxi cabs?

greg334 · Mar 8, 2009

Their excuse is the same as the excuse why they are not bringing the Duratorq engine to the US - not enough are going to be sold to justify the cost. Diesels do sell but the company looks at cost instead of slaes building.

The real problem with Ford is that they don't think like their direct EU competitor. One of the dumbest positions the US automakers has been using part sources outside of their initial supply chain. What I mean is that Ford can sell Duratorq engines to GM and Chrysler like VW sells them to other manufactures over in the EU. GM needs to reduce costs like yesterday, their R&D is really struggling and maybe using an engine from Ford and sticking into like a Colbalt would help them reduce cost. They can justify this through actually selling things that people want. But I go back to my earlier post, harmonization is needed if these companies want to actually make sales in this country.