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EuroFord finally makes its way to the States via TurkeyFord Transit Connect Gives Room To American Legs
Filed under: Concept Cars, Ford , Minivans/Vans, Minivan/Van
For years, many car enthusiasts have championed this or that European Ford model as being a perfect fit for North American tastes. “Why doesn’t Ford just bring that car over? It’d sell like hotcakes,” they’d say. Possible barriers to that idea, like the cost of meeting North American safety regulations in a car not originally designed to comply with them, and the lopsided dollar/euro exchange rate, seem to fall on enthusiasts’ deaf ears.
“But that Mondeo in the new Bond film is gorgeous! Why can’t we have a car like that?” Indeed, the 2007 Mondeo is turning heads. But the last time the Mondeo hit North American shores, in the guise of the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique, didn’t exactly set the world on fire with high sales. Although praised for their handling and performance, many potential buyers took one look at the back seat area, with its less-than-ample legroom, and walked across the street to the Toyota or Honda dealership. North Americans have to have their rear-seat legroom, it turns out; this is not a primary concern to Europeans, it would seem. Part of the pitfalls of translating a vehicle from one continent to the other appears to be cultural: this is why Ford, GM, and even Honda and Toyota produce different models for Europe than they do for North America, or even for Japan and Asia. Well, Ford Motor Co. has decided to listen to the pleas from the import-it-from-Europe crowd in 2008, but it won’t be bringing over the Mondeo, or the small S-Max crossover wagon, or the B-sized Ford Ka (which makes for a delightful pun in the mouth of a British-accented speaker). No, this time the vehicle is the Ford Transit Connect, a smaller-sized version of the near-iconic Ford Transit panel van that’s been sold in Europe for years. The Transit Connect is a tall, somewhat narrow van (think a Dodge Sprinter that’s gone on a diet), which is available in passenger and single-seat panel-van versions. There’s no word yet on which version will hit U.S. and Canadian shores, nor do we know which engines and transmissions will be offered. Since Ford can’t start U.S. production of this vehicle until 2009, the first Transit Connects to make it here will be built in a Ford plant in Kocaeli, Turkey. (It’s the first time a Turkish-built vehicle has made it to these shores.) The Transit Connect’s panel van might be just the thing for small businesses like florists or pool cleaners, to haul things around. And families might appreciate the versatility of the passenger version as well—this sort of vehicle is well-known abroad, as similar models such as the Citroën Berlingo and the Fiat Doblo sell well in Europe. So the Transit Connect has the potential to make a big splash in the North American marketplace when it débuts next year.
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