mrtn

These crazy Brits have dropped plenty of ST engines in the Connect, some have RS engines + AWD.

Howdy. Your English is fine, don't worry about it.

The first 1500 miles on a freeway (tavelling in Germany at the moment) say that its a good purchase. Drives really nice at 90 mph (kills the fuel economy numbers tho), very stable and plenty of torque for such a tiny engine. Transmission shifts lightning fast with the paddles. Cabin space seems much bigger then in the TC. Seating position is good, the flat floor with no center console allows moving around in the cabin. The CC stalk is a bit weird to operate. TC CC tilt key is better.

That's not completely true. M-Sport is an actual racing company that builds Ford WRC and other race cars https://www.m-sport.co.uk/

The car was delivered today.

Seems like the rotary "shifter" is the new norm:

The LWB door is the same, everything rearwards is longer:

130 hp, 221 torques at 1750 rpm. Can be remapped to 160+ hp easily. 1322 lbs trailer w/o brakes, 2866 lbs trailer w/brakes. The cargo van is a bit different in numbers. I can't see myself buying one for myself today, but if it turns out to be great and I could get a loaded one with barn doors then why not.

No I converted the liter figures to US gal. PSA and BMW are the forerunners in diesel technology. Real life figures will probably somewhat lower but we’ll see. The car will arrive in a few days. It’s a 1.5 liter engine and an 8 speed box.

Oh yeah, forgot, fuel economy in the brochure: 57 mpg hwy, 51 mpg urban.

Ordered one today. The barn doors are only available in the lowest trim level. I picked the middle one (no glass roof, HUD, backup camera, roof storage compartments). Other than that there’s pretty much everything including lane departure correction, adaptive cruise control incl. the speed limit camera, start-stop, Android Auto/Apple Carplay etc. Drives very nice, feels bigger than the TC even tho it’s about the same size. My only real concern is the weird gear selector. Come on, a regular shifter is just fine. FFS:

It should not run hotter at all if the torque converter lock works.

No pneumatic suspension in this price range. He picked the regular hatch with an opening glass. It can be ordered with barn doors as well. I'll keep you posted.

My colleague is looking to get the new Citroën Berlingo (5-seater). We have had a Berlingo panel van years ago (two generations back) and it was a shitshow. Going to see if the new one is any better. It’s significantly cheaper than the TC, about the same size. Costs about €24K fully loaded, incl. 20% VAT. It looks a bit like Honda Element and Pontiac Aztek had a baby. https://www.citroen.co.uk/new-cars-and-vans/citroen-range/new-citroen-berlingo

Sounds like a tensioner malfunction if the belt was good.