Hey All,

I currently have an '85 E350 IDI van and have used that part of the forum to work on it frequently with a lot of success. I'm considering finally getting rid of that beast and getting something smaller and more efficient. I'm interested in the transit connects but the only thing in my price range seem to be high mileage or older. I'm hoping to get something with a few years left in it, and also learn to work on it a bit as some of the smaller issues arise. A few questions as I begin my search:

-Are there better/worse years I should be looking for?
-What are some of the mileage milestones I should expect in terms of larger maitenance issues (i.e. how many miles out of the tranny, etc)

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

What's your price range? If you can wait until late winter/early spring there is going to be a glut of brand new ones available dirt cheap. That's when the parts are scheduled to be in for the current door latch recall. I can't sell them until that time, so I am sitting on some '15 leftovers that will be two years old and brand new.
IMO the 14 and later ones are better with the 2.5 motor, though some folks like the better economy of the early 2.0 motors. If you're coming from a 30 year old full size, you won't care. Generally the wheel bearings seem to be the only item commonly replaced around 100k or so.

 

i'm on the real cheap end of the budget (couple thousand bucks). seems like i can find them for under $5k with 200k miles on them, but unclear how long these things go for? what dies after 200k miles (considering that seems to be the mileage when everyone gets rid of them).

also, good tip to know about the 2.0 v 2.5 engine. i'd actually be psyched to get something as efficient as possible...after years of running at 11mpg.

what price do you think the 15's will be going for once the door latch recall is done?

 

Hard to say. Most dealerships take money from advertising or something to move old units. The longer they are here the more we add to it. That way we can sell them for a losing amount and not lose money on paper. Once the hold got put on ours we stopped adding money to em, but I have one with almost $5k on to dump. Granted it started life as a $27k unit, but it'd be about $10k off. If you could find a more basic one it wouldn't be impossible to be well below $15k. With your money down you shouldn't have trouble financing that and it would be a far far better value. Honestly, even if you paid $20k for one, it would be a better value since you'll have 200k miles to get where you started with the used one. I would consider them a 200k unit, but that doesn't mean they can't keep going.