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A company out of NC called Altech-Echo is in final stages of EPA approval for a dedicated CNG or a Bi-Fuel Conversion for the Transit Connect. The final EPA combined number was 32.54 mpg on CNG which is pretty good. It has [2] 5.4 gge tanks and as a bi fuel with the regulatr unleaded gas, it will give you a range of upwards of 650 miles. Our sdealership is gtetting paperwork to become the distrubuter / installer of this system in Houston and we will probably cover most of the state. I have a pdf file that i have been trying to upload to my website and to here nbut it seems too large. if anyone is interested, send me an email and I will forward to you. Pricing has not been finalized as of yet but we shoudl have something concrest by the end of the month.

The Transit Connect comes with a 150 Amp Alternator. I am not an electrical expert but I know we have added inverters up to 500W on other vehicles with smaller alternators. Whoever is doing your install should be able to assist you there.

Woo Hoo! Finally! Welcome to the Transit Owners Club and good luck!

Welcome and good luck with your new Transit Connect.

Welcome and congrats on your new TC. I have a lot of TC info posted on my website and hope to keep it updated as much as possible.

Did you buy the Blue Wagon that we sold a couple weeks ago? It is a good looking color. I like the blaack one we have on display as well. Good luck with your new TC. You can't miss mine if you see it on the roads around Houston.

Welcome and good luck with your TC.

There are several catering options, refrigerated and otherwise. you can go to my website www.transitconnect.org and see a couple of options. We are in the process of building a refrigerated catering/food service Transit Connect as a demo unit. Let meknow if you have any questions. ed

I will see what I can find out about the rear doors. I would assume that they are produced that way in Turkey as the Chickenb Tax only requires the rear seating so the rear glass would not be an issue. As for the plug, in Europe that is where the rear brake light is but it had to be repositioned in the center to meet our DOT regulations.

Ditto. Welcome. I spent a little over a week in the U.K. last summer on vacation. Loved it over there.

Glad that they got it cleared up for you.

Download in Adobe PDF.

What they probably showed you is the vehicle status report. This is a computer generated report sent to the dealer overnight each day. They vehilcle visibility is an individual report generated by keying in the applicable order number on line. I check my customers orders every couple days this way so I can keep them up to date on what is going on with their orders. It is amazing how different the info is between the two reports; with the vehicle visibility being the most up to date.

I don't want to tep on your dealers toes but the ETA's are not accurate for the TC. Ford has told us that months ago; something to do with the Europe and US systems not being that compatable. Here is a copy of one of our status's from start until noe. OPrdered July with a current ETA of end Dec. Once produced, it goes to the port in Turkey for a boat ride to the U.K. where it gets paired up for the ocean voyage across the big pond. It can take a month or longer just from production date until it arrives at the US port for processing. Between processing and shipping to the dealer will take at a minimum of a couple weeks; sometimes longer depending on where it is going. These are just the facts. A lot of dealers have not had the experience in overseas orders and do not realize allof the logistics involved. Below is a cronology of a TC that we ordered in July with current status on top. Ask you dealer for a Vehicle Visibility printout which should look like something below. In this case, ordered in July, selected for Scheduling in Sept, Production week of 10/15, shipped to U.K 11/4 [has not arrived UK yet] Dealer ETA is 12/29. The vehicle visibility status is a lot more accurate than the status report that your salesperson showed you. In Transit Shipped Ocean - Voyage # (Grimaldi Agencies Uk Limited ) Ramp 9T, Turkey, EU Nov-04-2009, 00:01 EET Dec-29-2009 In Order Processing Scheduled to Week (Week -of) Ford Otomotiv Sanayi A.s., Oct-15-2009 ETA Dec-29-2009 In Order Processing Selected for Scheduling Ford Otomotiv Sanayi A.s., Sep-04-2009 In Order Processing Unscheduled- Clean Jul-16-2009

We are setting up a refrigerated TC that we will be displaying in the Ford booth at the Catersource convention in Vegas in March. Stop by and say hi if you are attending.

They must have had one already on order that they switched youto as the normal lead time for a TC for a fresh order is 4-5 months.

I also forgot to mention Ranger. I have a link on my website to them as well qas their brochure. My website is in my signature. It is my own website, not th edealerships.

I understand where your rants come from. I have been selling Fords for going on 29 years now and have seen a lot from both sides. A lot of salespersons at dealerships are in the dark on how things actually operate with regards to orders, etc. They are taught to sell what is on the lot and if they can't get a person into what the dealership wants to sell, then at a last resort, try to locate one. Like Roland brought up, he settled and the next day exactly what he was looking for showed up. I can't believe that the salesperson did not check what was coming in; that's almost as important as knowing what you have in inventory. I spent 25 years at one store before retiring. I held almost every job from floor sales to New Truck Manager, New Car Manager, and Used Car Manager. It was a pressure cooker from the GM and Owner plus I missed the direct customer interaction [besides i love to sell and build relationships]. I took over the Commercial Department in 1991 and made it into one of the biggest in our Region [in fact there were months when we outsold the New Truck Dept] The harsh Midwest winters finally took its toll on us and I decided to retire and head South. I was extremely fortunate to find the Dealership that I am now at. We area small Commercial Truck Store, no cars and very few SUV sales. We specialize in F150-F750 trucks and are the only Ford "Truck only" dealer in the Houston area. Most of our sales come from referral, repeat, and prospecting. We are in a very heavy industrial area on a major thoroughfare and get very little drive in traffic. We have 5 salespersons, each treated like an independent contractor. Because we are Truck Pros, we are empowered to work the entire sale process without the game playing that goes on at most stores. Our commercial customers appreciate that as do the retail customers that we sometimes sell. They find it very refreshing not to have to play games and go back and forth. As far as product knowledge, our dealership requires that we all become Master Certified in our training. Heres one of my peeves. I get a call or email from a prospect about a vehicle; in this case a TC. He asks all the questions and I educate him as best that i can and direct him to my website for additional information. He decides that he wants an XLT wagon but cannnot find one. I tell him that we have several in stock and he shows up to test drive. We spend a lot of time and they decide that they want silver. I tell him that i have one coming in 2 months and that i have a red, black, and blue due any day. I offer to locate one which I did and; 2 of them actually and tell him we can have it in a day or so for him. We agree on a price and he says he will come in but it is such a long drive [around 40 miles]. I tell him we can do everything by email/phone and i will deliver the TC when it arrives to save him the trouble. After a few days he says that they found a silver one at a local dealership that is due to arrive any day. No one there could tell him anything about the TC. It was one of the 2 that I had found. He bought it from them for more money because they were closer even though I offered to deliver it. He did thank me for all of the information because he had contacted 8 dealerships prior to purchasing and no one seemed to know much about the vehicle or have an XLT wagon that he could see or drive. I told him about our terrific service department and if he had any problems at the other dealership, that we would be happy to take care of him. I then wished him good luck with his new TC. While I did not make a dime from this customer, at least he bought a Ford and hopefully if someone asks him, I will get a referral in the future. As long as I treat customers the way I would like to be treated, I have no regrets. Everything else will take care of itself. I've had a very good career and am looking forward to many more years.

You should be able to find a body company in your area. If not, go to the Adrian , MasterRack, or Leggett and Platt websites and search for a local distributor. There should be one you can talk to. We have many in the Houston area.

Sorry to hear about your problems. I now have 5100 miles on mine as well and am getting a combined 24.2 mpg. I have the van with Work Solutions. The Market Manager for TC told me that the W/S computer can be retrofitted into ANY TC thru your local Ford dealer which makes sense. My TC was built in May and arrived in the US in June; however I did nor get it until the beginning of Sept. What I found out was that the W/S in TC was not available until 8/4 so my TC sat at the Port until the W/S could be installed. Wish you had contacted me prior to your purchase, you probably could have bought one closer to home and had the W/S installed. I too hate those slam bam dealers who give us all a bad name. I've been doing this 28+ years and I run into it almost weekly.

I have only experienced a complete lock up once and holding the power button down for 10 seconds or so rebooted the system and I have not had a problem since, knock on wood. As for the Sprint, Ford had a rebate program of $300 if you activate the Sprint broadband which in essence covers 6 months activation. It is only avaialble for commercial customers. I was unable to get it because I purchased the TC and I am not a business. I just got my activation yesterday and it actually works a little quicker than I thought it would. My websit loads ok as do the individual pages. If you are a commercial customer, contact your dealer about the Sprint rebate.

Welcome. Wish you a lot of luck with your TC. There are a lot fo Catering racks and bin packages available as wellas a rear cold unit if you are interested.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience.It's sad that some dealers still don't get it. I notice in your signature that you are thinking about the Tool Link. You might want to check befor you buy it, it is not vailable on wagons from the factory and I am thinking that it might be because of the sliding door glass causing the rfi signals not to operate properly. Don't know for sure but you might want to check before spending the $$. Anyway good luck with your TC.

Here is initial info for the wheelchair ramp. Floor is also loweredto ease entry and egress. ncv transit connect wheelchair.pdf Crash Test Poster.pdf