Ford Transit Connect Hits US Shores

Ford has been promising the Transit Connect van to the US market for some time. It looks like that time has now come.

The Transit Connect will go on sale in the US this summer with a starting price of around $21,000. It will have an optional second row of seats and extra windows, making it a viable people carrier as well as a useful small van. Needless to say, it will be powered by a petrol engine with an automatic gearbox, rather than the manual diesels favoured on this side of the Atlantic.

Ford has also confirmed that the Transit Connect will form the basis for Ford’s promised electric van, due to market in 2010. This seems likely to be based on Smith Electric Vehicles’ existing Transit Connect model, the Ampere.

For full details and photos, click here for the AutoblogGreen report.

Kia Introduces 4×4 Sorento Van Model

A rather more surprising vehicle introduction is the new van from Kia. Known for its good value cars and people carriers, the Sorento SUV has now been converted into a 4×4 van!

The Kia Sorento XE-C is still identifiably a 4WD passenger vehicle but has been modified to remove the rear seats and provide a reasonably large load area.

One downside is that it still retains passenger-style rear doors – which are not a patch on van-style sliding doors when it comes to accessibility. That said, it’s a niche vehicle for a niche market and should benefit from Kia’s usual competitive prices and reliable build quality.

You can read an early review of the Sorento XE-C here, in the Scotsman.