2004 Ford Transit Connect reviews

Ford Transit Connect 220 1.8d Panel van 2004

I Bought this pre-registered 54 plate at 6 months old and with 80 miles on the clock for £9600 inc VAT. It’s now done 104,000. I bought a metal bulkhead and wolf alarm (which is specifically designed to just plug into existing wiring loom and utilise the existing remote fob. Excellent recommended!). Mine is used as a mobile car accessory sales and fitting van, covering a 50 mile radius of from base. It does plenty of town and motorway work, with economy being around 35mpg on average. Being as critical as I can and apart from servicing and a belt change at 90k it has so far needed: New exhaust at 50k (around 3yrs), a repair to faulty alternator wiring at 52k, a new ’fly by wire’ throttle peddle at 63k (cost £65.00, whatever happened to cables at around £12.00??). The front tyres last around 25k, the rear around 40k. The front discs last for around 75k. The gearbox started to get a little noisy at 50k, but it is still going strong and the noise hasn’t got any worse. The front pads average around 20k and mine is still on the original rear shoes!! The handbrake has always been spot on. The clock loses around 1 min every 15 days. There are no rust bubbles yet, but the paint finish on the roof is very thin. I am very impressed with how reliable this van is; I rely on it to run my business, which has a demanding schedule. It gets driven hard, but not abused too often and still feels like new to drive. It’s basically a Focus engined van, although because of the tools and stock I carry it doesn’t give me Focus economy :-(. I have been lucky so far! I would buy one again.