Ford brought out its quirky-cool Transit Connect small commercial van in a couple of fanciful configurations here in Chicago, but by all accounts the wildest option presented was the manual gear lever.
Ford proved why the Transit has fared so well overseas to the Chicago crowd, presenting its van as a mobile base for catering operations (to the glee of the hungry crowd), as well as the tour vehicle for some kind of jazz fusion band. The Transit does seem to be almost infinitely malleable, and should prove to be a worthy, if slightly smaller, competitor for Dodge’s Sprinter van.
Ford is planning to bring the Transit Connect across the Atlantic late in 2009 as a 2010 model, but it seems the company plans to leave the manual versions of the car in Europe. Despite the fact that every Transit shown in Chicago featured a stick-shift, a source close to Ford confirmed that the “standard” autobox will also be the only transmission option. Sad news for a light commercial vehicle that would seem to be a perfect match for a standard cog-swapper.
I think the biggest problem in this country for offering a small commercial vehicle with a manual transmission is that most of the people who would be driving these vehicles don’t know how to use a stick shift. For the vehicle owner, clutch replacement can be a major headache if the drivers spend too much time slipping the clutch trying to get moving.
I would go to my nearest Ford dealer today and plunk down a deposit for one of these if I had any confidence that I could get one with a diesel and a manual transmission.
At least the Sprinter has a diesel option.
I wonder if the Ford marketing folks making these decisions understand that manuals get slightly better mileage and that efficiency standards are being tightened in this country. Promoting manuals is one way of getting there. Manuals are cheaper to manufacture, which can help to offset the cost of selling a low volume configuration such as a manual version. The already sell them in Europe, so what is the problem with bringing a few over here?
I’ll cut them slack on the diesel decision, but only because our emissions standards are higher for diesels than in Europe.
The problem is if you’re buying this for fleets, which I expect most are, then you’ve got to teach employees how to drive a stick. And most Americans have no idea how to drive a stick- so then you’re limiting your employee pool/spending more money on training. It would probably cost more to the company to do all that then to just get a fleet of automatics.
While a stick would be really cool it just doesn’t make economic sense at this time.
Ford should bring over the manuals and their diesels and for people who want a gas power version, make the new 2.5 liter 4 banger an option over the 2 liter
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