Tribunius

I don't really agree with that. The LWB and Jumbo would be competing with the Mercedes Benz sprinter which has a much smaller engine. Thats not quite true. The smallest commercial application diesel is in the Mercedes Benz sprinter. It has a 3.0L V6. The are smaller displacement diesel engines in VW's for instance but they don't matter in this case. In my opinion there is no way you could shoehorn a V8 into the transit engine bay.

I did a bit of checking and yes your right. It is on a modified C170 chassis, stronger and longer. This is the chassis that the north american focus is based on, the rest of world focus is on the C1 chassis. Your not the only ones, they don't tell us 2nd line manufacturers anything either. I will conceded that It is quite possible that they will switch it to the common C3 chassis. Especially seeing as it didn't change over to the C1 chassis when the focus did.

The chicken tax only applies to commercial vehicles. For passenger vehicles the tax rate is 2.5%. When it was introduced back in the 1964 it was aimed at Volkswagen as Germany was the one to introduce the tax on the frozen chickens. Incidentally it was also on potato starch and brandy but they have since been repealed.

The tax is 25% on commercial vehicles. The connect has its own unique platform to cope with its role. Higher gvwr. I don't see it sharing with the focus.

Actually I was talking about the transit. I have only ever been in an E350 passanger van once.

I have never heard that they do. Any of the ones I have been in or driven over the years have always felt stable on the roads. Be it highways or twisty back roads.

That depends on weither the fwd or rwd version is used. The RWD version has a slightly higher load floor than the e series. I can't remember the exact difference but its somehwere around 2 inches. ESP is pretty much a standard feature of all euro vans including the transit.

This kind of thing should be shown on US tv and during drivers Ed classes. It is a rather graphic example of what could happen to people when they text and drive. Its a short clip from a drivers educational video to be shown from next year onwards to high school kids in the UK.

We do. However what I'm talking about is this. An E350/450 DRW is 96" wide (outside tire to outside tire) at the rear axle. A savana is 94" (ok I'll admit for some reason I thought it was narrower so disregard the whole too narrow thing.) The main problem is this though: The E450 with a 176WB has a max gvwr of 14,500lbs. The Savana with a 177WB has a max gvwr of 12,300lbs. With a 159"WB its max gvwr is 14,200lbs. A transit or any other euro van are approx 80" wide, which is a problem.

Thanks for the suggestion. We do use it on occasion and will probably use it a lot more in the future. It has become the default chassis for ambulances here in BC, canada. We are still looking for a replacement for the dual rear wheel E350 and E450.

Well the width of the frame is not a problem its the width of the rear axle. The way ford does it now the frame rails are straight no matter if the vehicle has single rear wheels or dual rear wheels. When the vehicle has dual rear wheels (needed for high GVWR) they add on an extra set of tires to the same rear axle. This increases the track width. Which means the body built on it can be wider. The way GM and the euro designs do it is to have two different frames so that the vehicle always has the same track width. This makes sense because you only need one abs/esp program. But it limits the width of a body that can be put on it more than we and our customers would like. I agree with what your saying about shareing parts. They could do just that. I would just rather they went to one platform thats all.

I agree with you. Both markets can't be served by the same vehicle. However I think they should develope a heavy duty version of the transit frame and suspension with a wider rear axle but use the same cab up front. That way they can at least share some common parts. The way I see it there will be some future proofing built into the new platform.

From most accounts they did a fairly bad job of servicing these vehicles. And now they are acting like a pure dead beat refusing to pay for parts and vehicles they have already. They are also suing damiler because daimler is refusing to supply them more parts until they pay what they owe.

Yes it will be suitable for all of those roles though not all the sub classes within them. The sprinter and equilavent vehicles (Ford transit, Iveco daily[coming to nafta region soon as a dodge] etc) are all used as small buses, ambulances and RV's. We have built a few of the first two but no RV's (not what we do) however I see them around all the time. As of Jan 1st the sprinter will be avaliable from select Mercedes Benz and Freightliner dealerships. Dodge is out. While the F series does have an equalavent GVWR to the E series it has several disadvantages. For a give wheel base there is less useable length on the f series compared to the e series. Also the f series nose is longer. The top of the f series frame rails are higher off the ground than the e series. The f series cab is lower than the e series. The real heavy weight f series (650/750) are not sold by many dealerships so service is an issue in the field. The GM Express/Savana is not a suitable replacement for the E series. It is too narrow. A disadvantage it shares with all the products that are of european origin. It is also too short when it has the highest GVWR. So for the specialest vehicle market things are up in the air at the minute. The customers are not sure where they are going to go yet. And us manufacturers are trying to get as much information as possible about alternatives as we can because things have to change.

The Iveco vans are ok. I would rate both the sprinter and transit above them. However those fiat's are rubbish. They just don't stand up. As for GM being the last with a full sized van well it doesn't quite compare to the e series and only offers a higher gvwr than the sprinter. If they bring the highest gvwr daily over here the GM express/savana is going to be on the back foot. The GM will offer no technical advantage over it. The e series will die now that there won't be a diesel avaliable for it.