GearheadGrrrl Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 A lot depends on price- Before COVID the big fleets paid around $20K for stripped Transit Connect or big Transit vans, so unless they needed good MPG or had to fit in tight spaces they bought big Transits. Prices have since gone way up and the fleet discounts aren't as generous, so if the upcoming Transit Connect or Transit Custom sells for several $K less than big Transit they'll sell well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick73 Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 On 9/7/2024 at 8:30 PM, GearheadGrrrl said: A lot depends on price- Before COVID the big fleets paid around $20K for stripped Transit Connect or big Transit vans, so unless they needed good MPG or had to fit in tight spaces they bought big Transits. Prices have since gone way up and the fleet discounts aren't as generous, so if the upcoming Transit Connect or Transit Custom sells for several $K less than big Transit they'll sell well. Agree, though I also think length and width of any mid-size van Ford decides to build (within reasonable size range) will not factor much for NA market because we commonly have even longer and wider vehicles like SUVs and pickups driving all over the place, so limiting access to certain areas because of it being too large in length and or width shouldn’t be a major concern IMO. Height, on the other hand, limits many commercial parking garages as well as home garages. I expect it is one reason many vans in different countries are offered at just under 2 meters in height (around 78-3/4 inches). Over the weekend I saw my very first Toyota HiACE van in person, and it really caught my attention. According to Wikipedia, height is just under 2 meters for low roof, but high-roof variant is just over 90 inches tall (roughly 12 inches taller). While that would not clear 7-ft garage, it will clear under 8-ft garage doors. The one I saw on I-10 was high roof, and had an aftermarket ladder on side to access a large roof rack. Pictures above of HiACE are generic from WEB, but appear to be very similar to van on I-10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick73 Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 I don’t recall if this was posted previously, but it’s interesting that Jim Farley toured Germany in an electric Transit Custom. Maybe he was inspired by the van’s general design. https://fordauthority.com/2024/08/jim-farley-taking-ford-e-transit-custom-across-germany/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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