my beast lol

heres what mine looks like

Mine is the 02 reg one







this is my onwn personal van and has far too much spent on it

how do you like the ford?
hahahaha at the side pipes....havent seen those on a van in the usa since the 70's

um, judging by the license plates, he is not in the us.

bb

BBlessing said:

um, judging by the license plates, he is not in the us.

bb

Click to expand...

lol, i know thats my point....i thought the side pipes died out in all countries in the 70s

How do the vans compare; driving, fit/finish, etc.? Obviously you're Ford biased, but I won't hold that against you.

I love the ford to bits,

TBH generally its a LOT nicer than the sprinter,

to compare the 2 the only thing the sprinter has over it is a better heater

some of the options on the transit are

2.4 RWD 90hp remapped to aprox 120hp
Tailgate
Auxilary heating
Engine pre heater
remote central locking as std
alloys

if im allowed links to a non merc site the rest of the progress is here
http://www.fordtransit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=28056&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Its also going to be recieving air con when i get the time


Driving the transit its like a car, the merc is far less refined, driving position is far better on the transit and the seat has some padding, nothing falls off the transit, everything has a place and looks like it should be there, what were mercs thinking moving the radio back to the middle of the dash


and mine is on stupidly small tyres


only thing i can fault the transits on is rust, but then some mercs are as bad

now for a small challenge, how many miles do you think are on each van

tell us, how many miles?

guy88 said:

now for a small challenge, how many miles do you think are on each van

Click to expand...

OK...Lets see...I guess On the Ford 2,745,698.5 miles and on the Sprinter... 16.4 miles...Am I close???

gary

Thanks for the report.

It's a toss up for me regarding the rear doors. I think with a lift gate you can get rid of the center section for better rear visability and it provides coverage from rain, however, that rear door is huge!

Merc: 125,000miles
Transit: 175,000miles

guy88 said:

I love the ford to bits,

TBH generally its a LOT nicer than the sprinter,

to compare the 2 the only thing the sprinter has over it is a better heater

some of the options on the transit are

2.4 RWD 90hp remapped to aprox 120hp
Tailgate
Auxilary heating
Engine pre heater
remote central locking as std
alloys

if im allowed links to a non merc site the rest of the progress is here
http://www.fordtransit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=28056&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Its also going to be recieving air con when i get the time


Driving the transit its like a car, the merc is far less refined, driving position is far better on the transit and the seat has some padding, nothing falls off the transit, everything has a place and looks like it should be there, what were mercs thinking moving the radio back to the middle of the dash


and mine is on stupidly small tyres


only thing i can fault the transits on is rust, but then some mercs are as bad

now for a small challenge, how many miles do you think are on each van

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear your are loosing things of your Sprinter. You are the first to state this. Sure you did not get the Oval confused with the Star ? As far as I can tell from the pictures the Ford has the radio in the center also and the material and finish is not better then the Sprinter. The heating/venting controls seem awfully low in the Ford compared to the well placed and visible instruments in the Sprinter. The tires got changed to 16" in later years.
I know of another guy that used to drive Sprinters ( does bus tours, lots of long distance driving). He decided that they were to much trouble and bought several Transits about a year ago because it was so much less expensive. Even though he will not say so but he deeply regrets his choice but will make no comments as to the Transit . For personal use it might be okay, for the commercial applications it seems to lack durability amongst other things.
Safety??????? http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=C3kN6WF5vAA. Any review of the Transit I have read said basically that Ford has finally managed to enhance the looks of the aged Transit, I agree with that. And it has finally managed to equip the Transit with a powerful yet rough sounding engine. It still has lots of room for improvement on everything past the a pillar, the dash is functional but not user friendly, it seems carelessly assembled, the wheel wells protrude too far into the the cabin front and back. The pedals are to steep and require to literally lift your leg of the floor to use them. It still does not come with a tilting or telescoping steering wheel, seats are too cushy and offer little support................One on one encounters with Transit have proven these statements.
I guess I am just far beyond Sprinter biased. Glad you like you Transit anyway. Different people, different priorities.


SprinterUSA1
The stripes do not turn it into a Dodge Viper either.

Hey Guy,
That's a very nice looking Ford. Can you give us a photo from the back of the van? My guess is 45K mi on the Ford & 225K mi on the Sprinter.
Steve

thats a great looking van! have you seen this video? my guess on mileage would be that they are about the same whatever it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3kN6WF5vAA

bb

right, as requested some more pics of the ford







not got any cab pics but the radio and heater controls are far better, positioned more toward the driver like the pre CDi sprinter

as for the milage the sprinter has 74000 on it the ford is at 139000 mainly towing as it was a frontline RAC vehicle

You may notice the high floor in the top pic, this is because its RWD, the FWD transit the floor is 4" lower

nice ford transit you got there mate.

gurj51ngh said:

nice ford transit you got there mate.

Click to expand...

have you turned to the dark side too now then

Good looking van!!!

gary

some pics of the inside set up





and the transit cab



and what it looks like now from the front

Stripes don't make the Transit a Viper? Blue oval has used the stripes as far back as the lotus production run 1950's
Ford Cobra
64 1/2 D code Mustang.

The orange Transit looks nice. I'm not sure whether or not I like the rear hatch though.

This is a picture that I snapped in Mexico back in may of 2008





I understand that everyone will have different opinions of every van or car ever made but I just want to have choices in the U.S. when shopping for a high roof van.

And how can you be voted the International Van of the Year and not be sold in the U.S.?

It's really too bad.

Fords Transits are truly international sold world wide the states is isolated from the selection criteria of International,Thank you NAFTA. Funny thing the Sprinter got the same deal as best tradesman's van of the year. ford has barn doors and lift up hatch single door. but on flat roof jobs only with the latter.
They would sell. But let The Bent Benz and the crafty Crafter along with The Fiat Iveco Toyota,and the Renault Master,and say good bye to the local race, introduce the 4x4 and all-wheel drive variants, say good by to the local mini vans with the Transit concept version/Opel/Citroen/Skoda and all the other foreign makes and you'll have a union war on your hands. Your choice of wanting the option to select will come but at a cost. caught between two International worlds on this one.
Richard