The Ram (can’t call it Dodge anymore) is based on a Fiat, the Chevy is the Nissan with a new badge. Is any other manufacturer getting into the market space? I’m surprised that Toyota isn’t in the North American market as they have similar models overseas.
Ram, Ford, and Nissan all have bigger vans that are similar; only Chevy still makes a “traditional” full size cargo/passenger van for the US market.
Oh, I like the look of the Ford, especially the windows. I wonder what their size is compared to a SUV? I’ve thought about getting a small van vs. a SUV (we’ve got dogs; I’m their transport) but I want the AWD/4WD. Hmm…
Of the small cargo vans, the Ford Transit Connect is the clear leader with almost twice as many sold as the other vans combined. What are they replacing? Short wheelbase cargo vans? PT Cruisers and Chevy HHRs?
They’re mostly replacing minivans, which are either disappearing in favor of large crossovers or have undergone serious model bloat in terms of size and amenities so they don’t make as good of commercial vehicles as they once did. The “city vans” are very similar in terms of size and feel to the first generation minivans like the original Dodge Caravan but are dwarfed by most modern so-called minivans.
I’ve got a friend with one of the early North American Transit Connects and he really loves it. It’s definitely spartan in terms of interior and such but has huge amounts of usable space for as small and fuel efficient as it is. Ford’s marketing department seems pretty determined to hide them from non-commercial customers, but in reality I don’t see any reason why someone looking at something like a midsize SUV shouldn’t also be looking at the city vans.
I’ve test driven a Ford Transit and I loved it! The dash and seating arrangement feel like a small car with a little bit more upright seating. There’s huge headroom and there are cargo baskets above the front visors. Power and handling were good, controls were mostly good. There are versions that are bare work vans up to fully finished SUV-type vehicles.
Have any of the vans been thoroughly crash tested? How do they do on the IIHS small overlap test? The Transit Connect is essentially a last generation Ford Focus with a truck bed and leaf springs in the back, so I doubt it would fare very well.
Ram still makes the Caravan cargo hauler, as far as I can tell it’s better than most of these small vans in most respects other than fuel economy, which admittedly is a fairly important factor for commercial operators, but for personal use, not really enough to matter.
Has anyone here seen or used one of these small vans as a tiny motor home conversion? I’ve found a few online and they look adorable, but frankly just a little small for practical use.
The Transit is so popular in Britain, and for so long, that it has come to be the word for “work van”, like they use Hoover for “vacuum cleaner”, or many people say Kleenex for “facial tissue”. Ford has a lot of experience making vans for the working man/woman.
My new company truck is a Nissan NV200. I have been driving it for six weeks or so, and so far it has been fine. Our company has three of these, and also has a dozen or so Ford Transits, both the original and the Connect. The older transits are now coming up on 100,000 miles, and some of them are a bit fragile. This is more likely due to the guys driving them.
I downsized from a 2001 Dodge Ram 4x4 Utility pickup. My job has changed and I really only need a few small hand tools and my laptop, but I do miss the pickup. I really have no complaints about the NV though. It gets three times the gas mileage and is a lot easier to maneuver through traffic.
Transit sales are skyrocketing in the US, so I’d say not so much. It’s telling that the smallest Transit you can order as a regular production model is almost as big as the largest Econoline offered. It helps that you can get one of three roof heights on the Transit from the factory, whereas with Econoline if you needed a higher roof, it had to first go through an upfitter for butchering.
Well, Econolines had an independent front suspension starting in '68. I don’t think the Transit got one until '86. Until recently, I’d guess the Econoline had far greater weight and towing capacities.
But the new smaller vans are really nice compared to the minivans, IMHO.
Well and obviously some of the later transits were FWD, but utility-wise they’re both pretty much just big boxes on wheels. I guess, yeah, the Econoline was more capable of towing and served as the basis for medium-duty box vans and RV’s and such, but for what most people used stock half-ton Econolines for a Transit would have worked just as well, and vice versa.