EvanR wrote:Ian F wrote: And for the most part,...The Econoline/E-series was essentially unchanged from about 1973 until 2013, so any alleged mechanic who knew which end of a hammer to grab could fix one. When it comes to fleet buyers, they want to know two things how cheap is it to run, and how cheap it is to fix. If GM keeps making the Express/Savana, I suspect a lot of fraidy-cat fleet buyers will turn to them.
I worked at corporate HQ for a large security and fire safety firm. They had probably 10000 service vans across the world. The vans, or cars, are leased and the leasing company deals with the maint aspect. The company is guaranteed up time of its vans and if one goes down, they get another rapidly. Fuel costs were very much on the radar of the company though, both from a cost and environmental emissions standpoint. Mostly cost. These guys couldn't be out of econlines and move to transit connects fast enough in the us. A 4-5 mpg increase across the fleet had dramatic results to the companies bottom line.
Smaller companies probably will stick traditional, but you must consider these vans can put in 40k miles or more in a year. Fuel costs add up fast.
