Tag Archives: Transit

Ford Cuts Transit Production In Southampton

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Ford is dramatically cutting production of its Transit van model at its Swaythling, Southampton factory.

The factory is moving from a two-shift working day to a single shift – although Ford stresses that none of the factory’s 1,100 staff will lose their jobs. Instead, working hours are being cut and all staff will remain on full basic pay, according to the company.

More than half of the Southampton factory’s output is exported to Europe and Ford says that it is simply responding to “significantly reduced medium commercial vehicle sales across Europe”.

Source: BBC News

Gear-Changing Advice – Coming soon to a Ford near you

Ford Transit Connect SportVan One of the easiest ways to improve fuel consumption and reduce wear and tear on your vehicle’s drivetrain is by timing gear changes correctly.

Ford are obviously aware of this and are now taking active steps to help drivers change gear better.

From 2009, all Ford Econetic model cars (Fiesta, Focus and Mondeo) will have a gear change indicator on their instrument consoles. The same indicator will also be fitted to Transit and Transit Connect vans.

The indicator consists of a light that illuminates when it’s time to change up to the next gear. The idea is that many drivers over-rev needlessly and without realising it, causing wear and wasting lots of fuel.

By timing up-changes correctly, significant cost savings can be achieved.

According to Ford, the system “continuously monitors data from the vehicle including engine speed, road speed, gear selected and throttle position to calculate optimum gear changes.”

In other words, it’s not just some dumb light that flashes automatically when engine revs reach a certain level. Sounds good to me – I will certainly look forward to trying one in practice and seeing how well it works.

Ford Transit Headed For US Market & Going Electric

Ford Transit in British Gas livery It looks like the European Ford Transit will be joining its smaller cousin, the Transit Connect, in being sold to the US market.

The Transit is scheduled to be introduced to the US market in summer 2009 and Ford CEO Alan Mulally has now admitted that the European model will form the basis of Ford’s promised electric van, due to appear in 2010.

The lightweight, front-wheel drive Transit makes a far more sensible base vehicle for an electric, urban van than Ford’s heavyweight US van, the rear-wheel drive E-Series. The Transit also offers a more modern design and drivetrain than the well-established E-Series.

The introduction of the Transit to the US market is just part of a growing trend in the light commercial vehicle sector – the last few years have also seen the successful introduction of the Ford Transit Connect and the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter (badged as a Dodge) to the US market.

Perhaps the time has come for the automotive divide between the US and Europe to start disappearing, with fewer different models sold across more markets.