Vehicles still rust? Havent seen rust on a vehicle in 20 years. Then again, im no where near the coast lol.

If i cant stand up in the back of a work vehicle, I wont have it. Period. Granted, I dont have parking garage jobs.

Ive been happy with my Promaster. Ergonomics suck but zero issues to date. Mileage is 14-19.

Trick out any vehicle with Sortimo and you wont hate it.

Use a paint stirring stick with a rag to clean the areas where you can't reach. If it's still too far to reach, use a yard stick.

RC member Phil had a Sprinter and the back doors basically rotted off of it. The sides didn't fare too much better- had holes and rust all over. My 2005 Astro came from Phoenix and has 220K on it- I only had to do regular maintenance on it until a few weeks ago, when the flex plate puked and stranded me. That's the only major expense for that one since I bought it in 2011, so I really can't complain except for the fact that changing the spark plugs & wires was a royal PITA.

Every sprinter i ever saw in Chicago was a giant rust bucket.

Mine has a couple of blisters, slightly rusty rims and a bit of surface rust on the paint around the wheel wells that comes off with a rag- I'm impressed by the paint and rust resistance of the Astro and I do the maintenance, so I see the underside which also has an amazingly low amount of rust.

I have a 2010 GMC Savana with 327k miles. The issue for me is I need an AWD vehicle, I live in northern New England and snow and mud are a major issue. The only reason I have kept this so long is that no one has made a cargo van with AWD for a few years unless you went with Mercedes or had it as an aftermarket project. The van has held up well, it did need a new transmission around 200k, but it has started to rust the last two years.

I have a Ford Transit on order, with AWD, and I am looking forward to getting a new van, finally.

I'd love to have a Nissan NV2500 instead of the Chevy Express I have now. The Chevy is a pain in the @ss to work on since half the engine is inside the cabin.

The Nissan has a truck like engine bay.

Still loving the value of the Chevrolet Express/GMC Savana. 03 and up are the face lifted models with newer engines, 08 and up have the updated interior. Skip the V6 if you can. Have logged hundreds of thousands of miles in these units and can’t complain much. Not uncommon to see them over 400k.

Worked for a shop for a while that had the 3.5L Ecoboost full size Transit. I enjoyed driving it as well and wouldn’t hesitate to buy one if I needed to.

I have 4 full size ford transits and 3 chevy expresses. Love the Fords, we have two with after market quigley 4x4 kits and one 2020 with AWD that we purchased a little over a month ago. If you like your 2015-2019 transit you will love the 2020, the added technology and 10 speed transmission are awesome. The ride and mileage are better with many other improvements. If you are looking for AWD it gets around great. If its in the budget go for the ecoboost!

I too like the Transit van. The only thing I would have changed is having the rear view camera (think it was an option). Recently was late for an appointment and kissed a phone pole with my back bumper which was in the middle of a parking lot and totally invisible to my side view mirrors.

Ford was a solid choice but now with the updates and revised interiors for 2020 I think they are the way to go. Overall it think it’s the best choice. Ford has a very solid offering. New interior is great. Very nice improvements for 2020.

I agree that transit connect is a joke for someone doing legit installs. The thing is tiny. Much beyond a salesperson or someone running you out a little bit of gear forget about it. A medium or high roof long wheelbase (and evening extended body long wheelbase) versions are the way to go. Not being able to stand up in the things is out of the question for techs. That shits brutal on you. Gotta high good roof height. The sprinter or the Promaster are the only other options imho. I don’t even consider the Nissan.

Its how you organize it dude.....I had a 14 transit connect, stupidly got rid of it for a full size transit w/powerstroke because I was hauling a bunch of 42u racks that year. Was forced to get rid of it due to township ordinances, drove an F150 for two years while I dealt with the township. Now Im back in a 2019 transit connect. I haven't had a chance to build my shelving in it yet but will very soon.

With the proper design and bulk head you can fit more then you need. The problem is now people are wanting an 85" TV, but even at that the regular roof transits will be really tight. I have a thread on here floating around with my 2014 transit connect design. I learned from that design process and what im doing in this van will be much better.

The Mercedes Metris is actually a perfect size for our industry, but the problem is, its a Mercedes, it gets assembled, torn down in 12 pieces and rebuilt stateside to avoid the Chicken Tax. I think their new Sprinter/Metris factory opened up and the 2020 model year is entirely built in the US.

IF only Ford would bring over the Transit Custom :(

We have a ‘16 transit 250 that has been fantastic, only issue was traction in inclement weather. Just added a ‘19 transit 250 and it includes a limited slip rear along with better SYNC functions.

Ya know the limited slip thing is interesting. I was building a 2020 and was going to add a limited slip. Then I started reading into it and articles and posts on the web were saying limited slip is worse for conditions like snow, mud, etc. Which made zero sense to me as I thought these were the situations it would help in.

So i sat there like well wtf maybe I should just go with a regular diff and skip the limited slip.

Do you have any solid real world feedback in inclement weather if that limited slip is truly better or worse?

If I had a whole fleet sure I could see the use in a transit connect. But if you only have one sole van, a transit connect is not going to cut it imho. If you are working in and out of a van all day long doing installs no questions asked I need a large van and one installers can stand up in. I need work space, I need room for racks, for several TVs, boxes of cable, tons of storage and drawers mounted on the walls. Absolutely nothing lower then a medium height roof. Every time I see another installer making a tech work out of some van you cant even stand up in I say to myself thats such a dick move.

That being said I would love to see your design thread and see how well done and what a well organized connect is capable of. If you can find that and share the link here i'd love to check it out. I didn't even know about the custom but thats a cool looking van. IDK why the US has to get the shaft with these vans compared to the Euro market.