user 37446
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2017
- Messages
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Hi all,
While on the way to the airport I chatted with the shuttle driver/owner. He, like most of them/all of them, is an independent contractor who owns his own vehicle. He's been doing this for over 6 years, SuperShuttle. Anyway, I saw the big, tall, shiny newer Transit high roof show up and thought I'd ask how the driver liked it compared to the older E350's they are updating from the fleet.
This guy bought his new Transit last year, its a 2015 with the high roof and the regular six cylinder, (no turbo, no diesel). All of their vehicles get converted to propane (at least here) and that's the key to their longevity he said. His old 2011 (real old!) E350 standard shuttle van had the 5.4 v8 and was propane. He converted to the new van at 740,000 miles. He had owned the old one since new, in 5 years he put on 740K (it ran 24 hours, he has other drivers for it, he does days, they do nights).
He said the motor was original, one set of valves redone but that's it for the engine. He had 2 tranny's in all those miles, got about 300K out of each one! I asked about the front end and he said no real problems with it. Solid Ford twin I beams...
The new late 2015 model) Transit already has 120,000 on it, no issues except for a plastic trim piece that fell off. He said visibility and drive ability were better than the old style. He said he wonders why GM doesnt change because these are so much better for his business. No one has the Dodge Promaster, must be reasons other than price...
He also said that somewhere around here (Phoenix) they were testing the smal Transit Connect 4 passenger van to use instead of the big van, studies were that the avg passenger load was 3 ointment something, so the big van capacity wasn't used that much.
Anyway, thought I'd report in. It seems that recent year E350 owners should have plenty good service out of their vans, and those who want to get the new style should be happy as well.
While on the way to the airport I chatted with the shuttle driver/owner. He, like most of them/all of them, is an independent contractor who owns his own vehicle. He's been doing this for over 6 years, SuperShuttle. Anyway, I saw the big, tall, shiny newer Transit high roof show up and thought I'd ask how the driver liked it compared to the older E350's they are updating from the fleet.
This guy bought his new Transit last year, its a 2015 with the high roof and the regular six cylinder, (no turbo, no diesel). All of their vehicles get converted to propane (at least here) and that's the key to their longevity he said. His old 2011 (real old!) E350 standard shuttle van had the 5.4 v8 and was propane. He converted to the new van at 740,000 miles. He had owned the old one since new, in 5 years he put on 740K (it ran 24 hours, he has other drivers for it, he does days, they do nights).
He said the motor was original, one set of valves redone but that's it for the engine. He had 2 tranny's in all those miles, got about 300K out of each one! I asked about the front end and he said no real problems with it. Solid Ford twin I beams...
The new late 2015 model) Transit already has 120,000 on it, no issues except for a plastic trim piece that fell off. He said visibility and drive ability were better than the old style. He said he wonders why GM doesnt change because these are so much better for his business. No one has the Dodge Promaster, must be reasons other than price...
He also said that somewhere around here (Phoenix) they were testing the smal Transit Connect 4 passenger van to use instead of the big van, studies were that the avg passenger load was 3 ointment something, so the big van capacity wasn't used that much.
Anyway, thought I'd report in. It seems that recent year E350 owners should have plenty good service out of their vans, and those who want to get the new style should be happy as well.
