mrtn

You guys should buttkick Ford until you get a diesel manual there. Averages 36 mpg in summer and 29 mpg in winter.

Understanding is not my cup of tea.

I'm not sure which foam you mean but some foams are blocked out. Work as insulators but don't absorb water.

Having two different types of tires on a car makes it completely unpredictable and uncontrollable in slippery conditions. You can't even have studless and studded winter tires at the same time. Both have completely different characteristics on snow and ice. By snow I mean packed, hard snow, not slush. Vanity plates are not my cup of tea.

NH, apparently. Anyway, the Connect is very capable in snow. Good balance and ground clearance. Never been stuck with it. Just in case, I keep a shovel in the boot.

I would hold on to the Element if I had one. A funky piece of machinery. Unfortunately it's not available over here.

Wow, a CD! Long time no see!

Beautiful specimen. Unfortunately you'll have to follow the average market price plus some extra you are willing to sell for and hope that some true Transit fan finds it.

I don't get it. The floor and roof are virtually level. There shouldn't be any height difference in the back. Noone delivers cargo in the front seat y0.

I think "released" means that it's cleared for delivery from tax free lot - customs paid etc.

Not exactly. It's more truckish, has an almost fully upright seating position, not as relaxed as in TC. I couldn't find a comfortable position behind the wheel but being 6'4", it's a lot to ask from most of the vehicles. Other than that, the cargo space is huge.

Are you guys reverting your brake lights to original?

I'm at 182 000 km (113K mi) now and just had the rear drums replaced for the first time. The front discs were replaced a while ago and the pads/shoes at a reasonable interval, no worse then any other car.

Have the blower directed at the windshield from the beginning of your drive and temperature turned up. This way the glass will heat up step by step together with the engine. Sudden hot air at the lower edge of the windshield causes a thermal shock and uneven expansion of the glass resulting in damage.

Backup sensors break easily. Even a jet washer can permanently damage one. There's nothing else to do but to replace the damaged one.

This happens to any automobile if you direct air on the windshield when the engine is fully warmed up. I keep mine on windshiled/floow setting at all times. The heated windshiled helps a lot.

It's supposed to be a hard cover. That's the dealership price. They're known for outrageous pricing here. They are expensive and incompetent. Unfortunately a near monopoly.

The part number is 1440805. Costs €494.

Floor shifter is logical if you have a RWD vehicle, the shifter sits directly on top of the transmission and is the cheapest, maintenance free and most precise of the options. Any other way would require a linkage/cable system. The manual shifter of a Connect is placed perfectly in terms of driveability and the throw is near perfect, like in a sports car - Click-click. But I love column shifters in automatics for the extra floor space and function. It's actually not a shiter, it's a gear selector.

I'll give a call to my Ford dealer tomorrow to see if I can get the part number etc.

The pillars are even worse in a Civic. They're as thick but more towards you so you can't tilt your head around them.

The North-American Connects are actually not Transits but European Tourneos converted. So you'd be looking for Tourneo Connect's cargo cover.

No problems with the rear barn doors, fortunately. I wonder if they changed the headlight filaments to DOT-spec for you, because the EU-spec headlights have extremely sharp cutoff and should not glare to the oncoming traffic. Do you have adjustment roller in the dash for adjusting the beam to cargo load?

I'm all for separate winter tires. Then again, we have 5-6 months of snow coverage a year and dedicated winter tires are mandatory. In past couple of years most of West Europe and many US states have realized that winter tires are good for you and it's becoming a trend. A couple of years ago UK saw winter tire installations growing from 2000 to 50K in one year. It means that All-Season myth has been busted. An all-season tire means that it works equally bad in all seasons.

Heated windscreen is a Ford thing. Had it in my 1996 Escort as well. Superb. Defogs and deices in a few seconds when the engine is still cold. Unfortunately the glass shop did a poor job with the aftermarket replacement and 10" from the left won't heat up.