carlb28

Joey, without the panoramic sunroof, the controls are very different and lacking.

So after weeks of letting me talk to voicemail, I finally got a call from a customer service rep today. As I explained that yes the dealership checked out the items I cited and found them to be working as designed, that they were sorry that I wasn't happy with the design. LIVID does not even begin to describe how I feel at the moment. I guess the first use of my go pro camera will be to make some videos about the issues.

I also liked the don't cut/drill here zone diagrams. Interesting to see how it goes together.

https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/topics/2014/2014_Transit_Connect_v1-0.pdf Why yes there was supposed to be a link. If you copy and paste a link in this box it goes away. You HAVE to click the add a link button.

Maybe this doc can help with some of the questions you have - https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/topics/2014/2014_Transit_Connect_v1-0.pdf%C2'> They don't have anything for the 2015, which tells me that they are the same from a body standpoint.

Wow I wish I was getting anything close to that with my 2015 Titanium.

In my 2015 Titanium I noticed that in some occasions the mirrors would not unfold to their normal operating positions, and reported it to the dealer. I failed to try to replicate it and identify the if this then that conditions, so of course the dealership said, "it works fine". Normal behavior - when you lock the doors with the key fobs, the mirrors fold. Use the Key fob to unlock and the mirrors unfold to their normal operating position. How to keep them folded - Scenario #1 - Use the keyfob to lock the doors and the vehicle folds the mirrors. Use the remote start and then use the key fob to unlock the doors. Mirrors will never move until you hit the button inside the cab to unfold. Scenario #2 - When shutting down the vehicle, use the button in the cab to fold the mirrors. Exit, lock the vehicle with the key fob. Unlock the vehicle using the key fob. Mirrors stay in place until you hit the button in the cab to unfold the mirrors. Can anyone else confirm this on their vehicle?

So in looking at the ford parts site, I think I get why this is such an issue. Based on the diagram here - http://www.fordparts.com/Commerce/PartDetail.aspx?n=f5NsFA%2bmKupjuuZUY4d57w%3d%3d&id=301441789&m=2&search=true&year=2015&make=Ford&model=Transit%20Connect The main heater core is suspended in the middle of the dash and therefore isolated from outside temps, and is a lot larger than the additional heater core that I would bet is the same size for SWB and LWB vehicles. Also the smaller heater core is closer to the bottom of the vehicle which may or may not have as much chance to overcome the thermal differences between outside temps and inside. Think peltier based cooling systems, as they can only overcome so much thermal diversity.

Vehicles where the bulk of the interior space does not have proper HVAC consideration for all seats, or the conventional norms for lighting design are ignored, then it indicates that passengers in the additional 5 seats were an afterthought. These items are not anything that one might question as they are considered NORMAL for passenger vehicles, and as such we would assume that these are basic functions implicit in the design and functionality of the vehicle. As we assumed these were standard features for Passenger vehicles, we feel a bit betrayed by the lack of proper design and testing on behalf of Ford which we have only discovered post sale. Having done a little research while awaiting my vehicle, the generation being sold today has been around since 2013. Using the Etis site, if one can read anything into it, the dwg files for the passenger vans all carry a sequence number in the teens, yet the cargo vans are the lower numbers. LWB Van with liftgate - File name DC-DT11-010000-005.dwg yet LWB Kombi 7 seat liftgate - file name DC-DT11-010000-D013.dwg To reiterate what I wanted/needed - seating for 6, where three of these are all in car seats for at least the next 5 years, so smaller was not an option. I knew some elements were going to be basic when I looked at this vehicle and I was fine with these (lack of power doors and hatch for instance). I also was looking for something light to tow with my RV that can safely tow up to 5000lb. The EPA Mileage figures are also much more attractive than what I was getting in my Ford Flex. For what I spent on a TC Titanium, there are quite a few decent options that would increase the luxury features and storage capabilities but yes they would be a used vehicle.

Omniphil, in my Titanium, there are vents in the b pillar for the passengers on the second row. The airflow there is pretty good, however the temerature of the air when on max heat is tepid at best. I will have to peek and see if I have any vents on the floor in the back.

Easiest and cheapest way to lift might be to go bigger on the tires, but then you will need to also adjust bump stops and change the steering limits. As yours is a previous gen TC, It may take the geometry changes in stride, but given the leaky transaxle issues on the 2014 + I would be cautious about changing the suspension geometry.

As I was at the dealership to confirm some of the issues that I have with my van, the Customer relations manager painted a rather gloomy picture of what may possibly come of these issues that are "working as intended/designed". Sadly most of the issues that I have are things one would rarely check in the course of a test drive, and apparently EVERY Automotive reviewer has overlooked as well. Designing a vehicle with three rows of seating that cannot be illuminated by the driver is quite an unusual departure from Every other vehicle that I have owned. Having vents that when "Closed" let just as much air by, but concentrate it even more due to the smaller hole for the air to flow through is again bad design. Folding mirrors that can remain folded while operating the vehicle above 5 mph is an ambulance chaser lawyer's dream come true. If your TC is equipped with folding mirrors, you can fold them while operating the vehicle on the road, and if you manually fold them while parking or before exiting the vehicle, they will not automatically unfold when you use the key fob to unlock the doors. Then there is this thing they call a heater for the rear passengers. Queue the Inigo Montoya quote - Also there is the lingering transmission issues which may or may not have been addressed in the 2015 run. Not sure about the rest of you, but I am not going to take this lieing down. This evening I will be adding comments to videos on youtube about these issues, filing reports with the NHTSA, and tagging some things in twitter using their #unminivan tag, as well as making public postings on Facebook. Sadly I have already paid for mine, in full, so the dealership as a sales organization only cares so much... The service department is not likely to get to creative unless Ford Corp offers to pay for solutions/Fixes. If more owners will follow my model, maybe we can make it uncomfortable for the giant and get our vehicles corrected rather than being told this is the design and we have to accept it. Thanks for your time.

So in looking at page 17, the additional switch appears to be for the Taxi is available light in the sign on the roof. Is there something that shows another switch where the driver can turn the lights on for the passengers and I can't see it? Thanks,

I guess I need to print this and take it to the dealership in my next interaction with them.

Very Nice!

Thanks for confirming that. Now how do we go about letting ford know that single college kids should not be the designers of family vehicles and get this corrected?

OK on the mirror issue, I can finally get the fault to repeat itself. Everything works fine when you turn off ignition, exit vehicle and use the key fob to lock the vehicle. If you turn off the ignition and hit the fold mirror button, that is the position they will remain in until you engage the button again. When you unlock the vehicle it does not sense that they are folded and unfold them. When they updated mySync, they did not notify ford, so it looks like it is outdated in their portal.

Minivan or not, the ability for the driver to illuminate the entire cabin has never been a "nice to have" option on ANY vehicle I have ever driven, barring of course the military vehicles. My Honda Odyssey that was three vehicles ago had this option. If I find myself at another dealer it will be to trade this vehicle in. So in a word, UNACCEPTABLE. As I told the service/customer relations manager, there are enough buttons in the cabin, there is no reason why an update to the ecu couldn't be made that makes a long press simulate the same action as a door opening. Heater issues, well I will be using my IR thermometer to measure output soon. Also the rear vent design, does not close worth a darn. As the SWB doesn't have a third row of seats, I doubt that this is there or even a concern. However the Titanium is LWB ONLY, which is one of the reasons I chose this model as two 7yo and a 5yo cannot fit well on the second row. I fashioned some streamers onto some card stock and took videos of the second row vent open and closed as well as the third row. This is simply a BAD design. Show me any OTHER vehicle with three rows of seating that cannot tun on the cabin lights, I think the transit connect is the first to carry this distinction. Not sure if the other versions have the folding mirrors, but I know it is part of the Titanium package. I have to isolate how to make it stay folded, but you can also fold them while driving, just let some liability lawyer get ahold of that one....

Sigh. So the dealership is saying everything is working as "designed"(cabin lighting, heater). The mirrors are not misbehaving at the moment. This is my shocked face... Now we dial up the pressure. If Ford is selling this as a passenger vehicle, it should have some basic capabilities and functions, heating and lighting are some of them.

As an it guy, I held off on Twitter until this year believe it or not. Apparently there are tools for companies to handle Twitter just as easily if not better than email. As you are limited to 140 characters, you gotta be brief and succinct . When they queried about my other issues, I found no good means to put them all in 140 characters so I linked to my post here.. I just set my alarm so I don't oversleep and miss my appointment in the morning.

Was yours low?

My dealer ate a lot on my tradein, especially due to the delays in the overall ordering process, so the price increase was not really noticed by me.

So during my ordering issues, I "tagged" ford and fordservice. Within the twitter system this is done by finding the handle/username for a particular entity and putting an @ sign in front of the name. In the full web browser version, it will autocomplete and find names of interest for you. In my case I Simply started typing @Ford and It give me a list of things to type. Also you can use what they call hashtags, which is a fancy way of saying a keyword, and in this case maybe use "#FordTransitConnect" . People in Twitter can search for posts to the wall of individuals, like ford and fordservice, as well as the hashtags. If enough instances of a hash tag occur, it is marked as significant and is listed as trending. As you can imagine, no one wants bad press. I already have a case number assigned and my customer service rep has already called me. She cannot do much until the dealership takes a look at it tomorrow. BTW, this is the came regional manager that I interacted with for the ordering issues.

MrGone, I am with you on this. My comment was in response to the post suggesting a product from HarborFreight, saying that if that is needed, FORD should be picking up the tab. As to the response on Twitter versus reading this forum, Twitter is accessible and searchable by the world, but this forum is less known and accessible. Twitter they cannot easily sanitize like their Facebook page that will drop unfavorable posts like what we might ask, so it is a decent way to elevate our needs above what a local dealership will likely want to squash. If resolutions are not found quickly, then we should bring this to the public and the Government in all forms that we have at our disposal. Barking at one or more local dealers is one thing, but we can via the internet make more noise than ever before.

Eazy, I have a case now as well, after my unanswered cabin light question on Twitter. More so because I had already scheduled an appointment at the dealerfor that and other issues, and the twitter person queried about what the other issues were, so I pointed them to my post here comparing to my Flex. I think my mirror issue is certainly worthy of a NHTSA complaint as it is a direct safety issue. Not sure if any of the others would warrant listing there, but who knows.