Not a Vintage Van...............

Vanish I would like to see one of those new small (tall) ford delivery vans tricked out. Bill

Ford Transit Connect. What is old is new again. Very boxy, car based, light weight limit, easy on gas.

I do like the Sprinter's redesign. They even put petro engines in some of them to keep the pricing down. I've heard it's better to trade them in than to pay the big $ (whatever) mile maintenance.

I think these Mitsubushi Delicas are pretty cool

I ve been driving Sprinters for years at work. They are like sports cars almost,very quick and have that slap stick shifter. The down side is they are maintenance nightmares. Our mechanics hate them. The doors hit into the fenders somewhat frequently. They tend to rust out around the windshield. Theres always some dumb warning light lit on the dash board. The traction control/cutout feature is in my opinion very dangerous. It wont allow you to spin the tires. If you jump out into traffic and break traction it will cut the power to the wheels immediately leaving you hanging in front of traffic. They are horribe in snow due to this feature. That said,I still like driving them.
Mr. Bill has had his customized red Sprinter at the past few Van Nationals,complete with a stripper pole in it. Its pretty sweet.

I have had the best luck with the full sized Chevy vans. This van has 4 wheel disks and still has the factory brakes (160,000 miles)

I have a 2000 250 Econoline. I like the new Fords over Chevys. The only down side to the Ford is those dam coil packs.

I've got 4 Bs.
I had to write the service info for the Sprinters for an aftermarket company. I wouldn't touch one of those things with a 10 foot pole!

I'd still like to get one of the last B vans with a 360 magnum and do the Japanese drift deal...
http://www.autocarbe.com/featured/dajiban-the-new-trend-of-japanese-tuning/

i have had 4 but now down to 3 dodge caravans 1996 and 2 - 2000 models as daily transportation. best thing about them there cheap to fix and if its a big bill for maintance just take the plate off the back and get another. now the new stuff thats a different story.............
here is a direct quote from chrysler dealerconnect for a cause of a fault code in a newer vehicle
p code 1696

"this is caused by the PCM not being able to complete some EPROM writes under certain conditions due to a random or singular synchronous electrical event interfering with the EPROM writes........... WTF..................
well rod if you wrote this could you explain it to an old fart like me..............

Here's my (fuzzy) logic tree:

Buy 2000 Jetta TDI new. Gets over 45 mpg Fahrvergnügen!

Service manager attempts to charge me for free maintenance. What a dummkopf!

When should the timing belt be changed? 40k, 60k, 80k? Everyone has a different answer.

Sir, we suggest we perform the 50K maintenance. How much? Lots of $. What do you do? Yada, yada, plugs, wires, yada, yada... Excuse me, but did you just say plugs and wires? Yes. Ah, it's a diesel. Oh. So what the price for the tune-up and what do you do? Same price and I'm not quite sure...

Dealer service invoices say 5W-30 instead of the very special V-dub approved 5W-40 synthetic. "Oh, but we did use the special oil..."

Out of warranty. German auto repair doesn't have the tools to do the timing belt, so it's back to another dealer and big $.

Although this one's still going strong and we found a mechanic to service it, no more German diesels!

jkr wrote:here is a direct quote from chrysler dealerconnect for a cause of a fault code in a newer vehicle
p code 1696

"this is caused by the PCM not being able to complete some EPROM writes under certain conditions due to a random or singular synchronous electrical event interfering with the EPROM writes........... WTF..................
well rod if you wrote this could you explain it to an old fart like me..............

EPROM is Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPROM
Basically, it's saying that the brain of the computer needs to be able to rewrite some parts of the program (this happens all the time) and that it is unable to do it. It is an internal fault of the computer software. A hardware (physical components) problem would set a no communication DTC; there are lots of them. Think broken wire or dirty terminal for computer-to computer, or a break in the circuit board or chip (internal like this).
The "random or singular synchronous electrical event " is probably a voltage spike or something that caused the communication in the computer which is very fast pulses of low voltage to be disrupted.
There is internal communication inside the computer (this problem), and there is communication between the car's computers. This is done on the CAN BUS.
If you want your head to hurt and go run back to your vintage van and hug it, here is a good basic explaination of CAN BUS.
http://www.aa1car.com/library/can_systems.htm

my 99 my 75 and my 6 wheeler

I like all wheel drive Chevy Astros. I'm a Volunteer Firefighter from Wisconsin and when we get called out before the roads are plowed the all wheel drive is a lifesaver.

Ah, the AWD. That reminds me of the Chevy Express vans. I drive an '03 3500 with a limited slip rear end as my work truck. I love it, but I forgot that the 1500 and 2500 could be had with the AWD. I also have a glass rack on the driver's side of mine so the 8 door option was out of the question.

0-60 in 8.7 Yee Haaa! I wonder if my 6.0 litre is any faster. Probably not.

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/03q2/chevy_express_awd-short_take_road_test

I have a transit connect as a work van, love it. I haul wheel chairs in it.