I had the chance last week to put several new Transit 350 vans on the roads of Kansas City, Mo. in the shadows of the Ford Assembly Plant where they are made. The van is available in three roof heights: low (83.6 inch vehicle height, 56.9 inch interior cargo height), medium (100.8 inch vehicle height, 72 inch interior cargo height) and high (110.1 inch vehicle height and a best-in-class 81.5 inch interior cargo height); features three engine packages (3.7 liter V6, a 3.5 liter EcoBoost V6 and a 3.2 liter in-line-five PowerStroke diesel) and two wheelbases (148 inches and 148 inches extended). Each engine is matched with a six-speed SelectShift automatic transmission.
Engine configurations
The standard 3.7-liter V6 gets 19 percent better EPA- estimated highway fuel economy than E-Series standard gas engine. Each test unit was loaded with a little more than a ton of rubber mats strapped to the cargo floor, and pushed the load around the city with ease.
When equipped with the 310 horsepower EcoBoost engine, Transit low- and medium-roof regular wheelbase wagons get a 14 mpg city/19 mpg highway EPA-estimated rating. That reflects an improvement of as much as 46 percent compared with the 10 mpg city/13 mpg highway EPA-estimated rating for the Ford E-Series 6.8-liter V10 gas engine.
The twin-turbo EcoBoost provided ample horsepower and torque in my drive around Kansas City, darting in and out of traffic under normal highway and merging conditions. It will be a formidable replacement for the V10 with even Ford’s most devout E-Series customers.
The PowerStroke was “peppy,” effortlessly pushing the 148-inch wheelbase high roof van through both highway and city traffic. The PowerStroke puts out about 185 horsepower in this van, which may be a bit much considering the van’s load capacity of 4,650 pounds and a tow capacity of 7,500 pounds.
