Ford’s second-generation Transit Connect is losing market share at a furious rate.
However, that’s not a valid commentary on the Transit Connect, but rather a side effect of a revolution in the small commercial van category.
Transit Connect sales jumped 72% in the first month of 2015 to the highest January level in the model’s brief history. 55% of the small commercial van category belonged to the Transit Connect in January 2015, down from 71% in January 2014 despite the Transit Connect’s 1543-unit improvement.
The cause for the Ford’s market share losses? The established competition – rival vans which were on sale a year ago – posted even greater percentage gains. Added to that are new vans: a twin of the Nissan NV200 from Chevrolet, and a Fiat Doblo-based ProMaster City from Ram.
These four Transit Connect alternatives collectively produced a 231% year-over-year improvement to 2963 sales, 726 units shy of the Ford’s total.
|
Small Commercial Van
|
January
2015
|
January
2014
|
% Change
|
|
Chevrolet City Express
|
585 | — | — |
|
Ford Transit Connect
|
3,689 | 2,146 | 71.9% |
|
Nissan NV200
|
1,184 | 540 | 119% |
|
Ram Cargo Van
|
1,101 | 355 | 210% |
|
Ram ProMaster City
|
93 | — | — |
|
—
|
— | — | — |
|
Total
|
6,652 | 3,041 | 119% |
January was just the second full month on the market for the City Express. 1115 have been sold since the tail end of November. Inventory is improving. City Express sales will climb. And it will be interesting to see the long-term split between the City Express and its donor vehicle, the Nissan NV200.
19,188 NV200s have been sold since the smaller Nissan van arrived at the end of 2013’s first-quarter. December was the NV200’s best month yet, with 1532 sales.
Ram’s Cargo Van, a windows-blanked-out Dodge Grand Caravan, returned in the latter half of 2011. Sales consistently improve: up 26% in 2013, up 27% in 2014, and up in each of the last seven months. The highest-volume month in the current-generation’s tenure was November of last year when 1709 were sold. January was the first month for the ProMaster City, the little brother for the Fiat Ducato-based ProMaster.
There will be versions of these vans used by drivers who don’t work for couriers or as plumbers, even some which will end up in family driveways as true minivans. (The “real” minivan market was down 7% to 30,831 units in January.) Yet taken as a sub-segment of the commercial van category, these vans were a big reason for the segment’s massive 35% improvement in January 2015.
Their combined share grew from 16% in January 2014 and 21% in December 2014 to 26% in January 2015. The Transit Connect ranked second overall, only trailing another Ford, the new Transit.
Total commercial van volume was up by 6566 units last month. This smaller quintet contributed 3611 extra sales. The full-size group increased by fewer than 3000 sales. And the little kids aren’t done yet. The Mercedes-Benz Metris will attempt to find a niche between the small vans and full-size players when it’s eventually re-assembled in South Carolina.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.
It would be nice to see more three-row versions of these. Currently, only Ford sells a three-row Transit Connect. Chrysler does have a two-row Ram ProMaster City and the Chevy City Express is one-row only.
The Ford site has so many options for the TC. Almost everything is a la carte. The only thing I don’t like about the LWB/3 row Transit connect is that it is only avialable with the 2.5L I4. I guess that would be adequate, but a SWB version with the 1.6T will tow my small sail boat or jet skis.
Is there a “Westfalia” type option?
Maybe not from Ford but there’s people doing it. Hmmm… looks promising.
The full-size Transit should have a bunch of aftermarket support soon.
I want the Transit Skyliner concept:
https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2014/04/10/ford-transit-skyliner-concept.html
Hate to break it to you, but Ford will never put the Transit Skyliner into production.
But there are alternatives. Check out the RAM ProMaster conversion van by Sherry Vans.
76″ of interior height, 20+ MPG, 36″ HDTV and a price the makes a Yukon Denali look stupid expensive.
http://www.sherryvans.com
Oh I know they won’t. They’ll leave that kind of stuff to aftermarket companies. There are quite a few luxury Sprinters out there too.
Can you fit a water bed in the back of one of these?
Even more interesting, seeing their niche is growing, to see the Caddy and a few other European Mini Vans on sale
Bring back my Astro Van!
Do you want GM to bring back it’s 1-star crash test rating too? I wonder how the Astro would do in the small overlap test? I’m assuming that the IIHS wouldn’t be able to recognize the crash test dummy. Maybe Nissan Quest owners wouldn’t feel so bad about their death traps anymore.
I’ve been driving them for 25 years. The trick is just don’t hit anything.
I will say that I still see a few of them on construction sites. They went out of production 10 years ago too. They are hardy vehicles that seem to go forever under terrible abuse.
I worked for a Chevy dealer in the truck dept in 2006 and many loyal customers were quite pissed when they canceled them.
We have had 3 of them. It’s all my wife wants to drive. She says visibility is poor in modern SUV’s and CUV’s and doesn’t want one. We currently have a loaded 2002 GMC Safari SLT and are probably one of very few who use them for family transportation. In my area they are a favorite of painting contractors and the like. You can strap a lot of ladders on top, and they do seem to run forever.
These things are absolutely everywhere here in Portland, ME. Even the sorts of tradesman who you would expect to be driving pickups are driving TCs, like the roofers who did my house and garage last year. Two TCs, one towing a small trailer was all they needed. All the materials were delivered by the vendor, so all they needed to bring was themselves, tools and ladders. Furnace guy has had one since they first came out, as has a friend who is a high end appliance repair guy.
Starting to see tons of the RAMs too, but only a handful of Nissans.
That is also pretty much the scene in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. When we came out of the resteraunt last night, I saw a three row Transit Connect for the first time, and pointed it out to my oldest son. We both thought it looked pretty neat.
These things aren’t cheap. Lets see which way the price of gas sways this sector.
Yet more affirmation that everybody wants a minivan. By any other name.
These small vans are great. I can see why someone might want to own one of them. http://www.carbuyersmichigan.com car buyers michigan they seem to be really spacious but with less of the gas burden or bulky appearance of full size suvs, so I can definitely understand their market.
I bought a ’14 Transit Connect long wheelbase cargo van with liftgate in September for my small business. So far, I’ve really liked it. It actually drives very well for a van, and I’ve averaged just under 25mpg in mixed driving. The 2.5 is basically the same engine as my old Mazda 3, so I know I can work on it.