Im looking at buying a transit connect and just wondered if anyone owns or drives one and what they think of it???

Anyone know what different engine options there are and whats the best model to go for.

Im looking at high roofs at the moment and have been looking at cars around the £5k mark, so maybe 03, 53 reg's with reasonable miles.

 

turning circle is a bit shit
handles really well
clutch stuff is a pain in the arse (4 vans fooked in more of less 60k)
front and rear suspension fooked (80k needs total rebuilding)

and thats with the 4 vans we've got here, mostly motorway driving too

frod are good at their warranty work though so thats a good point

 

Thanks for that mate, do you know what the fuel consumptions like? Any good?

Cheers.

 

Mine's an 06 200L can be thirsty if you hoof it all the time plenty grunt and handles well empty or full.

 

I have to really try to get past the little buggers in my z-s so they must go pretty well

 

Just been to look at a couple, it seems the 90 ps engine is the best one to go for.

 

we had one as a pool van at my dealershio foir a while,,,,,, fucking perfect van tbh, much better than a escort van, there nippy, do 105 in a resonable amount of time but they get to 80 in MUCH better time than the transit


i was really pissed when they sold it as when ever we never got a over ngithdelivery from daggenham i would use the thing to get me down the a12, up the a13 and to dagenham, load up and get back within 45mins, it just corners soo fucking well,,,,,,,,, its just like a car tbh


main thing i hated though was the fucking bumper end caps kept comming off,,,,,,,,, apart from that i LOVE it beter than my 110 new transit ive been given,,,,,,, mine wa a high top too


test drive one and then yu will realise,,,,, the brakes are very goo too

shame the tyres never lasted 10k miles but it DID get abused ALOT by me


as for fuel economy,,,,,,,,,,,, i cant comment as i cant get fuel economy out of any car,,,,,, think i done 300 miles to a tank,,,,,,,, i get 380 to 400 in the new transit,,,,,,,, thats ment to give 500 miles too but then i alo get 13mph from my bmw

id deffo get one as a work van, i wanted to use it on track one day but they wouldnt allow me

 

the rear bumper end caps i can atest to
we ain't got none left either
get one with the eated screen mirros and the cd player
the only problem is leg room
i'm only 6 foot tall but the seat doesn't quote go back far enough for me, another half an inch and it would be perfect
the 90 brake engine is the one i'd recomend too

and i LOVE the passenger seats ability to fold up

 

Thanks for the info guys.

Ive just been to look one earlier. It was a 230 tdci 90bhp hi-roof, 89k on an 03 plate and was in a bit of a state. Been fully resprayed and can have it for £4600 including VAT. Im confident i can get a better one than that for under £5k though, or at least i hope so.

 

i bought a 53 plate new

its been very good, 4 front tyres in 46k 2 rear

window seal came loose and throttle pos sensor went all under warranty though, got new windscreen wipers under warranty too

round the doors 400 miles - £ 40

on a run about 320 miles - £40 probably raking it !

mines a 1.9 td 75 ps

definately a very good van

 

there is a rubber seal around the top of the front doors and the top of the door frames, these have fallen off on all of ours

watch out for the cv boots too, we've had all of ours replaced under warrenty

 

I use a 04 220L for my work, great van, handles really well and easy to drive. I spend all day in it, all over the country and it's very comfy.

Had the clutch problems, leaking from the pedal and in the bellhousing, but not much else apart from the brakes really, i can drive it a bit sprited sometimes (on the way home normally)and it seems to eat pads, but great breaks for a van.

I can normally get 500 odd miles on a 50L tank, it's nearly done 200k now.

 

front pads on a service today on a 57 plater
front pads AND discs on another 57 plater
both in 30k
the newer versions from around the 06 onwards are a littl ebetter with the different bumpers and stuff

but our fridged 54 platers were sold for around £4500 with around 100k on teh clock

and also, find one with the comfort pack which is leccy windows, mirrors, hot screen etc

 

my 07 220 engine fooked after 1.5k with a faulty oil pump then had to go in at 5k with the clutch pedal stuck to the floor apart from that i love it and hate it when i get a diffrent van to drive like a astra which may be faster but the connect is much better for me being 6 foot 3. only thing i dont like is there is not enough storage compartments in the front.

 

at my work we see a lot of the new transits in for conversions, we've had a few with immobiliser faults, where the vans just wont start etc. i spoke to the AA guy who was there to take it back to the dealers, apparently there are are a lot of problems with the new ones.

 

I've had three so far....... As said, turning circle is shocking! Just about do a u turn if you have 4 lanes to use! No joke!

Quick as fuck to start off with - by 30k tho both my previous ones have slowed right down. They bog down to fuck, with no go - feels like the turbo just ain't there!

second one did a front wheel bearing at about 35k, they go through breaks like they are made from paper mache, and they drink juice (less than 300 miles to a tank)

Apart form that they okay..... Just a van really - handling's okay for a van, but they body roll everywhere! Go round a bend at anything over 10mph and expect everything on the seats/dash to be on the floor - brake even slightly hard and expect the same....

Second van had a brake servo go which fucked the ABS - also had another van in our fleet do the same.... Seems to be a common problem. Ford didn't bother fixing it when it was booked in for Service even tho we told em to.....

 

the clutch pedal dropping is common (half of our fleet had that sorted)
the cv's are common (most of ours started to go wrong at around the 40-50k mark)
tyres last around 20k if you are easy with them
brakes (as mentioned) last a service if you're lucky
and there is a deffinite slowing down after they've had a few services
but compared to the astra van i had alst week, other than outright acceleration, the connect was better in every other way

 

u have pm

 

This is an old post! I have a combo now, much better than the connects imo.

 

if you've spent your own money on the combo then it had better be better than the connect for you

 

I had one of the base model ones for around 4 months, I got it when it had 10k when I finished it had 21k, I gave it a LOT of SERIOUS abuse, all that we wrong was ffront wheel bearing!!

It was pretty good on fuel and it was pretty much hoofed all the time

I really liked it

 

Mine was 06 plate btw

 

U cud get a late escort van