Fifty150

The Transit Connect is certainly not a "Shaggin' Wagon". Believe me. I've tried. Bead curtains. 3D posters. Lava lamp. 8 separate tracks of high fidelity sound.

That has changed in a few years. A lot more wagons on the road now. It used to be only commercial vans. What does a 2024 model year look like? Got any pics?

I am only guessing that you pushed the bikes in there by hand. No way you could have driven the bikes up that ramp with a little bit of clutch friction zone. I'm surprised also that you were able to strap the bikes down, and transport them without them tipping over. Kind of hard to tell in the photos where you anchored your ratchet straps. I guess I'm too old and used to doing things the old fashion way. I just don't think I can do that with my Harley. I am used to having a bigger ramp, and actually riding up into a pickup truck bed, where I already have a wheel chock mounted for the front wheel of the bike, and truck bed has anchor points for the tie downs. Now I want to go buy a little sport bike, just so that I can drive around with it in the back of my little van. Maybe one of those little Honda Grom bikes. Those look like a lot of fun.

My visors are fine.........just too darn big and block out half my field of vision.

At the local Acura dealership, they charge for that service. Yes! Honda owners will pay the dealership to "install" a little bottle of Techron.

Mine popped right out after removing the torx screws. It is kind of fitted with the lamp housing assembly. But should pull right out once you remove the screws. With the price of fuel being what it is, and me getting only 18 MPG with California fuel, I probably can't afford it.

Sometimes dealers will offer an inspection report. Other times, dealers will simply announce that they inspected the vehicle. Some guys insist that the seller allow you to have your own mechanic inspect it. If you are competent, you can lift the hood and kick the tires yourself. But with used cars, there is always the chance that an issue will arise that nobody saw during the inspection, or that an unscrupulous person is hiding. Then there are things that you just can't see. You'll never know the condition of the timing belt or chain. You can check the fluids, but you won't be able to see what the inside of the engine or transmission looks like. I know someone who ran into a fire hydrant. High pressure water sprayed up into the engine compartment for over an hour. The car was flooded. After draining and airing out all of the mechanical parts, then replacing a whole bunch of parts, a shop got it to start and run again. But it never ran the same again. Then there were "phantom" issues with the BCM, ECM, and TCM. When the car's computer gets wet, even if you replace a module, there is corrosion in the contacts. Climate control would switch between heat & AC, lights flickered, turn signals activated randomly, high beams sometimes worked, you get the picture. Engine would occasionally bog down, misfire, randomly idle higher, et cetera. The car became "haunted". All in all, it became a piece of garbage. It was less than a year old. $100 worth of detailing, and the car looked great. Traded it in. Dealership tech looked it over, and it looked good. Everything on it was clean. We saw it on the used side of the lot for about 6 weeks. Next thing you know, someone else bought it, and by now, they are probably wondering how a next to new used car can be such a piece of junk.

A guy I know said that when he got married, he felt like the luckiest guy on earth. When he got divorced, he got lucky twice.

I would like to see a photo of 2 bikes & gear in the back of a Transit Connect.

On the surface, it's a bolt on operation. Seems like you guys should be able to swap with hand tools.

$200? I don't see spending that much on a Harbor Freight set, just to get one piece. I hate buying open stock tools because I know it's cheaper to buy a set. But then again, I've bought a lot of open stock tools, because I didn't want to spend more on a set, when I only needed 1 piece.

Sorry you had to use that for dump runs. I know guys who have flatbed trucks just for dump runs.

I'm sorry.

That all depends on what you can live without. I have a button on my dash for heating up the mirror mounted on my door. It never gets that cold here, that I need it. I now other guys who bought cars with engine block heaters, and they never use them either. I am living without leather seats. I am living without the top of the line stereo. I am living without the tow package. I did not get the OEM bumper insert cornering fog lights. I am living without the glass roof.

If you think that a used car will satisfy you, try searching with CarMax. I think buying used cars online is challenging at best. But it is an option. Just to see what is available and where the pricing is.

You could buy a taller ladder. Now that you the rack for it, you can carry an 8' ladder. Or think about carrying one of those multi-position ladders.

This is not your dad's minivan. It is not a "Soccer Mom" van either. While I respect those who think that the Transit Connect looks good. A lot of people don't, and these vans are not sold by looks. Nobody that I know has said to me, "looks good". One of my buddies said, "looks like shit". I don't care. The vehicle does what i bought it for. For me, the need was to seat more than 2 people, better on gas, and easier to park than the pickup truck. I have a Honda, but nobody but an infant in a car seat can really sit in the back of that, since the front seats slide right into the back seats. My Harley has a solo saddle, and nobody rides on it but me. My Explorer's odometer quit working around 650,000 miles, I wasn't sure what the real mileage was, and the body was rusting out with rain leaking from the sunroof channels. I wanted to efficiently transport seniors and children. An SUV was out, because old people even had a hard time with climbing into my Explorer. So despite the lack of bells & whistles, and no luxury, the Transit Connect saved me about $10,000 in comparison to a Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna. And if any of my siblings or cousins don't like it, they can drive the grandparents and all of their kids, in whatever car that they pay for themselves. They all have nicer cars, because I'm cheap and they don't mind spending more money. Looks alone, the Transit Connect was unique when it came on the U.S.A. market. I immediately noticed all the work vans, and the technicians using them. For my own purposes, it was just too small to be a work vehicle. Not able to carry a lot of weight, not able to handle 8'X4' plywood, not able to carry 10' pipe, well, no way was I going to forklift load a transformer......you get the picture. But for some people, it was perfect for what they did, because full size 1/2 ton trucks and vans were too big. Right off the bat, I knew that it would be great for telecom techs, service plumbers who don't carry pipe, auto parts runners, and all sorts of other trades. A local police department bought them for the crime scene technicians. My city's Park Rangers got them (Park Rangers do not engage in high speed pursuits). Then with the new body style, my city acquired an entire fleet of LWB wagons for personnel deployment. If you need 100 street sweepers at a special event, you have them all report to the maintenance yard headquarters, transport them in Transit Connects, and then send trucks out with their gear. For certain agencies like Adult Protective Services, Child Protective Services, and Homeless Outreach Team, the LWB has worked out really well.

Some of those older motorcycles can be refurbished and kept running forever. Older Harleys have tons of parts available, a design which hasn't changed much in about 50 years, and are simple. That gravity fed carburetor into the V-Twin is very simple. And even the motors can be rebuilt or replaced easily. And these days, every part on a Harley, from controls, to handlebars, to seats, to fenders, is available in abundance. There are even guys who will order all of the parts, and build a bike, from the frame up. Only drawback is that you have custom built, dinosaur technology, which cost way too much. I always think that I could buy a new bike, which runs faster and better, for less than what I put into the Harley. If I buy a little Ninja, or CBR, I could get better mileage, ride faster, corner better, save money, and not have to wear leather pants. Sport bike guys don't look like The Village People.

Sorry for your loss.

Alas, even the Police Interceptor is a front wheel drive with unibody construction. some old timers still want to carry revolvers with 6" barrels.

My Explorer went through 3 multifunction swithches. Some of these parts are just poor quality. I think a bulk order of bad switches went into the Taurus, Tempo, Mustang, et cetera during the 90's. Then the dealership sells you a MotorCraft switch that also fails. i think Ford, GM, and Chrysler are all using poor quality parts. It saves money. They can replace it free under warranty. Then sell you more after the warranty expires.

You're in the desert. Go get a beer. Update is in November.