Fifty150

I haven't had a problem with mine.

That looks like the only way to get bigger wheels & tires.

Perfect if you can stop somewhere like a fuel station, pull out your depleted battery (core), and buy a full battery. But that's not possible yet. Always talk of solar panels on cars. Perhaps a hydrogen fuel cell, drawing from dihydro-minoxide. Plenty of sea water. Compressed methane harvested from cattle manure. Solar hovercraft in above ground tubes. Electro magnetic gyroscope unicycle, or solo wheel transport, which cannot tip over. Just 1 tire. Perhaps with tomorrow's technology......

I believe that our current generation of electric and hybrid is not the ultimate solution. It is merely a stepping stone to help wean off gasoline dependency, and onto the next step in technology yet to be developed. Surely, the future holds more. Something better will be discovered. This is just a small bump in the road. One day, the Prius will be an antiquated museum piece, celebrated as the first step along the way to something better. Sort of like looking back at the square wheel, and how that paved the way for the round wheel. And if child labor did not exist during the industrial revolution, we would not have robotic assembly lines.

If there were a profit in it, I would invest in charging stations with a solar panel, and credit card reader. Then I can charge money, for electric car owners to charge with free electricity which I get from the sun.

That is a custom built wheelchair transport minivan. Lift kit. Body kit. Wheel chair ramp. The guy who drives it is not offroading or entering car shows.

Tires are pro-rated. If they wear out after XXX miles, there is a certain percentage that they will apply towards the next set of tires. Pro-rated warranty is usually for battery and tire. They will usually not just give you a new battery or new tire for free. One exception, ever, that I could recall in my lifetime. Ex had a car which was only 4 years old. She drained the OEM battery, told the dealer she left the lights on overnight, and dealer refused warranty because battery failure was not a manufacturer's defect. Some guy her dad knew who owned a gas station installed an InterState Battery. Ex left lights on and completely drained her InterState Battery. She did not even have a receipt for the InterState Battery. Now, she's in the company of 5150. 5150 jumps the car with and drives it over to the InterState distributor. 5150 pulls the manager, tells him that battery is only XX months old as per markings on the top of the battery, battery will not take and hold a charge, and expects InterState to make it right for the little girl. A tech confirms with their fancy tester that voltage is low, not enough CCA to turn over engine (despite fact that vehicle was just driven into shop and turned off), alternator is putting out correct amperage. InterState Battery manager asked if lights were left on. 5150 replied, "of course not, stop trying to blame the customer for your defective product." Of course the battery looked new, looked clean, and looked great. Car was not old enough to have corroded wiring, ground points, or terminals. Store manager finally relented, after 35 minutes of him trying to find a reason to deny the warranty & me insisting that this was the 1% of their batteries which do fail. They finally accepted that they could not determine why the battery failed, or user error was involved, and installed a new battery. She got a brand new battery, with a dated installation receipt from an InterState Battery Distributor, and a full warranty which is supposed to be honored at every reseller. That car battery lasted longer than our relationship.

Note that once the 3rd row seats are in use, with passengers sitting in them and the headrest up, you won't see anything out the back. Look in the mirror, and all that you'll see are heads.

That little mirror is designed to work with the oversized visors, to work with the oversized windshield. Any larger mirror you install, will interfere with the visors.

Mount 2 seats in the 3rd row. Mount 2 seats on the driver side in the 2nd row. The passenger side seat in the 2nd row could still flip and allow access to 3rd row, plus accomodate a booster seat for a larger child. There you go. 5 kids in the van. 2nd row seat anchor slots.

Any tire designed for performance will be a step up from OEM Continental. Any tire designed for economy will be a step down. Cheaper tires will not handle as well. Continental tires are not top of the line, so any top of the line tire will be better. Makes sense to me.

Forward facing car seat on passenger side 2nd row. Rear facing car seat on driver side 3rd row.

Transit Connect is a van body built onto a car chassis. Good for more room than a small car. Good because it does drive and handle like a car. You will appreciate the turn radius and how well it parallel parks. I notice the power difference every day as I switch between my F-150 & Transit Connect. You just can't compare the 2 vehicles that way. The Inline 4 Cylinder engine is lackluster in comparison to a truck. Most private citizen owners are satisfied with the performance since they are not racing or trying to tow large boats or trailers. Transit Connect will be fine for light duty towing within specified limits. Do not compare towing 3,000 pounds (2 motorcycles on a trailer) to towing 10,000 pounds. When I load the family into the Transit Connect, with small children and seniors, I am not driving very fast, or craving for more power. I just need to get everyone from point A to point B. Commercial van versions without windows don't even have a mirror. You can clip on a convex mirror. That makes a huge difference. Try looking at BroadWay Mirrors. Quite popular with the little import car crowd. I used one in the F-150 & Transit Connect. If you drive over here to The Left Coast, I can sell you mine. Now I'm using the rearview mirror with a built in monitor for reverse cameras. I installed aftermarket backup cameras. Your new van will come with a backup camera installed. The middle row seats (all 3) have anchors for car seats. You can mount car seats in the rear also, if you know what you're doing. I've installed car seats in the 2nd & 3rd rows.

Check with companies who are in the business of building disabled transport vans. Ford Transit Connect Dealer | New and Used Wheelchair Vans | MobilityWorks Commercial

Okay guys. Here is a Toyota Sienna with a lift kit. Nothing is over the counter. Every part is custom fabricated. Gives Transit Connect owners an idea of what they could look forward to.

All manufacturers have to meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards set by the Federal Government. For some cars, this leaves a lot of performance on the table, as the car is tuned so that it could be sold with better mileage. The aftermarket steps up with tuners and performance parts for the end user. With Ford, it's usually Mustang & trucks which have the power potential. With as many years on the market, if there was a way to increase Transit Connect's power, there would be a package and it would be popular. Even a Honda could be increased with bolt on accessories and HonData.

Live in an apartment in The City. Parking is on the street. No way for me to reserve my own parking space with a charger. I take a long road trip, and stop every 90 minutes when the battery runs out of electricity. Then I have to find a charger in the middle of nowhere. And spend hours charging before I can drive another 90 minutes. Conservatively, at 65 MPH, driving 10 hours, I can cover 650 miles per day. How far can I get with an electric car?

The guy with the work van, loaded with tools and material, going up a hill, probably thinks that the Transit Connect doesn't have enough power.

It's very well possible that there just were not enough orders for the diesel, and they are holding off for a few months before they retool an assembly to build a car that not enough people are willing to buy.

With today's technology, almost every fantasy build is possible, with enough funding to make it happen. Transit Connect surely could benefit from a little more HP & Torque, knowing that commercial users are loading the van down with ladders, lumber, piper, wiring, and tools. Not to mention whatever they are delivering......it's not always cakes & flowers.

It would be against my better judgement. I would not want to be the guinea pig, or white lab rat. I already know that $100 would be wasted. That's a given. Transit Connect 2.5L inline 4 cylinder just doesn't have much there. No hope in changing the shift points for more aggressive shift pattern. Common sense would tell most of us, that real performance gains on any car, can't be purchased for as little as $100. My primary concern is that something like that would actually do damage to your car. How would you like to plug that in, and smell smoke? Or all the lights on your dash illuminate, and your car doesn't start?

They didn't quietly cancel cars. They made sure everyone knew. That's why the press was informed.

You started with a cargo van, and you're now adding passenger wagon parts. Makes me think that you would have been better off buy a passenger wagon, then stripping out what you don't want. I still want to 5 people riding to camp, then 5 people sleeping in the back. By the way, after you fold down the middle row seats, you are not going to have a flat level surface for sleeping. The passenger wagon 3rd row folds flat, then supports a flip out "board" which gives you a flat surface.

You may want to think about insulation. Whatever you install, you need to insulate so that energy isn't wasted. I want to see how 5 of you are all going to sleep in the back.

Compared to other minivans, Transit Connect comes in last and I get that. If you could choose, Honda & Toyota are the best choices. Compared to other City Van commercial vehicles, Transit Connect is way better than the options from Chevy, Dodge, & Nissan. Transit Connect has a market segment. Commercial mostly. Guys like me who would never dream of a $40K Honda hauling debris to the dump. Guys like me who only want to spend $20K, and keep the balance in my pocket.