Ford Transit attracts large families, outsells minivans

[Biker16]

http://www.automotiveworld.com/news-releases/nothing-mini-van-ford-transit-attracts-large-families-outsells-minivans/

 

 

 

Growing numbers of families are turning to the Ford Transit passenger wagon instead of minivans.

Through June, large families helped drive a 30 percent year-over-year increase in Transit passenger wagon sales. Transit vans outsold every other van in the United States over the first half of 2016, including minivans.

In a new video, Matt and Beth Hoyt of New Richmond, Ohio, explain what convinced them to replace their old minivan with a new, full-size Ford Transit passenger wagon. Among the features the couple highlight are the ability to stand upright to buckle their five children into their car seats, an aisle that lets them walk all the way to the back row, plenty of storage space, an easy-clean vinyl floor, powerful 3.7-liter V6 engine with EPA-estimated fuel economy of 14 mpg city and 18 mpg highway*, driver visibility, and safety features including side curtain airbags.

Ford Transit, America’s best-selling van, is available as a cargo van, passenger wagon, chassis cab and cutaway. The flexible Transit can be ordered with a choice of three roof heights, two wheelbases, three body lengths and three engines, for a total of 64 configurations from Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant.

The passenger wagon comes with seating for eight, 10, 12 or 15 passengers.

*EPA-estimated rating of 14 mpg city, 18 mpg highway and 16 mpg combined is for Transit low- and medium-roof regular-wheelbase wagon. Actual mileage may vary.

 

[Biker16]

This market would be perfectly served by the lighter-duty FWD Transit custom.

[ANTAUS]

Birth Control...

[BORG]

This sort of PR release are a little annoying because it's somewhat misleading. The Transit is the bestselling van in the US but not because it's being sold to families. And the 30% sales increase does not directly correlate to selling more Transit Wagons as implied. Actually, anybody who buys a Transit Wagon understands how difficult they are to find and I imagine that wagon sales probably accounts for maybe 5% of their sales a most.

 

I think Ford is still trying to shake the fact that it's one of the few full-line automakers not selling minivans. And Ford is developing a reputation as a commercial brand more than a retail brand because they are adding so many vehicles into their fleet business and entering no new segments in their retail business. Ford is still out of the B-Segment SUV, Minivan, Midsize Trucks, and Electric vehicles. Of course much of this will be solved in the next 5 years but they are falling noticeably behind for a company of its size and leadership.

Edited July 29, 2016 by BORG

[Anthony]

This sort of PR release are a little annoying because it's somewhat misleading. The Transit is the bestselling van in the US but not because it's being sold to families. And the 30% sales increase does not directly correlate to selling more Transit Wagons as implied. Actually, anybody who buys a Transit Wagon understands how difficult they are to find and I imagine that wagon sales probably accounts for maybe 5% of their sales a most.

 

I think Ford is still trying to shake the fact that it's one of the few full-line automakers not selling minivans. And Ford is developing a reputation as a commercial brand more than a retail brand because they are adding so many vehicles into their fleet business and entering no new segments in their retail business. Ford is still out of the B-Segment SUV, Minivan, Midsize Trucks, and Electric vehicles. Of course much of this will be solved in the next 5 years but they are falling noticeably behind for a company of its size and leadership.

 

 

That was the first thing I thought. Very misleading.

[NLPRacing]

This market would be perfectly served by the lighter-duty FWD Transit custom.

 

One of these with the 2.3EB and 2.7EB as options would be great!

[BORG]

 

One of these with the 2.3EB and 2.7EB as options would be great!

 

 

That one would be a pretty hard sell at US retail, the wheels are right in the cab essentially so both the driver and front passenger have to negotiate largish humps cramping the footwells. The short wheelbase essentially means the engine hangs off the front overhang. It's quite ungainly and designed specifically for shorter turning radiuses. A much better option for those who want a more conventional midsize van is the the Mercedes Metris, it certainly looks much better for retail anyway.

 

Edited July 29, 2016 by BORG

[Biker16]

 

 

That one would be a pretty hard sell at US retail, the wheels are right in the cab essentially so both the driver and front passenger have to negotiate largish humps cramping the footwells. The short wheelbase essentially means the engine hangs off the front overhang. It's quite ungainly and designed specifically for shorter turning radiuses. A much better option for those who want a more conventional midsize van is the the Mercedes Metris, it certainly looks much better for retail anyway.

 

You realize that the custom shares interiors with the transit and there isn't much of a difference between the two. Outside of a shorter nose and lower roof.

[jpd80]

i just looked on Car sales, of 4,250 T150s, 8,000 T250s and 4,395 T350s,

only 485 are wagons are available or barely 3% of available stock.

While that's not sales data, it's still a good indicator of the sales mix.

 

and this is why Ford does not over state the importance of a Transit wagon,

it's incremental product but by itself it's not a major profit earner.

 

In other news,

Ford misses out on massive F150 like profits by not refreshing Focus and Fiesta...

Edited July 30, 2016 by jpd80

[old_fairmont_wagon]

We are absolutely one of those families looking into a Transit T-150 Wagon. While I first looked at the Transit Connect wagon, it just isn't big enough to handle my family and is too underpowered to deal with the mass of three teenagers and two grade schoolers along with two grown adults and a bunch of gear.

 

The 4 row T-150 wagon looks like it would be a great fit for us. Its much roomier than our current 2014 Grand Caravan, has higher load ratings in several key areas, on fuel mileage tracking sites, it gets very similar effective city gas mileage (where it will be used the most), and is large enough for us to carry the in-laws with us when we go somewhere and still have room for about 45+ cubic feet of bags and gear. My only reservations are that it seems impossible to get a sliding side door in the low roof model, it sits a little high for my wife to be comfortable driving around in garages and parking lots, and it is a bit longer (though, surprisingly, not by that much). One thing that it is NOT is inexpensive. They charge a dear price for it, not that far from the Metris, which is something we're also looking at. I've driven a promaster and I don't want to get trapped into owning that thing long term. Most of the Sprinter configurations that I've seen wind up being even more expensive or just too big.

[RichardJensen]

This market would be perfectly served by the lighter-duty FWD Transit custom.

 

Arguably, it is being better served by existing minivans.

 

Borg's points about awkward front row seating/entry/egress are valid, IMO, and are likely a barrier to wider acceptance. I'm sure Ford looked at bringing the FWD over, and I don't think they left money on the table.

[jpd80]

There's no gasoline version of Transit Custom or Tourneo Custom

so bringing across another Transit version would be more expense.

[bzcat]

There's no gasoline version of Transit Custom or Tourneo Custom

so bringing across another Transit version would be more expense.

 

2.0 EB is available will be available in Tourneo in China so we know the engineering and durability testing were done.

 

http://www.ford.com.cn/cars/all-new-tourneo

 

The powertrain pacakge is not a big deal. If Ford was serious about selling Custom in US, they would have made sure 2.0EB is in the production mix in Turkey. Just like they made sure 2.5 I4 is in the Transit Connect, despite the engine not being available in Europe.

Edited August 1, 2016 by bzcat

[theoldwizard]

We are absolutely one of those families looking into a Transit T-150 Wagon. While I first looked at the Transit Connect wagon, it just isn't big enough to handle my family and is too underpowered to deal with the mass of three teenagers and two grade schoolers along with two grown adults and a bunch of gear.

My family grew up in E150 Chateau Club Wagon. We have been driving them for over 30 years (Current one is 19 years old.)

 

I would love a new T150, but I can not bring myself to buying one with the crappy choices for second row seats. Give me my Quad Captains Chairs !

[Biker16]

Questions would it be easier and more profitable for Ford to Sell the Transit custom here instead of a True US style Minivan?

[Pioneer]

[BORG]

Questions would it be easier and more profitable for Ford to Sell the Transit custom here instead of a True US style Minivan?

 

They wouldn't be able to sell the Custom as a minivan in any meaningful volume, remember the Transit Wagon is 3% of its volume which is literally a couple hundred vehicles.

Edited August 2, 2016 by BORG

[Biker16]

 

They wouldn't be able to sell the Custom as a minivan in any meaningful volume, remember the Transit Wagon is 3% of its volume which is literally a couple hundred vehicles.

 

What? 3%? I don't think so, I thought it was 30%.

[rmc523]

Questions would it be easier and more profitable for Ford to Sell the Transit custom here instead of a True US style Minivan?

Well, considering the Custom is already designed and being produced, compared to having to design a minivan from the ground up, I'd say yes. However, I don't think sales would be high (even compared to a minivan), so I don't know.

[BORG]

 

What? 3%? I don't think so, I thought it was 30%.

 

This is what ticks me off about that press release.

 

Ford van sales are up 30% from last year, but has nothing to do with families buying the vans which is a correlation the press release tries to make.

[bzcat]

Questions would it be easier and more profitable for Ford to Sell the Transit custom here instead of a True US style Minivan?

 

More profitable? Yes. Is there enough profit in it to make it worthwhile? Maybe.

 

Transit Custom can also be sold as commercial van so Ford is not limited to the passenger version - especially if Ford submitted the Custom for the USPS LLV replacement contract and end up winning the bid (no one knows what Ford submitted in its bid but the dimension that USPS provided in the RFP was significantly bigger than Transit Connect... almost exactly the same size as SWB Transit Custom).

 

Selling something like a fully loaded Tourneo Custom in the US to skim the top end of the minivan market (think VIP transport instead of family use) makes sense if you are going to sell the cargo version. It's a far more profitable niche than trying to beat Chrysler Pacifica, Honda Odyssey, and Toyota Siena head on.

Edited August 3, 2016 by bzcat

[sullynd]

Selling something like a fully loaded Tourneo Custom in the US to skim the top end of the minivan market (think VIP transport instead of family use) makes sense if you are going to sell the cargo version. It's a far more profitable niche than trying to beat Chrysler Pacifica, Honda Odyssey, and Toyota Siena head on.

It will be interesting to see if the Metris picks up some of that market. It has the right logo/grill.

[BORG]

Mercedes has said that fleet buyers assume Mercedes is too expensive which limits their customer. But the biggest issue with Mercedes is that their dealership and support network isn't as developed for this specific customer. So I don't think the Mercedes logo is actually beneficial in this regard.

[jpd80]

 

More profitable? Yes. Is there enough profit in it to make it worthwhile? Maybe.

 

Transit Custom can also be sold as commercial van so Ford is not limited to the passenger version - especially if Ford submitted the Custom for the USPS LLV replacement contract and end up winning the bid (no one knows what Ford submitted in its bid but the dimension that USPS provided in the RFP was significantly bigger than Transit Connect... almost exactly the same size as SWB Transit Custom).

 

Selling something like a fully loaded Tourneo Custom in the US to skim the top end of the minivan market (think VIP transport instead of family use) makes sense if you are going to sell the cargo version. It's a far more profitable niche than trying to beat Chrysler Pacifica, Honda Odyssey, and Toyota Siena head on.

Good thoughts.

Transit Custom falls into "nice to have" but not essential.

Ford clearly pushing Utilities over Minivans and VIP transport.

 

TC Wagon and Transit wagon fill some gaps but going after remaining minivan buyers

with Transit Custom is probably not a high priority for Ford...

Edited August 4, 2016 by jpd80

[Bob Rosadini]

In anycase, everytime I see someone with a commercial Transit I ask .."so how do you like that thing?" Nothing but positive comments!