We've been Ford loyals from day one and have purchased many Econolines. With the rising fuel costs the Sprinters were starting to look less ugly, I always wanted a Ford Transit but that's available everywhere else but in America. And then this (http://consumerguideauto.howstuffwor...it-connect.htm) caught my attention. Will this overbuilt Ford Focus be able to hack it in real world abuse? I'm starting to think about this at lease once a day now.

 

Looks like it has been working out OK in Europe since 2002, although their conditions are a bit different from ours (and they pay $5-6 per gallon of gas). I'm watching the news as well, thinking that I'll eventually need to downsize our family van. I've had full-size vans for 22 years running now, and use them for bicycling, camping, and general family stuff.

I noted that the new E150 is now really an E250, 8 lug wheels etc, and don't think that's the direction I would want to go, although my '02 E150 will likely go another 5-10 years if I want it to. Hell, I was wondering about selling my van and moving to a minivan, although Ford has abandoned that niche, and I don't think the Flex will be quite what I'm after--I don't want a $25-30k fancy car, and would actually prefer a tough little truck type thing.

The only problem with Ford and imports is that they sell enough to make it worthwhile for service and support. They did OK with the old Euro Fiesta (80's?)--that was a cool little car, but the Merkurs did much less well.

The Connect won't work for heavy stuff, but for light delivery, and for my use, would probably be fine.