Last week we went on a trip to Florida. My 5-year-old daughter is in a wheelchair, and Make-A-Wish granted her wish to go to Disney world. Was an absolutely amazing trip in every way, and while we were down there they rented us a wheelchair van.



It was a '13 E250 with 46,000 miles on it. This is the first time I've spent much time behind an E-series van in years, and I was absolutely blown away with how differently it drove from the Transit. Some quick door sticker math showed the curb weight was similar to our Transit-350, but the 4.6L/4R75E felt like an absolute dog compared to the 3.7L we have in the Transit. The transmission felt slushy, like the torque converter was unlocked much more often than we see in the Transit. I attributed this to the lack of available ratios compared to the 6R.

The steering took much more effort, and was much less precise than the Transit, but the suspension seemed to do a bit better job soaking up bumps. Couldn't give you a good fuel economy comparison because driving conditions were so much different in the Orlando area, and we only went through one tank of gas.

Getting back into the Transit on Tuesday made me feel like Marty McFly in Back to the Future. The tight handling, responsive power, and quiet ride really made me feel like we picked the right van.

 

Glad you guys are still enjoying the Transit! I know I love the look of the old American brick vans, but yep, once you drive the Transit you know exactly why Ford made the switch in our market. I guess even Europeans get things right once in a while. More importantly, I hope she had an amazing time at Disney World!

 

Thanks, Doug. She had an absolute blast. They gave us a pass to get in the front of every line, and she met just about every Disney character in the place.