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About the engines in the Transit vans -- are they dependable?
Mine has been. The Ecoboost 3.5 has been around for 12 years now and it still Ford's most popular truck engine. When taken care of properly, it lasts forever. No, you're not going to get away with changing oil every 15K miles with SuperTech. Turbos are hard on oil, and engines with variable valve timing are extremely sensitive to clean oil. The cam phasers in the old-school 5.4 taught many Ford truck owners this lesson. GM's equivalent is their AFM/DFM. It, too, uses very tiny orifices in the valve lifters and the oil must be clean and of the correct weight, or failure is imminent. My Transit has actually been more reliable than the last new van I bought, a 5.4 E250, which died on the side of the with less than 2K miles on it.
Interesting. I've owned a variety of full-sized domestic vans starting with a '71 Dodge. I've owned at least one from each of the big 3 and sold my last one a few years ago, replacing it with a new 2019 Ford Transit 350, LWB, Medium Roof, 3.5 Ecoboost. It is so vastly superior to any of the old-school vans I've owned (even newer ones) that it's almost unbelievable. Chassis dynamics, handling, braking, acceleration, ride comfort, access, NVH, fuel economy, etc. etc, are worlds better than the old school vans. I'm curious - what is it you disliked so much? The new ones are empirically better in every way except max towing capacity. One could argue that the newer ones are a bit goofy looking, but hey, it's a van, they're all goofy. There is no way I could go back to an old-style van after owning my Transit.
Uncomfortable by comparison, at least when filled with people (6 or 7), more uncomfortable when you add some giant dogs. Poor use of interior space, not as practical for a load of people and stuff. Not as versatile. Under-powered (it is torque and weight that matters, not HP, you are not going to drive a full sized van at 120 MPH - keeping in mind that we only use the Chevy 6.6 or 5.7 never the 4.3). The Transit is doggy, especially when loaded. Interior everything is cheaper on Transit, less durable, smaller handles and knobs, insufficient vents, eyc. Handling is not as good. Ride is rougher. Transit is noisy inside. Poor durability, especially with regular use on rough roads. Express is body on frame, not uni-body. transit was comparably terrible in snow, but then they had standard MFG crappy tires and we use really good tires on our vans. My wife is the primary van driver. She did nto like driving the Transit. She said they were "wobbly" I am not sure what that means.
We only rented a few transits for medium distance use (500 ish mile family trips). We hated them. My son who is a crew (rowing) competitor and coach had some Transit Vans for team transport for a time and also hated them. They were a nightmare for lack of durability. They are almost useless for towing. He also said it was the most miserable road trip vehicle he had used. I would not go that far, but they are absolutely not superior. I will say we liked the Sprinter about the same as the Transit and the RAM equivalent even less.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Ah, the memories. I helped a friend customize his brand new orange 1975 Dodge Tradesman van with shag carpet, wood paneling, and porthole windows. We downed a lot of beer during that process, in fact it's surprising that it came out so well.
His had the 360 V8, and it did drink a lot of gas. The new crop of vans by Ford, Ram and Nissan are just ugly! Sprinters are OK, and I like the retro look of the Chevy. Too bad it's going away, the proposed new 2024 looks just as bad as the others.
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