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Old 08-18-2014, 09:43 AM   #11
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Location: Wuerzburg, Germany
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Re: promaster versus transit

Anyone here ever driven a Promaster ?
We have those turds here for years as FIAT Ducato and everytime I have to drive one for more then 15 minutes my legs hurt. You just simply cannot sit in a straight line behind the wheel, steering wheel is off center and the pedals even more. I doubt they changed that for US market.
I also doubt that the Promaster will hold up to the more powerful engines FIAT, eerrr RAM, offers in the US vs. the biggest European diesel (180hp) which literally rips the Ducato apart and you have to really hold on to the steering wheel to keep a straight line while accelerating.
Only reason you see them on the road everywhere in Europe is price, they're dirt cheap.

I've driven the 3.2 5-cyl diesel in the Euro spec Ranger, a nice and powerful engine which will be a good match for the new Transit.

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Old 10-02-2014, 04:47 PM   #12
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promaster versus transit

On "Transit"... my wife and i attended the Seattle Ford Transit Tour in August, and we were glad we did...but for the opposite reason i'd hoped!

I did a nice full write up of our visit
__at my build thread, scroll down to the third post on page 11_

The bottom line for my wife and i was that unless FORD listens to what regular folk are saying about driving-discomfort of steering and seating these rigs will be for day-trippers and daily work vans...and not for those wanting to utilize them as replacements/entry into the all-day-driver of an RV... which our full size Chevy van certainly is. We intentionally drove our Chevy up to Seattle (3+ hour drive) so we had and immediate comparison.

The Ford Transit for myself at 5'8" and my wife at 5'2" was un drivable for any more than a round the city rig. It might be great for delivery drivers who are in and out and don't mind driving with something that reminded me of a school bus style steering wheel. WHY in the world didn't Ford work in a full tilt steering column?? Our Chevy Van's wheel can adjust from nearly horizontal to full vertical and telescope. The rigs we were in and drove (extended body high roof eco boost) wheel would only adjust about ~10% down from horizontal. It was like driving a school bus...and not something we wanted. I know this will be a non issue for many, but for my wife and i that will regularly drive 5 to 6 hours to a camp site, driving comfort is mandatory.

Also, the seating position for us was to low. If we wanted a car like feel in the cab we would get a sedan. We want (and currently have) a commanding view of traffic (especially with an additional lift in the van).

While i do like the look of the new euro vans (yes even the PM!), i'm not ready to trade a comfortable working rig like the Chevy quite yet.

YMMV
Thom

PS...sorry for the crazy text formatting...
some things like TapTalk and iPads just don't mix well IMO.
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Old 10-09-2014, 09:30 AM   #13
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Re: promaster versus transit

For those who are not going to tow more than a small trailer the ProMaster offers much more interior space in a similar size van. For heavy trailers the RWD Transit may be a better choice.

After checking both out at dealers what I liked best about the PM is the extra width, which should make a camper feel more open. In the Transit I can easily touch the right and left walls simultaneously. Not so with PM. The Transit also makes it much harder to move from the front seats to the back of the coach. Econolines easily beat the Transit in this regard.

Fiat recently reported that 70% of European camper vans are Ducato based. I can see why if the "camping" part of the vehicle is as important as the "driving" part.

And as mentioned by others, standup room in the middle-roof Transit, which is the same overall height as high-roof PM, is very limited. I expect most Transit Class Bs will use the high roof model.

I have mixed feelings on which is a better platform for Class Bs, but from a space efficiency standpoint the PM wins easily. Between that and lower cost it makes sense they own the Euro RV market.
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