Ford Transit Connect

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What is it?
Ford Transit Connect

What's special about it?
All right, all right, the Transit Connect commercial van isn't exactly the Euro-market Focus or Mondeo, but it's a start.

It's an open secret that Ford intends to reconcile its European and American passenger car lineups — eventually. And while it's going to be a commercial vehicle available in small volumes in select urban areas beginning in mid-2009, the Transit Connect is the first Euro Ford to slot into the American-market lineup.

If you think of the Transit Connect as a half-pint (or half-liter) version of the Dodge Sprinter, you're on the right track. Based loosely on the platform that underpins the European Focus and Mazda 3, the Transit Connect has distinctly Euro-style proportions — which is to say tall and narrow. But there is no shape more efficient for carrying loads than a box, so the relatively small Transit Connect has a total cargo capacity of 143 cubic feet. That's about 5 more cubic feet of space than a Chevrolet Suburban. The ubiquitous 4-by-8-foot sheet of building material will not fit inside. Ford says the gasoline-fueled 2.0-liter inline-4 that powers the Transit Connect's front wheels allows it to return 19 mpg in the city and 24 mpg on the highway. Just don't expect to complete those miles too quickly.

Ford went and got cute for the vehicle's introduction and has outfitted four Transit Connects for an audio/video contractor, a blues band, a caterer and a wine shop. We think Ford has missed the greatest opportunity by not bolting some sweet Cragars to one of them and doing a nice airbrushed mural on the side. But maybe that's just us.

The Transit has been on sale in Europe since late 2002. It's built in Turkey, and will go on sale in the U.S. looking very much like the vehicle seen here.

In related news, Ford has announced a suite of productivity and convenience items available for the commercial light-truck market to be marketed under the catch-all name, Ford Work Solutions. The following four items are included:

• An in-dash computer developed by Magneti Marelli that uses a Microsoft operating system allows owners to surf the Web via a Sprint broadband connection. The touchscreen computer also incorporates a Garmin navigation system. It comes with a wireless keyboard for those all-important Ctrl-Alt-Delete moments and can be had with an optional Bluetooth printer. The idea is that a businessperson can access his home or office computer to make updates and print invoices on the run as well as provide himself with entertainment.



• Ford has also partnered with DeWalt and ThingMagic to develop Tool Link. The system consists of two bed-mounted antennae that can be prompted by the in-dash computer to scan the contents of the truck bed for radio-frequency identification tags. The system comes with 50 tags that users are to stick to commonly used tools. The owner can then make lists of tools that he uses for particular jobs. Choose a particular tool set and the system will scan the bed and tell the user which tools are present and which are missing. The killer app for such a system would be the ability to detect when a tool is stolen from the vehicle and set off an alarm. That is not yet available yet, though, so Ford offers…



• …the Cable Lock, which is, well, a cable lock mounted in the cargo area. The plastic-sheathed 8-foot cable can be woven through the handles of valuables or latched directly to the handcuff-style claw at the end of the cable.



• Finally, for those suspicious company owners, Ford offers Crew Chief. This telematics and diagnostic system allows a business owner to track the location of his vehicles from any location with Internet access, including the in-dash computer. Because Crew Chief is integrated with the vehicle's electrical system, it can also monitor several diagnostic functions such as tire pressure and "check engine" light codes. A business owner can also monitor fuel-wasting excessive idling on the part of the rotten, wasteful slackers he's forced to employ.

All four systems are offered à la carte and will be available in the 2009 F-150, F-Series Super Duty trucks and E-Series van, as well as the Transit Connect. The computer can also be retrofitted to 1997-and-newer F-150s.

What's Edmunds' take?
Our plans for a '70s pimp-van project vehicle are coming together quite nicely. — Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit