Beta Don

I agree - Things vary tremendously from dealer to dealer, state to state. Some sell only a few cars at a high mark-up and others sell dozens every week for only a few hundred over cost. I've seldom ran cross my 'best deals' really close to home, but driving a few hundred miles to save thousands has always been an enjoyable trip I actually hate to buy new and have only done so twice. Once was when we were stationed overseas and we bought a car through AAFES (Army & Air Force Exchange Service). We got a super deal ordering a brand new car about 6 months before we rotated back home and had it waiting at the dealers the day we got off the plane. The other time was when we bought a brand new EV which had only been on the market for a couple months. Other than those times, we always buy used, and usually with really low miles and lots of warranty left. If you search long enough, you can usually find your color and most of the options you want. I just love scrounging the Internet for super deals! Our TC was like that. Searched on-line for 3 or 4 months until we found exactly what we wanted from a dealer who was motivated to sell at our price - He came down more than 20% to get it moved off the lot and we bought it with only 12,000 miles on it for a little more than $12K off the sticker price. Had never been owned by anyone other than the dealer, who titled it when it was about 18 months old to use as a service loaner vehicle. We were specifically looking for a SWB with the removable rear seats and he had been trying to sell the one he had for more than 2 years - "Seems nobody wants short wheelbase vans" the sales guy said We had to drive 300 miles to go pick it up, but the $12K and change we saved by buying barely used sure made it worth the trip. It's a 2014, but we still have another 6 or 7 months of the basic warranty left I do admire the 'cost no object' order exactly what you want and wait for it people, but I've never been tempted enough to join their club. We just bought a 'new' French door stainless fridge from Lowes a couple months ago - 5 months old (they have a manufactured on date stamped on them) and we paid exactly half price. It's a hard habit to break! Don

Yes, it's double sided tape. The grille kit came with tape and a 'cleaning agent' which makes it stick to the plastic much better so I used some of that to clean the bumper and I had some 3M double sided tape I bought for a project on my boat and I used two full length strips of that on the license plate. I'll probably never be able to get it off without destroying it, but I really didn't want to drill any holes Don

Advance Auto Parts has the Castrol Transmax Full Synthetic ATF on sale again for $4.99 per quart, with free shipping on orders of $25 or more. That's cheaper than the conventional Mercon LV! I just ordered me 8 extra quarts and am going to drain and add 4 new at each 10,000 mile oil change Do a Google Search for Castrol Transmax 06519 and you should find the link to the sale Don

To a great degree, how much your brakes heat up your wheels and wheel bearings has a lot to do with the driver Many who never learned to drive standard transmission cars have developed a terrible habit in how they drive their automatics . . . . namely with one foot on the gas and the other foot resting lightly on the brake pedal almost all the time. They would all SWEAR that they're not actually pressing on the pedal, but no doubt like me, you routinely follow several cars nearly every day where the brake lights are constantly flashing on and off. If you don't keep your left foot on the floor, you can burn up all sorts of things, not to mention getting terrible gas mileage The TC is my very first automatic, purchased about 50 years after I learned to drive. I transferred a Toyota Supra to my son some years back with 160,000 miles on it and he sold it a couple years later when it had about 190,000 miles on it - It still had the factory disc brake pads when he sold it that Toyota put on it at the factory . . . . and all 4 wheel bearings were original too. It was on it's third exhaust system though I routinely get more than 100K from the factory brakes on most vehicles I own - Anticipating the need to slow before you have to slam on the brakes to do it makes all sorts of parts last longer. Now, if I should report a failed wheel bearing on my TC in the near future, we'll all have a good laugh . . . . and you can throw me off my soapbox ;-) Don

I'm using Castrol Edge Extended Performance - "Protection for up to 15,000 miles". I'm changing it every year or 10,000 miles, whichever comes first I used to be a believer in Mobil products, but after Exxon bought them out, I haven't used anything they make. After half a dozen trips to Alaska, the way Exxon went about dealing with their ecological disaster up there still burns me up - Namely, they paid millions to huge teams of lawyers to get out of cleaning up the mess they made and making a fair settlement with the thousands of Alaskans for the damages the spill caused to their lives and careers. BP on the other hand did the opposite. Thousands of miles of shoreline were cleaned foot by foot and fishermen and others who were negatively impacted were made whole I vote with my pocketbook and have no use for Exxon or Mobil - There are many more reputable companies competing for my dollar Don

Looks like they're actually cheaper to order from your local Ford dealer. The price is $51.15 per side. Part numbers are BK2Z-13A565A and BK2Z-13A565B Don

Actually, the TC's electrical system isn't compatible with ANY trailer lights and the same is true of most newer vehicles. The solution is to install the trailer light module on your TC and then you can use any lights you like on the trailer. The module uses a separate 12 volt source to power the trailer lights and a circuit board in the module uses the van's turn signal voltage to switch the 12 volts on and off to power the trailer lights. I use LED's on my trailers with the module and they work fine Several threads here about those who have installed the trailer towing package with the module - If your Titanium came with the factory trailer hitch, the module for the trailer lights should also be there from the factory Don

Which vehicle? Do you have a Gen 1 or the later model? What year? If it's in proper tune, super unleaded (let alone with an octane booster) should not make much of a difference in performance Don

Man, I really feel your pain! I would really hate to live where I had to park out on the street There's nothing I hate to see more than nice vehicles parked out in the weather 24/7. I've been very lucky over the past 50 years or so to have always had garage space for at least 2 or my cars so they are only out in the elements when they are parked away from home. Our current garage holds 4 cars and I have a covered shed where I can park another 2 or 3. Even my trailers are parked out of the weather Granted, most EV's can't do much of what you've listed, but I'm betting most of that are things you do only seldom, right? You carry around 7 people much of the time? Well, you have a van for that. I'm sure there is a significant percentage of your transportation needs where you only need room for 2 or 3 (many times, just 1) and that's where an EV could really save you money. You're lucky in that California has the most extensive recharging network of any place in the USA - Here where I live, we have next to nothing. In 6 years, we've only recharged away from the garage one time. In California cities, you can recharge in nearly every other block If I was looking at a new EV today, I would give the Chevy Bolt a close look. Price is about the same as we paid 6 years ago, but the Bolt has about 225 miles of range, where we only have about 75 Don

Based on what you show, you really need add an electric vehicle to your stable!! EV's get better around town mileage than freeway mileage and that includes running the A/C We have a pair of Mitsubishi iMiEV's that the wife and I drive for about 90% of our transportation needs - Our TC sits in the garage most of the time with a battery tender on it so the battery stays up. Sometimes it gets started once a month or so, sometimes not for 6 weeks or so True, the EV's cannot haul everything you will need every day, but with the back seats folded flat it's like a mini station wagon and it will carry a lot - I remember hauling the 250 pound 54 inch mowing deck home from the Kubota dealer one time, and a list of everything the EV's have hauled would be a very long one. Some folks even have mounted trailer hitches to their EV's to handle even bigger items - When we need a trailer (which is pretty rare) we fire up the TC and use it . . . . . It needs a little exercise every so often anyway My motto has always been to drive whatever is best suited for the needs at hand, which means the smallest, most economical vehicle which can do the job. If you seriously look at all the pick-ups being driven, I would venture to guess than most of them are hauling/towing nothing and have only the driver aboard - What a waste! Our EV's have about a 75 mile range and 90% of the time, that's all we need. When they can't do the job, we use something bigger. I'm a part owner of an old Dodge diesel 3/4 ton truck which I probably use once or twice per year when I need to do something the TC can't handle. Between the TC, the old truck and the two EV's, we're pretty well covered for everything we need to do . . . . and as I mentioned a couple times, around 90% of the time it's the EV's that move us where we need to go . . . . and for about 1/4 what it costs us to drive the TC. In almost 6 years, the total maintenance on the first EV we bought has been two cabin air filters, one set of tires and a set of wiper blades - No oil changes, no transmission service, no engine maintenance at all, (plugs, filters, timing belts, etc) no tune ups . . . . . about as maintenance free as you can get Don

Do they actually light up . . . . or are they just reflectors? Don

I'm wondering how you KNOW it doesn't need cleaning?? If my mpg average was only 21.4, I would be changing SOMETHING and a 50K dirty air filter would be at the top of the list! Don

I did as well - Much, much brighter than the stock bulbs. Backing is no problem with those LED's in the back-up light housings Don

I would imagine much of the problem is that these are made in Spain, so factory delays are harder for the dealer to 'see' and then they have a long boat ride, probably a significant delay at US Customs (Ford and customs have been going round and round about TC's since the very first one was imported) Then you need a train ride and eventually your dealer will have to schedule you a slot for him to do the pre delivery and then the delivery - They cover the cars with self sticking plastic to keep the wheel dust from the railroad cars from getting stuck in the paint which will then make your car look like it's rusting. With all the above, it's got to be next to impossible for anyone to tell you when you will actually get your car. It's a much easier project when you order a car made in the USA Another large part of the problem though, is the misnomer called "Ford Customer Service". I have never owned any vehicle that the dealers know less about than Ford's Transit Connects and the really sad part is, nobody at any of the dealerships I've dealt with wants to be bothered to learn anything about them either Don

On my 2014, four exchanges took 16 3/4 quarts. I switched from the OEM Mercon LV to Castrol Transmax Full Synthetic Multi Vehicle which is Ford Approved for all Mercon LV applications I did it with the front wheels on ramps and the first dump was 4 1/4 quarts, so I filled with 4 quarts, ran it for 10 minutes shifting through the gears and dumped again . . . . and 3 more fills. After the 16th quart went in, I jacked up the back end so it was level with the front and it took another 3/4 ths of a quart before fluid began to trickle out the 'check hole'. New fluid goes in much faster if you remove the plug on top which acts as an air vent - Otherwise it takes 2 or 3 minutes for each quart to go in, with an occasional messy 'burp'. My funnel made a leak proof connection with the rubber vent fitting My old fluid didn't look all that great after only 25,000 miles - More brown than red. It didn't small that bad, but it wasn't nearly as pretty as the new stuff. I was a little surprised . . . . I thought with so few miles, the old stuff would still look pretty much new. I'll go 50K with the synthetic and change it again Don

Yes, it's German. I found a guy on eBay (from Poland I think) who will make you any plate you want from most any European country, so since I have a 2014 TC XLT, that's what I went with. Think it cost about $25 and he had it shipped here in ten days or so The SS grille kit was $50. Both are installed with double faced tape Don

I put the chrome (stainless actually) dress up kit on the grille too Don

I put a Euro plate on the front of mine too - Looks like it was designed for it, doesn't it? (It actually was) Don

There is a website where you put in your VIN and it tells you everything that came on the vehicle. I don't have a link to it, but when I checked out mine shortly after I bought it, I learned all sorts of things about the van that I didn't know Don

Same radio that came in my 2014 - It's the next to cheapest option of them all (the only thing cheaper doesn't have the CD) and no Sync for sure - If you did have Sync, there would be a badge bragging about it ;-) The phone button is working as designed - When your phone rings, press the button and the stereo goes silent I replaced mine with a Pioneer Nav unit and now I do have Bluetooth and all the bells and whistles Don

The fact that the sub amp works fine when you have the balance set all the way to the right or left, but not when you have it set balanced in the middle pretty much tells you all you need to know. Try running the sub off of the left or right channel ONLY and see what that gets you Don

I *think* I know what's happen here - I assume your sub is mono and not stereo? Wiring a mono sub to a stereo radio, you need to run the sub off either the right channel output or the left channel. When you wire it into one wire from each channel, all the sub will 'see' is the difference between the channels - If the two stereo channels are outputting the same basic signal, the sub doesn't get any input at all, as there's no difference between them. When you shift the stereo off balance, side to side, you're creating a difference between the left and the right and the mono sub sees that difference and amplifies it Hope this helps, Don

There are 'seat covers' and then there is seat reupholstery which is what I think he's talking about - He doesn't want to cover over what he has . . . . I think he wants to take off the OEM upholstery, install seat heaters and then install new leather upholstery I did this to my Miata many years ago - Quite a project! I bought a set of Katzkins for about $500 which fit the seats perfectly and it looked better than factory stock when I got them on, but it was quite a job. I think you get what you pay for when it comes to aftermarket leather upholstery and a set to do the front buckets in a TC might run you a good bit more than the $500 I paid 15 years ago IMO, swapping the OEM upholstery which attracts dog hair for leather which I doubt would look good for very long when the dogs claws scratched them up *might* be an expensive mistake, but to each his own. I've never had a dog in any of my vehicles, but if I owned one that I regularly took with me in the van I think I would be looking for something more practical than leather Don

This is pretty much the standard on most newer cars . You still have a key slot on the front door handles, but it's just an electric switch . . . . you still need the battery to lock and unlock anything. I believe it's also part of the anti-theft system too. If you don't have a key programmed to the car, the doors wouldn't unlock even with a key Don

Those look like the OEM 2014 - 2017 factory alloy wheels to me, 16 x 6.5 http://www.hubcaphaven.com/p/15596/aly3975-ford-transit-connect-wheel-silver-painted-dt1z1007c.html Don