What full size van thread.

So we are adding another dog. Up to 4. Another rescue. A greyhound to add to the two Salukis and the evil Whippet. The Astro is tight with two crates and no rear seats. Wife is okay to entertain thoughts of Promaster or Transit, low roof, short wheelbase. Any body have experience with either? Or another option? Probably get used, one year old, with balance of warranty.

Idea is to add three crates or make 3 bays for the larger dogs, a bed for short stays on the road, and other travel items as things go along. Checking Expedition Portal for ideas.

Thanks!

You can get an ecoboost Transit. Ive sat in both of them but dont remember my preferences. I do remember that it would mostly come down to cargo van things like which has better overhead storage, sun visors, seat adjustability, ingress/egress difficulty.

I do know one funny thing, which is that an empty 3.6L Promaster runs about a 16.2 1/4 mile. Same as my first decent car which i thought was fast enough and street raced the crap out of. It's an amusing coincidence.

Don't know how they work in passenger form, but we know a few people with the full sized dodge vans as work trucks and they hate them. Haven't talked to anyone with a new transit, but we have an econoline and it's been very reliable, same goes for all econolines we have had.

Edit: also car and driver did a van comparo somewhat recently using the diesel cargo versions of ram, Mercedes, and transits. They loved the Mercedes and transit, had absolutely nothing good to say about the full sized promaster, but I'm not sure I always agree with C & D

i'm having really good luck with chevy express vans. might be cheaper than the others.

Does it have to be new?

I also agree with older and US-built. As far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out on the "new" vans. I rented a new Transit and was not particularly impressed.

My only real comment is about the low-roof. Having gone from a raised roof conversion van to a low-roof van, I hate it. Being able to almost stand up inside is something I really, REALLY miss. So unless there is some physical restraint reason for needing a low-roof van, get a high-roof.

I was considering a van a while back an ended up test driving a few. For a cargo work type van I liked the ford transit van alot. I was going to look at dodge and the Merc but then a free truck fell in my lap. Not the perfect vehicle for my needs but being it was free that made acceptance of some of its shortcomings a non issue.

I don't have any experience with the newer crop of vans, but I've had two E150s over the last 12 years and they've been pretty great. I went from a high top to a low top, though, and while standing in the back is nice, being able to park in parking garages is more nicer.

I've had several Ford vans. They were all E250 and E350s with the 7.3L powerstroke which is overkill for you, but I absolutely loved them. Also had one Express chevy van with the 5.7L and was very unimpressed. It was a bunch of little nitpicky things.

We had an entire fleet of about 20 at USI; half Ford and half Chevy. The Chevys had terrible A/C issues. They would get too hot at a stop and kick off the compressor. If you floored it (full of people) with the fan clutch engaged they would shift up to second and then hold at 4500 rpm and not shift. Too much drag, not enough power. The fan was roaring, the A/C blew hot, and it couldn't get out of second. Horrifically poor A/C and cooling engineering.

Most of our Chevys were 15 passenger. The Fords were cargo with one bench to hold a crew of 5 and tools.

Not saying Chevy sucks, just that the Express vans are not something I'm willing to invest in ever again. After that three years fighting with them, I sought Fords for my personal stable.

Not sure where you want to be with creature comforts and technology, but its hard to beat a 90s or 00s Ford E150 for simplicity, reliability, and wallet happiness. If you want to spend the extra coin, go Transit or something newer like that, but it seems like a lot more coin proportional to what you get.

The changes in the van business are interesting.
As Curtis noted, the price of Transit vs E150 is large. The shift is that now there is this whole fleet of 4cyl van (ie Transit Connect, etc).

The shift seems to be that if in the past you were a 6cyl van buyer then the market for you now is the Transit Connect series and the pricetag is compatable but the overal size is smaller (but maybe more efficient space.)
If you were a e250 or larger buyer the price has risen and the size/space has increased as well.

Lots of good info here. Thanks. I have to be sure whatever we get my wife is comfortable driving it. She DDs a smart fortwo and is more or less comfortable with our AWD Astro. But, no way 4 dogs will travel safely in it. Low roof is for convenience of parking and garageability (is that a word?). Were both under 5'8" anyway and used to stooping in the Astro. I'll look at recent Econolines. Going over to the stealerships this afternoon to poke around.

Almost no used market here in VT. Might be 4 or 5 total Transits to look at used. Gonna check the rental car sales departments. Anyone have luck buying a car that way?

I had an ex-rental Intrepid back when that was one of the cleanest cars i've ever owned when i got it at ~100k. Obviously its rental days had not hurt it. I do think a cargo van will lead a different rental life, but i dont know if there is any chance of a cargo van leading an easy life anyway. The only people buying new ones are people who expect them to pay themselves off in work activity.

U-Haul has Transits for rent (how I "test drove" one). However, U-Haul tends to keep their vehicles for quite awhile and are pretty beat up when they are finally sold off. I wouldn't expect to see one of theirs for a solid 5 years.

So what's the word on the Ford 3.7 v6 as opposed to the ecoboost v6? Seem to be a lot of the former available on the used market. Mileage appears to be close. I like the unencumbered design of NA engines.

It's the same basic engine without the turbo failure points, if that answers your question. Judging by 0-60 vids i watched when your thread popped up, it doesn't really lack for power either if you're not adding a ton of weight.

The Promaster is FWD, for better or worse. Compared to the transit, the cargo area is much bigger for the same length van, with a shorter nose. The load floor is also much lower, which might be a plus for the dogs.